Hiking through Cinque Terre

This morning we got up, out and on the train to Riomagiorre to start our 5-village hike. Riomaggiorre is the first of the villages and is pretty much built vertically. We walked all the way up the town and back down the the marina. They had many more boats than Vernazza, but then again, a huge mudslide didn't hit this town in the fall. We've been joking about renting a row boat (and they had a bunch in the bay), but we passed them by and continued on to the first hike "via dell'amore" which basically means lovers lane. After hiking up and down Riomaggiore itself, the "hike" to Manarola (the second village) was basically a pleasant stroll. We passed a ton of lovers' graffiti and horde of tourists, and finally arrived in Manarola. Naturally, we hiked up, up, up to thr top of the town, turned a corner into an empty street and smelled the most glorious olive oil we've ever smelled in our lives (so garlic-y and fresh. Unfortunately, we have no idea where it was coming from. We took a break up in the church square overlooking the town and then took a walk through the vineyards along the back border. We walked for a while admiring the views and then made our way down to a tiny beach to the side of Manarola. There was a group of Yale kids jumping off these tall rocks into the water. Now, anyone who has ever been to Cinqur Terre always posts pictures of themselves jumping off cliff - looking things into the water. This was one if those things. Naturally, we had to have the full experience, so we all took turns jumping from these rocks into the water. The jumping wasn't bad, but the falling into the water was terrifying! It was pretty fun, though and definitely worth it (and we were very very safe, I promise). Unfortunately, I went round 3 with Cinque Terre rocks and lost AGAIN, as I did not see the ladder on my way out. I tried to climb up the rocky path from the ocean.... And rarely have I felt so stupid. After washing up, we took the train to Corniglia (town #3), because the trail was closed -- but don't worry, we got to hike from the train station to the village anyways! Corniglia is the only town not on the water -- it's on top of a hill. As we walked from the train station, we were greeted by HUGE switchbacks, and had no choice, but to hike up them. There were 398 steps in all and a congratulations sign when we reached the top. A bit tired (and still wet from swimming) we decided to have a leisurely Italian lunch (proscuitto e melone and pesto gniocchi). Over lunch, we read about the town using Rick Steves' guidebook (as we do in every town) and found a description of a local wine bar that lets you sample local wine for free. Kelly and Sharon went there, while I got gelatto and wandered a bit. When I came bak to find them, I stumbled upon the most ridiculous and hilarious scene. These two old Italian men (who spoke basically no English) were giving Kelly and Sharon all sorts of samples and gesticulating wildly. Kelly says, "they were basically what you would expect drunken Italian men to act like, but they weren't drunk." They were hilarious and so fun to watch. The only other people in the bar were three middle-aged San Diegans -- a couple who had just moved to Naples for the husband's job and their friend. We basically passed a leisurely hour chatting with these fun adults who were excited to hear about our trip and chat with us about Italy and life in general (while also interacting with the absolutely absurd old Italian men). Eventually they continued on their hike (going thr oppositte way through the towns as we were) and we continued with ours. It was later in the day by that point, so our 90 minute hike to vernazza was cooler and most of the tourists were gone. The hike to Vernazza was nothing compared to Mount Zeus (which is the standard to which everything is compared on this trip) and the views were magnificent. We made it to Vernazza and laid down for a little while -- we intended to do the last hike to Monterosso (town 5), but we didn't make it. Instead, we ended up spending our last night eating calamari and foccaccia at the harbor. It was very pleasant and we also realized we were a bit worn out from all the hiking, swimming and walking that we've been doing (and my back muscles are certainly feeling the kayaking from yesterday). So now we're packing and reading in our room. In the morning, we leave for Venice. We're going to spend the afternoon there and then take an overnight train to Vienna. Exciting things to come!