Ciao, Cinque Terre!
Hello hello! I am alive! The train ride to get here to La Spezia was quite the adventure as we got off at the wrong stop and had to wait almost an hour for the next one to come. It was late and dark out and there were some creepy people around, so it was a little bit stressful but we finally made it to the right station where the owner of our hotel was picking us up.
Her and her husband drove us and at the time I thought it was the most terrifying moment of the trip. Once we exited the city and began driving up the winding roads into the countryside we realized that we were in the car with a complete stranger in a foreign country in the middle of nowhere and we were absolutely without a doubt going to be murdered and chopped up into tiny pieces and thrown into the woods. There was no other option, really. We were squeezing hands in the back, accepting that we would not escape and that this would be the end of the road for us.
This lasted about 5 minutes until we finally rejoined civilization at the top of this hill and arrived at our cozy suite. Phew! My heart was beating so fast I really truly thought I was going to die. Have I mentioned I’m a bit of a hypochondriac?!
Anyway, our place was way better than expected. It is an adorable commune built in the 1400s situated in the middle of lush rolling Italian hills! The Cinque Terre National Park, to be exact. We were so happy about the turn out of the situation and our hosts are extremely kind and helpful people. I can’t believe I ever thought they were psychotic serial killers. I’m a terrible person.
That night I started to get sick with a head cold but we had to wake up early for our plans the next day anyway. I’m such a trooper!!!! We went for a boat trip to the different towns of Cinque Terre. There are 5 of them, obviously…
I’m going to be honest, after seeing so many pictures of this place I had very high expectations and was a little disappointed. You only see edited photos of the best angle at the best time of day when there’s few tourists around. In reality, they look great from far away but the closer you get, the uglier it is. Okay it’s not ugly, it was still extremely cool to see and very beautiful, but it didn’t fit the picture I had in my mind in the least.
We explored 3 of the 5 towns and then headed back into the city of La Spezia to get some dinner. The best thing about being in Italy, I think, is being able to eat all the pasta and pizza I want and never feeling a single bit guilty about it. I’m in Italy! Of course I’m gonna eat pizza for every meal!!
We made it back to our room and spent the night relaxing and booking our future accommodations because, as we learned in Nice, it’s quite important to not leave it to the last minute. So we are more than ready for the next 2 weeks now, which is an awesome feeling.
That’s all for today!
Tal
