We couldn’t get enough of the Italian flavor of friendly people, good food, cheap accommodations and somewhat warmer weather. We decided to take off again for Italy. This time around the infamous region of Cinque Terra. Though, the train tickets were more expensive compared to our recent trips to Florence and Venice. We chose Cinque Terra for its nature and hiking trails. We wanted to experience Europe away from the big cities. Cinque Terra, also known as the five villages, was region along the coast of the Ligurian Sea. We first arrived in the late evening in the town of Levanto, north of Cinque Terra. We found a hostel near by and when we finally found this hostel, the doors were locked and no one seemed to be available to let us in. A guy near by invited into a near-by bar where we had a few drinks and something to eat. Meanwhile, this guy told us that he would find someone to let us in the hostel. After having a few drinks, the door to our hostel finally opened and we got a dorm room for a good price of €12 Euros. We didn’t talk as much, I think working the graveyard shift was getting the worst out of us and somehow these trips were going to determenial to our health and state of mind. The following day, we got an all day train pass to jump on and off anywhere around the Cinque Terra region. The Cinque Terra towns were Riomaggiore, Manorola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso. We first stopped in the small town of Vernazza. This small town was perfect, small hills in the background and the open sea in front. It was a fishing town than anything else. The prices at the local restaurants were expensive and as usually; Nate and I did our cheap purchases at a local Supermarcati(Supermarket) in Levanto. After walking around Vernazza and taking almost a thousand pictures, we then decided to hike the trail, which connected all the Cinque Terra towns. We hiked and hiked, up hills and down hills, this trail was amazing. Nate said that this hike felt like as though he was back in California. I guess the trees, the grassy trail and the open sea gave him that impression. Surprisingly, Nate was able to do this hike, considering that he hurt his foot a few days ago.
After checking out the last town in Cinque Terra, we took the train to the town of La Spezia. From La Spezia, we were unsure if we wanted to crash in the town of Pisa or in Livorno. We checked out different train times and prices, Livorno was the best option at this point. When we arrived in Livorno, I was hoping that we would simply walked from the train station directly to the hostel; but after looking at the city map of where we were at the train station and the where the hostel (Ostello di Livorno) was located on the other side of town. “Taxi!” the taxi driver took several highways to get to this hostel and we would have been fools trying to find this hostel on foot and especially on Nate’s foot. The pain from that hike and his bruises from the day before were getting worse. The taxi driver pulled up in this open field and with from what appeared to be a plantation house in the middle ahead of the road, that was the hostel. The decoration inside this hostel was very upbeat with catching red colors and bright green and yellow. The receptionist was a hot Italian college student with long black hair and with an accent that drove us crazy. She showed us to our room, while sadly informing us that there were no meals during the evenings. Not even bread! However, we learned that there was a restaurant within walking distance of roughly thirty-five minutes! Nate asked me why it couldn’t be just thirty minutes instead of why thirty-five? I had no answer, I simply knew that we had to get something to eat.
We walked away from the plantation hostel to find this restaurant and it seemed like we walked for way over thirty-eight minutes. From this walk, all the local markets were closed and trying to buy just some snacks to pass the night were not going to work this time. A restaurant up ahead seemed opened and luckily it was. I tried to translate some of the meals provided to Nate, and our waiter was also kind enough to help us out with our menus; and offered on the house some wine and later some beer. Nate loved Italy, but I told him that we should try to visit either Spain or Portugal for our next trip. He agreed, but we both had to reconsider trying to get time off from work, as well as trying to get more days off. It overall looked like that was not going to be a possibility. After enjoying our Italian cuisines experience, we felt way to full and wasted to do the long walk back to the plantation. Nate’s foot was really hurting me, almost to the point he had to stop frequently to take a break. It was so bad that, one point; I even gave him a piggy-back-ride.
The following morning, we left for the town of Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was about a half-hour train ride, which only cost about €4,50. Not bad of price, to see one of the world’s famous monuments. The town of Pisa, however, was nothing to write about. Just a quiet, plain and boring town. We walked for about twenty minutes to see this tower; we followed the signs to this site. Upon arriving, it seemed like the whole world was concentrated around this tower. Street vendors, postcards, fast food restaurants, cameras flashing and of course, people getting into the craziest positions next to the tower. Girls having their breast next to the tower, as though the tower was being held from falling, because of her size D. Or guys were lying down on the grass field near the tower, as though the tower is their erect penis or something. Nate and I just watched these people act out the craziest ideas of photography and travel. I think we spent less than ten minutes there. We took a few pictures, but we had to go. With such an early start of the day, we didn’t have to leave until later that evening to head back to Germany. Have lunch in Pisa or have dinner in Florence? We couldn’t decide and plus we figured out that we have become travel snobs and our family and friends back home wouldn’t understand the concept of deciding between any city in Italy in order to eat. We went to Florence! While in Florence, we ate at the corner Kebab shops and have our usual bottle of wine in the streets to pass the day and night. We were taking the night train back to Germany, even though; we could have taken the train the following morning too. But, we figured that it would be better to have a full day rest back in Germany before heading to work. And luckily, we took that night train. We learned when we arrived in Germany that the morning train we were thinking of taking, crashed and about fifty people died and hundreds were injured in that crash. The worst train accident in Italian history. We could have been on that train!
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