Cinque Terre

I got to La Spezia a few days back after leaving rainy Torino behind, and made my way to the hostel I had booked in Biassa, just on the outskirts.

Biassa is this cool little village nestled up in the hill above La Spezia, with an awesome view of the townsite. It's also the kind of place that has 2 competing pizzerias and not much else.

The group of 4 Aussie girls I had arrived with and I were floored to discover that the hostel has a lock-out period from 11-3 and being that it was shortly before 2, we settled in for a long rest in the hot sun outside the hostel doors waiting to get in.

Finally got in, settled in and I went over to the closest pizzeria for a late lunch, before heading to La Spezia for some wine and fruit for breakfast.

When I got back to the hostel, 2 of the Aussies were outside with another Aussie guy from Perth who was staying at the hostel, so we cracked the bottle of wine, and got a little tipsy before deciding to try the second pizza place on for size.

The first one was much better.

We bought a bottle of cheap red from the pizzeria, went for a little walk, and then ended up on the cathedral steps where we proceeded to drink and talk about odd topics ranging from bowel movements to strap-ons, until shortly before one, where we headed back to the hostel for a good night's sleep so we could attempt the hike through the 5 villages the next day.

The next morning, I groggily turned off my alarm at shortly past 8, hopped in the shower, downed a Red Bull and a banana and then went and met the Aussie guy at the bus stop. The 2 girls weren't feeling up to it, and I can't say that I blamed them considering how crap I felt, and how much I wouldn't be able to do anything without the aid of Taurine and Guarana.

We took the bus to La Spezia, and then the train to Riomaggiore, and then onto Monterosso, the last in the 5 Cinque Terre villages, and on the train met up with a group of Aussies that were heading in the same direction.

One guy convinced us to come hang out at the beach and go for a swim before we started the hike, so we went and played beach bums for about 3 hours.

The Aussie that I came with spotted this cave across the water, so he swam over to check it out, and then came back to drag me along, which was honestly, a terrifying experience for me.

I'm a decent swimmer, but I'm also a swimmer accustomed to the still waters of lakes and pools, so having waves crash over me as I swim across dark water, with heart palpitations, sure that any moment, sharp teeth are going to crunch my pale ass legs into shrapnel, was VERY unnerving. I made it though.

We explored the cave for a bit, and then I mustered enough courage to tentatively breaststroke all the way back to shore.

After playing in the water and laying in the sun for an hour, it was all we could do to muster the enthusiasm to start the hike, but we finally did at about 3pm.

Let me warn you in advance... The villages of Cinque Terre are breathtakingly beautiful and the photo ops are numerous. It's a terrific workout, and it's an experience I won't soon forget. I could happily never see another fucking stair in my life now.

There are literally about 1000 stairs going up the mountain from Monterosso, heading towards Vernazza (the second last village).

When I hear the word hiking, I think backcountry trails, pulling yourself up sharp inclines by holding trees and roots, and trying not to trip and fall on exposed rocks. I don't think 1000+ natural rock stairs jutting far up into the blue expanse of sky.

Stairs are MUCH harder than pulling yourself up inclines using tree branches. Much.

So by the time we got to Vernazza (a little over an hour after we started), we were starving, thirsty and ready for another swim. We grabbed a pizza to share, a huge bottle of water and 2 beers, and we headed over to the marina/beach to swim.

Aussie guy saw yet ANOTHER cave, and this time I decided to do sentry duty on the bags and play with the fish in the marina, thinking I had toyed enough with my life for one day.

Probably a smart idea, since he had trouble making it through, and there was a riptide that almost threatened to pull him out to sea. If that wasn't good enough, at some point he managed to kick a sea urchin, and limped out of the water 15 minutes later with tiny little black barbs stuck in his foot.

It's times like that, that I'm happy I'm cautious.

So we limped onto Corniglia, which took about another hour and a half. Stopped for some pictures of the sunset, and then headed onto the next village, Manarola.

By this point, it was pretty dark, but by the time we reached Manarola, we knew that the Via Dell'Amore, or Lover's Walk, is an easy walk of under a half hour, so we made our way to the first village, Riomaggiore, where we promptly found an Italian restaurant for some comforting carbs and beer.

We met up with the Aussies from earlier while we were grabbing gelato, and the group of us went and sat on the rocks at the marina, and chatted while the few of us heading back into Biassa waited for our bus.

Got back to Manarola, and we proceeded to feed the Aussie guy I spent the day with copious amounts of wine, and did surgery on all the little barbs in his foot while catching up on the Georgia/Russia situation, and the Olympics via BBC news. I heart the BBC.

You may think it's a little funny that I keep referring to everyone by their Nationality instead of their name, but the truth is, I felt like such an arse after asking for names (and then promptly) forgetting them, twice, that I didn't bother to ask again.

Off to Pisa, and then Firenze.