The Cinque Terre-The Five Lands

 The Cinque Terre are five little towns right on the coast of the Ligurian Sea, considered to be a part of the Italian Riviera.  The towns are connected by train, and trail only, no roads.  Our plan was to go there and a have a change of pace and relax and hike the trails.  But, when I went to buy our pass to hike they informed us the trail was closed because rains the days before and that it was near the end of the season anyways so the wouldn't be opening them back up again.  I was so bummed.  But, we made the most of our first day by exploring our little town of Vernazza and visiting by train the town north called Monterosso. 

 This was the little Pension we stayed in.  It took some work to hook up with the owner since she was going to meet us at the train station and we missed our train.  But, thank heavens it is a small town and everyone knows everyone so a waiter at tracked her down for us.  Everyone in Italy hangs thier laundry.  I decided to join the fun.  We had some soggy, stinky clothes left over from our bike ride in the torrential rains in Tuscany so we hung our own laundry and joined in on the fun. 

 We expected Italy to have the best food, ever.  We were sorely disappointed.  It was very bland and boring.  We even tried to get off the beaten path and hit local spots.  But, Vernazza did not disappoint.  We had some amazing seafood.  Aram said the sardines were out of the this world but I couldn't bring myself to eat them.  But, I enjoyed some prawns instead. 

While eating dinner on our first night there we conversed with a couple from Australia.  I told them how disappointed we were that the trail was closed.  They told us they had been hiking all week despite the closure and many other were doing it, too.  The "Everybodies doing it" attitude gave me the courage the next day to brave a hike.  It was gorgeous!!!  But, I couldn't enjoy the last 20 minutes knowing there might be someone at the gate at the end patroling the hike.  I rehearsed in my mind about 20 different scripts I would tell the guard if he stopped us.  As we turned the corner at the end of the hike we saw him, I almost had a heart attack and had visions of us being held up in an Italian jail.  But, he was talking to some other hikers so we quickly sneaked by him, and then I tried to calmly walk down the hill, but I nearly broke into a sprint because my adrenaline was pumping.  I am such a dork, forever scared of getting in trouble.