Cinque Terra - A Novel By CarlJames

As soon as I finished journaling Thursday night Dave tells me that Pontius is backing out on us because he has a field trip on Friday that he didn’t know about till Thursday afternoon and he’s not going to go. Great! Now the 3 of us are going to have to cover his payment both nights and we’ll all end up paying like 35 Euro a night… not cool… So about 2 hours later and a lot of talking and rearranging of schedules, etc, etc, etc, we were back on schedule, Pontius was back in, and everything was going to be fine. Daniel and I went up stairs and watched Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels just like we had planned and then crashed for about an hour and a half before Daniel’s alarm went off.

15April2005 – Friday

4:30am. Daniel jumps in the shower and I get dressed and finish packing and by 5am we are both dressed packed and down the stairs. We meet up with Cathcart, Tim, Jacob, and Matt in the lobby downstairs and head out on our adventure. We make our way down to the train station in the pitch black and crisp early morning air. Our train was running just a few minutes late, but nothing worth stressing over. We got on it just fine and made our way to Florence.

An hour and a half later we hit Florence Santa Maria Novella with an insatiable hunger. We descended upon the F.S.M.N. McDonald’s and had ourselves a hearty American breakfast. Egg & Sausage McMuffins, orange juice, and hash browns were had by all in the half hour we had between trains and before long we had boarded our train to La Spezia which we were pleased to discover was a sleeper. Cathcart, Tim, and I grabbed one and we folded down all of the seats to make 3 beds and we settled in to dream land for the hour and a half to two hour trip. We were awoken at the half hour mark by the guy asking for tickets who was raging about our shoes being on the seats, so we gave him the tickets and adjusted ourselves till he was satisfied and then we slipped back away. Sometime later Cathcart nudges me and says we’re there so I quickly grab my gear and we jump off the train anxious to find the next one. We all follow Daniel through a crowd of people while he searches for a departures schedule and we can’t find the train we’re supposed to take, it must be in a smaller station or in another part of this one! So he runs to information and we follow from a short distance and by the time we catch up to him he’s at the front of a crowd and we hear him scream, “Bin 4! Now! Run!” So we all bolt to Bin 4 and barely make it on the train but make it either way so now we’re sitting pretty and ready for the fun to start. On the train we met 3 girls from Philadelphia who were also going to Cinque Terra and they were friendly.

Soon the train stopped but we were in a dark tunnel so we figured that surely this wasn’t the stop, Riomaggiore was the first one and where we were all planning on getting out, but the train was stopped in a tunnel, so we figured we were just waiting for the train in front of us to move. To our surprise the train started moving again and went through Riomaggiore and kept going… uh-oh. The next stop, however, was Manarola which was where the rest of the group was supposed to have a hostel so we decided we’d get off their and go with them to find their hostel first. This time when the train stopped we made sure to get off and after walking through a long, run down tunnel we came out in Manarola.

Tim had the address that he was given by the girl who booked the hostel (actually they had rented an apartment for the weekend) and was asking some people if they knew the address. Soon enough we were told to go up this set of stairs and something else, so we started up the stairs until we reached a little fountain and cleared space and appeared to be lost. Tim found another woman and asked again and we were told to go up more to a piazza in front of a church at the top of the hill and something else I didn’t hear and soon we were climbing more stairs. We finally see a church and make our way there and now we’re stuck again, so we ask a guy shoveling concrete into a wheelbarrow and he says it’s down the hill to our left… okay… so we go down the hill and guess where we end up. Right back where we started! Grr…

Okay, so Cathcart takes things into her hands and asks a guy if he speaks English and then for directions and he says to go back up to the church and it’s to the left. So we go back up the hill to the church and then past it and we are looking all over the place to the left but we don’t see it. Soon we realize we’re leaving the main city area so again Cathcart asks a guy if he speaks English and for directions. This time the guy says he’ll show us, it’s just around the corner. So we follow him and it turns out we walked right passed it 3 times, lol! So we’re all sitting outside as Tim finally knocks on the door and we tell them reservations. The woman looks at us totally bewildered and says that she knows we have reservations, but that she is the travel agent and the reservations are for Corniglia. Oh my… so she gives us directions and sends us on our way. When we get to the train station Daniel and I decide we’re going to go to our hostel which is back in Riomaggiore and that the rest of the group is going on to there’s in the next town Corniglia and that they’d call us later and we’d figure things out from there.

So Daniel and I get on our train and head back towards La Spezia and this time when the train stops in the tunnel we jump out and it paid off because we’d finally arrived. We met an Aggie class of ’93 right when we got off of the train with his wife, which was fun (they picked out my shirt in the crowd) and then soon after we found our way to the main street and started walking up looking for our hostel. Luckily the street our hostel was on was the main street and a few minutes later we spotted it to the left with no problems. We were already doing a hundred times better than the other group, lol! Well there was a man and woman sitting outside talking and as we walked up the man asked if he could help us, so we told him reservation. He said to take a seat and that his brother was the owner and that he’d be right back. So Daniel and I took a seat on a really cool bench that was about 2 feet away and waited for the guy to show up. About 15 minutes later he did, and we got checked in no problem. He grabbed the keys and said that he had to bump us up to a 6 bed private apartment but that there was no extra charge. Okay, lol!

So we followed him down the street, to the right and up 6 flights of stairs and then he unlocked first one door and then another and said here you are. We walked in and were amazed at what we saw. There were two main bedrooms, a dining/living room, a kitchen with appliances and dishes and a split bathroom so someone could shower while other people used the toilette and sink at the same time. In the living/dining room there was an extra bed and a couch that were both made up as beds and as we looked around we decided that this place was more than 6 beds. One of the beds was a king size and we could easily fit 3 people in it… We soon discovered that we were in an 8 bed private apartment and it had a gorgeous view out of our windows of the mountain behind us and of the city. So the owner left and we thanked him and settles in and Daniel and I both called the king bad at the same time. We ended up sharing it the whole weekend because it was huge and extremely comfortable.

After we settled in and changed into shorts we decided that we had ignored our stomachs for long enough and went in search of some food. We found a Pizzeria a little past the hostel office and it was priced pretty well so we both ordered a pizza and ended up eating it on some big public stairs just to the right of the Pizzeria - we call that Cortona style, lol! Anyway once we finished eating we decided to do a little exploration and started hiking up the main road. We followed it as it curved to the right and then the left and soon found ourselves high up on the mountain with spectacular views. We took a ton of pictures and were psyched when we finally saw the beach we’d heard about in Riomaggiore. That was our next stop and we found a trail of stairs that headed back into the city and it ended up putting us right in front of our apartment building in about 5 minutes. Heck of a short cut.

Soon we found our way down to the coast line with no problems and not long after we found the man made cove and the pebble beach. It was all ridiculously beautiful and we were having a great time. And it was only 1pm! Before long we had made our way out onto the giant rocks of the man made cove and the sea was calm and peaceful and the sun was shining warm and beautiful and then next thing we knew we were stripping off layers of clothes and laying out on some of the smooth rocks. Glorious!

Somewhere between a half an hour and an hour later we got a call from the other two guys that were staying with us, Dave and Pontius, saying that they were about to be there and what was up. So we told them we’d meet them soon since we had the keys and forced ourselves to get up an get dressed again and head back in. soon we found them and took them up to our awesome place and they were just as impressed as we were. They were a little hungry and Daniel and I could use a snack after all the hiking so we decided to go grab something before we did anything else. We grabbed a small slice at a place right around the corner and as we were eating decided we wanted to hike over to Corniglia where the other groups were staying. Once we finished we showed the guys the way down to the shore and up to the trail that we’d seen and the next thing we knew we were starting our biggest adventure of the weekend.

We leisurely strolled along the coastline trail which was more of a well groomed park path really. Before long we back at the train station of Riomaggiore which was a big central point for the trails. We wanted to go on to Corniglia but first we had to go to Manarola. Well we couldn’t just get on the trail because they were actually checking tickets at this entrance to it, so we broke down and decided to buy them. We found out that just to go from Riomaggiore to Manarola was 3 Euro, but the all day pass was 5.40 Euro. It was already about 4pm but we decided to go ahead and buy the day pass because it was good on all of the trails and the train and we didn’t want to have to pay another 3 Euro at the trail from Manarola to Corniglia as well and get totally ripped off. So we started our hike and soon found ourselves on another manicured park path. Not long after that we were in Manarola and we started looking for the next trail. We found out that the coastline trail from Manarola to Corniglia was out of commission due to a rock slide last week so being the strapping young lads that we are we decided we could do the more skilled mountain trails. We asked around how to get to them and finally a guy pointed us up the hill to them and again another guy pointed us to them, but this guy made sure he told us to be careful that they were dangerous. Well we weren’t scared of a few trails and we finally found the beginning of trail 6 and compared to our map to make sure it was the right one.

We started our hike and soon found that these were definitely not the beginner paths. We went up about a million stairs and 45 minutes later on this somewhat less than manicured stair path we reached the top of the mountain and one little city that was a connector for the mountain trail. We searched for a little while and finally found where the path started again and as we started the next leg of our hike we realized quickly that this was definitely not taken care of in any way and was definitely more of the expert level trail. We didn’t mind though and were having a great time. We were walking along paths that were sometimes a foot wide, some times 6 inches wide along cliff sides with 100 meter drop offs and down stairs that were extremely steep and also 6 inches wide, etc. it was a lot of fun and we had some spectacular photo opportunities. About an hour later we were expecting to be there but instead saw Corniglia far below us and the trail heading forth plunging into the forest.

Fearing nothing we plunged with it and soon found ourselves on an even more expert path and hiking further up into the mountains. At last probably another hour later we came to a sign on the path that said 7a one way and 6 the other. We checked our map and sure enough 7a was the trail we were supposed to take down to Corniglia so we excitedly started climbing. We figured it had to go up first a little ways or something before it started going down but 45 minutes later we were all ragged and climbing the most difficult “trail” any of us had encountered and were hoping for a stop in sight soon. Luckily about 15 minutes later we found a highway and crossed it to sit on a short wall on the other side. We pulled out the trusty map and tried to figure out where the heck we were and where we could have possibly gone wrong. Right where we had emerged onto the highway was a sign pointing back into the forest saying 7a and Corniglia and we were extremely confused.

After looking at the map we finally discovered that the first piece we had taken on 7a was actually a ‘T’ and went both up and down and somehow we didn’t see the down path. On the map the piece we had just taken up was dashed, not solid, and when we checked the key we discovered that this particular path was one of the expert professional tracks that was extremely dangerous and only recommended for Olympic mountain climbing professionals. Geez! So at this point we found on the map the next leg of the journey which was trail 7b which did lead down to Corniglia and we took a few deep breaths and headed in the direction it appeared to be from the map. We had started trail 6 in Manarola at 5pm and it was now after 8pm and we were just following the roadside. About half an hour later we finally saw the sign that said 7b and pointed down into the valley and we took a sigh of relief.

At this point Pontius said he didn’t want to take the trail back down because, as we all were, he was run ragged and he knew that going down was harder than going up. Daniel and I looked at each other in disbelief because first of all we had been hiking for almost 4 hours and we couldn’t believe he wanted to give up now, and secondly, who on earth has ever heard of going down a trail to be harder than going up one? Climbing is definitely harder than going down! So Dave offered to stay with him and they were going to hitch a ride down to Corniglia and they’d call us when they got there and meet us there. Whatever, Daniel and I were determined to finish what we’d started, with or without them – and we were the ones that had literally been hiking all day long, lol!

So we started down and soon the trail disappeared completely. We couldn’t find it anywhere, so… as any resourceful Aggie would, we made our own trail! This trek of the hike was definitely the hardest and Daniel and I were both glad that they other guys hadn’t come because there was no way they’d have toughed it out. There were a countless number of times that the ground right beneath our feet just fell away and we’d slide a few yards before regaining our balance. At one point we came to a 12 foot drop off and didn’t see any way down in sight, so Daniel and I just looked at each other, I said “Rocks?” With determination in his voice he replied, “Rocks.” And the next thing you knew without any hesitation we both started scaling down this vertical rock wall with absolutely no equipment. It was the best time of our lives! We both agreed that that was easily the high point of the hike and we continued our way down the mountain. Finally we found another highway and wouldn’t you know right across the street there was another sign denoting 7b with an arrow pointing and an obvious path starting up again. We didn’t know where the other one lead to this, we couldn’t find it anywhere, but assumed it must have been somewhere further up the road.

We decided to go ahead and take 7b and it soon turned into one of the well kept sissy paths that we had started on when we were in Manarola, lol! About half an hour after we left the guys at the top of the mountain we had made it to Corniglia, rested for a few minutes, knocked the rocks out of our shoes, and started down to the train station when we got a call from Dave. He was calling to let us know that they had just gotten picked up, to find out where we were and where we wanted to meet them. We said we were heading to the train station and they could meet us there. After climbing down a staircase that never ended we finally hit solid land and walked down to the train station to find Dave and Pontius sitting on a bench waiting for us looking quite fresh. ::Sigh::…

We got on a train at about 9:45pm that was supposed to be there at 9:30pm and rode it back to Riomaggiore. We never did hear from anyone in the other groups but we’d had a spectacular day either way. When we got back to Riomaggiore we ate dinner at one of the 3 restaurants still open (at 10pm mind you) and ate to our hearts content. It wasn’t the most peaceful dinner because at the table right next to us was a group of about 6 American girls and they were being extremely loud and obnoxious. After dinner we went back up to the apartment and ended up crashing for the night right away.

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16April2005 – Saturday – Happy Birthday Darling!

Daniel and I were planning on getting up at 9am and going to Monterosso to get on the beach nice and early and have a very relaxing day of sunbathing. However, when 9am came around Daniel got up and looked outside to find it raining so he got back in bed, we rolled over, and slept till 10:30am. Again Daniel got up to find rain so he got back in bed, we rolled over again and slept till 11:30am. At 11:30 we got up having slept about 12 hours and felt great.

It wasn’t raining anymore and I was feeling confident that the day was going to be beautiful before long. So we got dressed and headed down to the train station. The other guys had stayed up later and were still sleeping as far as we knew and were planning on catching up with us later on in the day. So Daniel and I got to the train station only to find that the train we had looked up the night before wasn’t running today so we had to kill an hour. We decided to go over to the cove and see what was going on there and found huge waves and a lot of really awesome photo-ops.

The train was leaving at 2:11pm and at about 1:45pm we started back over to the station. As we were getting back into the station Daniel joked that it would be really funny if we saw the guys waiting there and as soon as the words slipped out of his mouth, there they came around the corner, lol! So we all got on the train and went to Monterosso and I was praying for sunshine. Well when we got off the train nothing had changed, it was cold, windy, the waves were crashing into everything spectacularly, and it was starting to sprinkle. At this point we were all pretty hungry and decided to go into the town and search for some food.

We walked up and down 2 streets before finally finding a pizza place that was really cheap. Daniel and I both got two pizzas and Dave and Pontius each got one. They were hand tossed and home made right in front of our eyes and were magnificent! After eating till we were ready to burst (Dave had to finish a 3rd of my second one) we headed out to a Piazza right above the beach and Daniel and I took some pictures. At this point Dave and Pontius wondered away and left us a lone, so we decided to hike up this one part of the coast trail and see the view. We found this really cool old turret looking thing and decided to spend some time there watching the waves and soaking up the sun that had peaked through some of the rain clouds.

Daniel and I sat there for a good half hour having a good time and watching some enormous waves before one totally surprised us and splashed about 6 feet over our heads totally soaking our right sides. We couldn’t help but laugh and wonder how huge that wave must have been because we were easily a hundred meters above the water. We decided at that point to leave and go back towards the boardwalk by the train station. As we did so I suggested gelato and those were words of music to both our ears. Daniel got 5 different flavor scoops and I got 3 and we strolled along enjoying our gelato and trying to warm up a little – great way to do it huh? Lol!

Soon we were getting restless and called Dave and Pontius to see where they were and see if they wanted to go back to Riomaggiore since they had the keys. We met them about 2 seconds later (they had been just down the boardwalk) and Pontius told us he’d lost his camera bag and remembered where he’d left it and wanted to go back and see if it was there. Daniel and I said we’d go check the train schedule and catch up to them and we found the next one leaving in a little over half an hour.

5 minutes later we found them and they had successfully recovered the lost camera bag. We had time to kill so we decided to hike to the top of the hill right next to us and also on the coast really quickly and take some pictures and we ended up finding a really cool statue of St. Francis of Assisi, lol! The view was really nice though and we took a lot of pictures before heading back down to the train station and getting on our train with ease.

Dave and Pontius decided that they wanted to stop in Vernazza which was the next stop and only town we hadn’t been to yet, but Daniel and I were anxious to get back and see if the weather had cleared up enough for sunbathing. We had seen Riomaggiore from the top of the mountain and it was bathed in sunlight with clear skies for as far as we could see, so we were hopeful about getting some sun in even though it was after 5pm. We got back and decided to go to the Co-Op first to get some choice beverages for the evening and then to the room to drop all of our stuff and then we made our way to the coastline. When we got there we found nothing but the same old same old and decided to heck with it. We bought a deck of cards and I got a phone card for later that night and we went back upstairs. It was about 6 by this time and we decided, to heck with it, lets open the beverages and mix us up a little something and play cards.

We had one glass and had just finished a game of war when Dave and Pontius walked in the door with a bag of groceries. They were going to cook pasta and Daniel and I looked at each other and both knew food was a great idea. We checked the time and realized the Co-Op would be closing any minute so we ran down stairs and made it in time to buy some cheese, bread, meat and chips. We went back up stairs and as soon as we got in I realized it was about the time I wanted to call JereBeth and wish her a happy birthday so I went back downstairs and figured out how to use the Happiness Card for about 10 minutes and finally got hold of her. We talked for about a half an hour and I burned up the card, but it was only 5 Euro and by far the best deal for the phone problem so far, so I was more than pleased. It sounded like she was going to have a good day but I was bummed to find out that the package I sent her priority on Monday didn’t make it there in time for her birthday. I hope it got there later that day or gets there soon…

After I finished on the phone I went back up the six flights of stairs again and found that the guys had already eaten and were talking. So I sat down and ate and Daniel and I had some more beverage and we all talked for a while and then decided on an exciting game of spades to cap off the night right. It was a lot of fun and Daniel and I ended up coming back from negative to win it by a nice margin and before the night was over wed finished off the entire bottles of beverages between the two of us. I was feeling very nice and since it was a little after midnight, we all decided to hit it for the night. Daniel and I ended up talking for like an hour or two before we went to sleep and this morning when 8am rolled around we felt pretty good.

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17April2005 - Sunday

We got up, got packed, washed up, got dressed, and were out of there by 9am. We checked out and then had decided the night before that we were going to go to Vernazza this morning. So we got on the train and made it over there by 9:45am and started strolling around. I found a really cool Cinque Terra patch for my patch collection and we took some pictures of the city and the coast. I’ve never actually seen a duck in the ocean before, but I did today, lol!

One of the big things in Vernazza it this old castle with a big tower at the top of the main hill in the city so Daniel and I decided we’d check that out. We followed the signs and climbed to the gate only to find it locked and a sign saying they didn’t open till 10:30am. Well our train was leaving for home at 10:46am so we were cutting it close, but we were sure we’d be okay. So we killed time just exploring for about 20 minutes and then at about 10:25am the woman opened the gate a little early and we were the first ones up the tower. The view was amazing and we quickly snapped a dozen shots before running down to the train station.

We got to the station with tons of time to spare so I went to use the restroom while Daniel double checked the train times and bin number. When I get back, what do I see, Daniel surrounded by the three Philadelphia girls from on the way in, lol! So we chatted a little and found out that they were still friendly and had had a nice weekend as well. We all got on the same train and separated when we got to the main station in La Spezia.

Daniel and I quickly found the next train out and ran to the bin because it was supposed to be leaving any minute, but we found the bin empty and no train, so we relaxed and waited around. While we were waiting a lot of people from the other groups started straggling onto the bin and we all had nice reunions and found out how others’ weekends had gone. Soon the train arrived and Daniel and I claimed a sleeper car right away. We didn’t see anyone else from the group for the whole train ride and when we got to Pisa we saw them get out. So we all grouped together and some people decided to go to the famous tower and 6 of us, including Daniel and I, were going to go ahead and make our way to Florence then.

At 12:30pm the train got there and we made our way to Florence. We got there and discovered the next train leaving for Arrezo at 2pm. That was half an hour away and we were starving so the four guys all went to good ole McDonalds and the girls left us to go do some shopping in Florence. The food was good but when we were finished we found out that the train we were going to take wasn’t running on Sunday and searched for the next possible. Luckily there was one that had a stop in Arrezo leaving at 2:09pm so we just got on that one, no problems.

About an hour later we got to Arrezo and got off the train to go see when the next train going to Castiglion Fiorentino was leaving. It was starting rain and to our horror we found out that the train we just got off of was going to Castiglion Fiorentino! It hadn’t listed all of the stops in Florence and the train pulled away as we watched solemnly… We looked up the next train to find it leaving in over an hour and then one of us got the bright idea to just take the bus!

We were well aware that there was a train that went from Arrezo to Cortona that stopped in Castiglion Fiorentino at a piazza that was very close to the center. So we all happily walked to the bus stop in the rain and less than 10 minutes later we were bopping along on a nice warm and dry bus. It took about half an hour to get to the piazza when it was all over with, but it would have taken us an extra 15 minutes to hike up the dadgum hill, maybe more because of the rain, anyway so we figured that was perfect and we were finally back.

We finally got back into the center at about 4pm and after using the facilities I made my way down to the lab to get started on the lengthy update to my journal that I had to look forward to. At 7:35pm I realized dinner was starting to I went to eat real quick and then half an hour later I was back here to finish up. I’ve been simultaneously trying to upload all of my pictures to the web as well and now I’m just about finished with everything.

I hope you all enjoyed reading my short novel about Cinque Terra; I know I enjoyed living it! I love and miss everyone and look forward to the hundreds of e-mails, messages, and comments I’ll be receiving in the short time to come. Tomorrow we have the rescheduled trip to Ravenna and I’m sure that will prove to be a long day. We have to be on the bus at 7:30am for about a 5 hour bus ride, so I’m more than sure it’ll prove to be a long day, lol! That’s all I’ve got for now, look forward to hearing from everyone!

Ciao!