Trip #3: Cinqua Terra, Italy and surrounding areas

**NOTE: sorry guys, no pics yet since i was watching naruto and prince of tennis last night :D**

Hey guys, back from another weekend trip, was very sweet. We found out on tuesday night that thursday was a Catholic holiday and didn't have to work, so it seemed like a perfect time to take a vacation to somewhere. So we talked to some people and they had a group of 8 going to Cinqua Terra and we decided to join them. So wednesday, we got our tickets (our last minute tickets were actually cheaper then the others advance group special ticket) and took friday off and got ready to go. The trip down to Italy was very nice. The south part of Switzerland is really pretty. Huge mountains and lakes (and a bunch of waterfalls), i'll definitely be making a trip down there later on. We made a quick stop in Milano to switch trains, so i didn't really get a chance to explore it, but I'll be back for sure. On the way the Cinqua Terra there was a HUGE stretch of beach, looked so nice. There are a ton of North American’s at Cinqua Terra and a lot of old people doing the killer hike (more on that later). Pretty much every night we meet a new group of Americans (mostly girls) at the bar or the beach so it was pretty nice to talk to people in normal english every once in awhile. The place we were staying in was quite nice. It was 2 bedrooms, washroom and kitchen as well as some hallways. It’s supposed to house 4 people but we crammed in 6 to keep cost down, just had to hide from the people we rented it from. It worked out to be around € 20 / night.

Cinqua Terra is a region of 5 towns and we were staying in the southern most (Riomaggiore) and spent most of the day exploring the town. There a pretty big church (like every town in Europe) and lots of rocks and stuff near the shore. We pretty much just climbed across the rocks and just chilled till sun down. Jumped in the sea at was pretty warm, but cut up my hand swimming near rocks and stuff. :( The next day we did the 12 Km hike from Riomaggiore to Monterosso (the biggest of the 5, and the one with the beach). We didn't exactly pick the best time of the day to hike (11am start) on a hot hot day The first part of the hike was from Riomaggiore to Manarola across a path known as Lover's Lane. It's pretty much a tunnelled area with lots of love messages written along the walls from people who have passed, for all your couples out there, you should go check it out, very nice scenery. The next leg of the hike was to Corniglia. This was probably the most scenic part of the hike, amazing view of the water, rocks, mountains and flowers. I think i saw a dolphin in the distance but couldn't focus on it with my camera, too bad. The water is really clear and you can see a lot of fish and eels and stuff. All the towns (excluding Monterosso) look pretty much the same so not much to talk about. The next part of the hike was painful. Had to hike up like a million steps (and every step is uneven and vary in height and distance) to the top of hte mountain. My legs were damn sore after it, the only thing driving me was that i needed to refill my water bottle :). The final leg of the hike was the longest and pretty up-hilly also. The paths are very narrow near the top of hte mountain, so gotta be careful and was pretty grueling, but the though of the beach helped push us onwards. The whole hike tooks us about 5 hours I think but jumping into the water felt so good. We just lounged around the beach for a couple hours before keegs, Mike and I decided to check out the a town just outside Riomaggiore. We went to La Spezia because we heard food was cheaper there then in Cinqua Terra, but got there pretty late and not much was opened. Went to some small place and just randomly picked something from the cheap menu, bad idea. All I got was some tuna and mayo, not that great, so we went and got a pizza later. At least teh gelato's were cheap :D We got back and decided to go chill on the rocks for a bit, got some wicked night shots of the town and just as we were leaving keegan dropped his camera down the rocks, probably about 2 metres down. All you heard was 10 bangs as it rattled down the rocks. We used our digtal camera flashes to light up the rock and keegs crawled down afterwards. Luckily the camera stopped on a rock and the camera bag fell into the sea. If it was the other way around, it woulda been bad. After keegs lodged himself in the hole, he used this stick of bamboo to fish out the camera and the camera bag and we pulled him out. We went to a bar afterward to get him a beer to cheer him up and bumped into Vance and Tommy along the way. Miraculous the camera was still fine and working so I bought him a beer for nothing :(. On a side note, Italian beer isn't too bad.

The next day we just we went to explore Monterosso a bit more and lounged around the beach. Afterwards we decided to check out another town called Levento. It was a lot nicer then La Spezia with lots of trees and a really nice beach. Best of all, FOOSBALL!!! We also had some really good focacissa, and following frungy’s advice, bought a tub of gelato and had that for dinner, felt kinda sick after eating it all.
On Sunday, we had to go home, so didn’t have much time but we had to leave early since we were not supposed to be staying at our flat. We decided to check out La Spezia again since nothing was opened the last time we went, but it was a Sunday and everything was closed once again. We ended up going to Genoa a little early (had to go there to switch trains). This was a pretty big city, so lots to see. There’s a pretty big Christopher Columbus statue here, don’t know if he was from here or not though. We went to the docks and saw a “fake LV bag” raid, was pretty cool. Also saw some of the LV knockoff’s for like € 20, so if anyone wants one, let me know since I have one to give away :) After that we pretty much just went home.
Overall, it was a pretty fun trip, good mix of stuff to do and see as well as relaxing. We found out a ticket to Pisa from where we were was just € 4.60 so I wish we’d gone there, but I’ll be back in Italy for sure. Hope everyone is doing fine at home and all is well. I have internet at home now, but it’s setup in a friend’s room, so won’t be on too much, but we’ll be getting a wireless router soon. Hope to catch you guys online and I’ll talk to you later.