Stumbling into the brightness as we get off the train, we don't even look around at the beauty of Riomaggiore because we need sleep, and for the sake of the people around us, a shower. We quickly find a cheap hotel and check in, where we immediately pass out for the better part of the day. After waking up and finally bathing ourselves (we were going on 4 days now?) we went out to explore!
By this time we were ready for dinner, and we stumbled upon this great deal.
4-8 persons roughly translates as one Laura, and one Abby.
Abby is the only one of my friends who I believe would actually fit into the Darmody way of eating, which is eat as much as you can, as fast as you can, before someone else steals your food. The Darmodys have long discussed where our eating habits stem from, and our theory boils down to my dad being one of 7 boys: survival of the fittest. Or we just really like food.
We brought our pizza and wine by the water and enjoyed the first bite right before it started raining.
We took shelter in a doorway and finished our wine and pizza while watching the rain. It was beautiful!!
After almost eating ourselves into a food coma, we walked around Rio for a bit and then headed home because the next day was going to be full of hiking!
In the morning we were off! After having breakfast at a cafe near our hotel (where we ended up eating breakfast every day when we were in Cinque Terre because it was so good) we started our hike! We found out pretty quick however that all the main trails were closed due to landslides.
Bummer. We still wanted to hike so we decided we would take the long way around.
Around 30 minutes into our hike I asked Abby if she was sure we were going the right way.
"Of course we are."
I trusted her considering my sense of direction. One time, when I had just gotten my license, I drove over to my friend's house who lives 10 minutes away. On the way back I must have taken many wrong turns a wrong turn and ended up in the heart of Baltimore with almost no gas. Thankfully there was a McDonalds near by so I got an ice cream sundae while I waited for my parents to figure out where I was and pick me up.
Eventually we could see our town we were staying at on our right. Which was weird considering it should have been on our left if we were going in the right direction.
Seems we hiked the wrong way to the next town. We should have been in Monarola but we ended up in Santuario di Montenero.
"I told you we were going the wrong way!" *Huffs off*
Our cute little town!
Good thing we like to hike.
And we are back!
This time we made sure we were going the right way to Manarola. After an hour or two we made it!
We followed in this couple and acted like we were a part of the wedding party. I think we fit in perfectly.
Manarola was probably my favorite town besides Riomaggiore! It was gorgeous and the views we had while hiking were incredible. Next stop: Corniglia!
Way too many steps for Den Hoggers Haagers like us.
Corniglia! Now just to get down there...
"We have to go how much further?!"
I just wonder what the people who live in these houses do?
This would have been helpful a few hours ago when we were going the wrong way.
We paused for a break after hiking hundreds of steps when a family on the way down passed us and laughed and said "Many, many, many more steps." Thanks for the encouragement!
We hate steps.
I'm not cut out for this kind of stuff.
The water was GORGEOUS. It's times like these I wish I had Google Glasses because my camera just doesn't do it justice!
So close!
Pretty sure we took the longest route possible. What else is new?
Corniglia was my least favorite town because it is the smallest and the only one not directly on the water. However I had the BEST sammy of my entire life. Turkey, cheese, pesto, and sun-dried tomatoes on bread. Either people were envious of my sandwich or I had pesto all over my face because I was getting some stares.
We stayed just long enough in Corniglia to digest our food because we still had two more towns to go and we had already been hiking for 6 hours! Next stop: Vernazza!
Are we in the jungle or?
First sights of Vernazza!
Definitely one of the easier hikes from Corniglia to Vernazza. Thank goodness because I had climbed enough steps for a lifetime.
Funnily enough this is almost the same picture that is on the cover of my trusty Rick Steves!
My picture is better.
We didn't spend much time in Vernazza either because those clouds were looking might ominous and we wanted to make it to Monterosso before they unleashed their fury.
Eventually we made it! And what welcomed me was this hedgie!!!!
After 9 long but amazing hours of hiking, we felt we deserved a beer.
Pesto lasagna yummmmmm
During dinner we made friends with a family from Melbourne, who were amazed that we knew how to correctly pronounce their city. Another couple from Los Angeles also turned around to talk to us because they thought their 5 hour hike was tough!
Monterosso!
That big light all the way in the distance is where we hiked from- my camera is zoomed all the way!
After walking around a bit we decided to head home because I REALLY wanted gelato and Rick Steves said there was an excellent gelato place in Riomaggiore. If Rick Steves says it, it must be true.
Of course getting home is a challenge- what else is new. We got on a train headed for Riomaggiore, and decided it should only take about 10 minutes to get back. After about 45 minutes we realized nothing out the window looked familiar so we went in search of a conductor who could help us. She looked at our ticket and said we had missed our stop a while ago (naturally) and had to go back. So we turned around and were one stop away from Riomaggiore when the lights went off and everyone got off. Seems this train was done running for the night. At this point I was considering walking home because the gelato place was about to close! I need my gelato. Finally we caught another train back to Rio- total travel time= two hours. Abby made a sprint towards the gelato place, knocking over chairs in the process, to make sure they didn't close on us.
Thank goodness they were still open because this was the most delicious gelato I had in all of Italy!
The next morning we were heading back to Rome to spend one last day in Italy!
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