Last stop in Italy: Cinque Terre

After spending 24 nights in Italy, it came down to one last stop in the beautiful seaside villages called Cinque Terre. (i should mention I'm a little lagging in the blog at the moment, and we have actually been in Nice for the last 4 nights. But here's what I missed at the end of Italy).

Cinque Terre, literally translating to "Five Lands" in English, are these tiny little villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corneglia, Vernazza and Monterosso that sit on the Mediterranean sea up on the West coast of Italy. The Cinque Terre is a UNESCO national park, with hikes in between each of the villages ranging from a 20 minute walk along 'lovers lane', to full- day mountain hikes. For those not in a walking mood, there's a train that links each of the villages as well (though as we found out, it doesn't run to a particular schedule).

Riomaggiore

We based ourselves in Riomaggiore, the first of the villages you arrive in as you make your way up the coast from the town of La Spezia. It's a tiny town that slopes upwards, with houses and little apartments stacked on one another on the slopes. And like much of the cinque terre islands, there are lots of steep, steep stairs. We booked a '10 person dorm room' which turned out to be a tiny little apartment with one room and a bathroom to the side with 4 beds in total. We asked the grouchy reception lady (I think she was actually American) if we could expect any other roommates while we were there. "Yes ma'am" was her reply, and yet we returned home each night to find that it was just us so that worked out pretty well. I was very excited that we had one of the traditional washing lines that you see everywhere in Italy- a rope below a window that works on a pulley system. Mike wasn't so excited when he left his clothes on there overnight and it rained.

Clothesline, Italian style

There is a small 'main street' in Riomaggiore that leads down to the marina, with a couple of bars with wifi (VERY rare around the cinque terre), some restaurants that were out of our budget, and some good little takeaway shops which we were very happy to find. The beach in this town wasn't great for swimming, but the rocks nearby were nice to sit on around sunset.

After more than three weeks of Italian sunshine, our luck with the weather had to come to a end sometime. Apparently that sometime was at Cinque Terre. Our first day of exploring was the only sunny day we had and we took advantage of it while we could. We walked the stretch between Riomaggiore and Manarola affectionately known as "Via dell'amore" (lover's lane), where couples have taken to declaring their love on the walls of the tunnel, or hanging love locks (padlocks used to signify a lasting love, or something to that effect). We had one better than all those though, and now one of Mike's dreadlocks hangs somewhere along Via del'Amore.

Manarola, the second town we saw, was probably the smallest of the five villages, and was a nice place to sit and read while Mike went for a swim. We caught a train from there to Corniglia since we found out the path was closed due to landslide. The Cinque Terre was badly damaged by floods on October 25th, 2011, and the town centers in Vernazza and Monterosso in particular were all but washed away. The people of the villages have been working hard to restore it before the summer tourist season, and really this closed path and a couple of fundraising t-shirts were the only signs that a flood had actually hit these areas. It's amazing they've managed to get everything up and running again in a short amount of time, especially when you consider that these little villages are so isolated and so steep to get around, it would have been a massive clean up effort.

The third town, Corniglia, sits atop a big cliff, which means that there is no way but stairs to reach the town when you get off the train. 382 steps later, we had made it. In Corniglia we rewarded ourselves one of the region's most famous products: Pesto. We had a pesto pizza and I have to say, it's probably one of the most underrated pizza toppings... It was the best! We later sampled some gelato, counting down how many we would have left in our last few days in Italy. I am happy to report gelato was the cheapest we have seen in Cinque Terre, which it possible to go from a daily shared cup between us, to twice daily treat on our last two days. I'm going to miss gelato....

Afterwards we went straight to the 5th and biggest town, Monterosso, by train and spent the afternoon on the beach. The water was so blue here, and the sea is super salty. At about 5pm, big storm clouds started looming, so we took shelter in a bar overlooking the beach that served happy hour cocktails with complimentary chips, olives and peanuts when you ordered. That's about when the rain started to set in....

On our next and final day, we woke to grey skies but thankfully no rain. We took advantage of the cooler weather and decided to try one of the hikes in the area. We got the train to Corneglia, walked up those 382 steps again, and then took the hike from there to the next town, Vernazza. It was 4km up through the hills and at times some very steep steps, and we soon realized why the sign said this was the 'wildest of the walks'- it felt like you were actually walking through a jungle in some places. The views over the town were amazing from the hills though, and we were glad we got to make it to Vernazza without getting rained on (I would not want to be on those steep,slippery steps of the hills in the rain!).

In Vernazza we sampled some of the local seafood that was in abundance in the area, and had takeaway of fried calamari, vegetables and chips. By this stage it was late afternoon and the weather didn't look too promising, so we didn't want to attempt the next hike and caught between two villages. We got the train back to Riomaggiore and ended our time in the Cinque Terre with cheap beers on the rocks to watch the sunset (or at least, what you could see through the clouds), and then we had our last Italian feast. We had a little 'pesto festo', and between us shared a big pesto pizza with ham and mushrooms, and a special type of pasta typical to the area called something like 'trofuie' i think, home made with a pesto sauce. We sat at the marina with a bottle of red wine and enjoyed our last taste of Italy.

So after nearly a month in Italy (28 days all up), here's some things we've found from our time here:

* It goes without saying, but Italian food is truly amazing! I am so glad we got to sample this as our first leg of our European trip. But I have also found that Italians eat a ridiculous amount (to put it in perspective, whenever we would got out, we would order pasta or something from the 'prima piatto' menu for about €8... This is just an ENTREE in the Italian way of life!) Yet surprisingly, you don't see too many young Italians who are overweight. Valentina explained it that 'Italians eat healthy, and all the food they cook is fresh; unlike Americans who eat a big greasy hamburger for dinner, we cook with lots of fresh produce'. I guess they don't have the same worries about carbs as us then....

* Alcohol is cheap compared to home, and there doesn't seem to be a legal drinking age. Italians grow up with wine as part of their culture, and children are encouraged to drink a little from a younger age. They seem more responsible with their alcohol here.. Sure, you'd still get people who get completely drunk when they go out, but you can go to a supermarket here and get every type of alcohol imaginable. Back home, if we sold bottles of vodka for €10 (about $12.50), I bet there'd be drunks on the street all day. As for cocktails, we started off thinking €8 was cheap. Now, if anywhere is over €5 (about $6.25), you start to question it. And they don't measure shots out here either, so when you pay your €5, you know you are getting your money's worth.

*On the other hand, water is surprisingly expensive. Italians don't drink tap water, which gives the impression that tap water is not drinkable. We soon worked out they just prefer bottled, and in particular sparkling water, and that the tap water was perfectly fine to drink. In lots of places, they have fountains of water running all day in the town centre, for free, which makes paying for water seem kind of strange. In some supermarkets, a big bottle of water would be about the same price as a bottle of wine!

*I'm glad we don't have to drive around here- petrol is ridiculously expensive at at least €1.80/L ( that's about $2.25/L at home)

*Everyone does the cheek kiss thing when they meet (and I admit, i thought this was something only the French stereotypically did). And I still haven't worked out which way you are meant to go first, leading to some awkward head bumps along the way...

Next up, we are following the coast around to hop over into France, and basing ourselves in Nice. Although the Italian I know is only a tiny amount, it's going to be weird not having ANY clue what people are saying.

Under the Tuscan Sun (for real this time)

After four nights in Firenze, I can safely say I am in love with Tuscany. In our time in Florence we managed to pack in two day trips to the Tuscan countryside, taste some Chianti wine, eat some amazing (and cheap) food and drinks, haggle our way through the leather markets, and even catch a sunset over Florence.

The city itself is really beautiful. Mike and I are amazed how you can travel just two hours in Italy and everything seems different.. Back home two hours will only take you to Sydney, and that's just the same, except with less beaches and a billion tourists. We both agreed that the difference between Florence-Rome is very similar to what Kyoto is to Tokyo- a more relaxed, cultural place rather than a bustling city.

SIGHTS
On our first full day, we tried to pack in as many of the main sights as possible- we walked to the Duomo, took photos of the really awesome architecture (one of the most impressive churches we have seen so far), and then managed to snag it in line to the cupola at a pretty quiet time, and got in within 10 minutes. The cupola is the massive dome in the centre of the church, and you can pay to climb up the steeeeeeep spiral staircases (with something like 400 steps) and then eventually you get to the roof and have an amazing view over the centre of Florence. The effort is definitely worth the reward-we were here just when it struck midday and heard the bells of every church in the city chiming at once.

Afterwards we walked and walked and walked until we had basically covered all of the main sights from the outside- we thought Rome was an easy city to get around, but this was even better! We stopped for a well earnt gelato in Piazza di Signoria, where there is also a replica of Michelangelo's David. After weighing up the 'cost vs are we actually that interested in art' scenario, we decided to skip the galleries and spend our money elsewhere- the Uffizi (a €19 entrance fee) required advanced reservations and a lot of time to appreciate it all; while the Accademia gallery's most famous possession is the real statue of David, and considering that's all we wanted to see, we were happy to track down the two fakes in Piazza di Signoria and Piazzale Michelanglo. We wondered how many tourists took photos of these replicas, thinking they were the real David?

We finished the day off by walking over the Ponte Vecchio (the only bridge the Nazis didn't bomb in WWII) to catch a sunset over at Piazzale Michelangelo. Though it was a bit of an uphill walk to make it there, this was definitely one of the highlights for me. We took up a nice and tasty €2 bottle of red and just sat for about 3 hours taking on the view. There was also a busker putting on a concert on the steps, so wine, views and entertainment all for just €2.

PISA & LUCCA DAYTRIP
On our second day we decided to navigate the Italian rail system and take a train to the small walled village of Lucca. Once we realized that all trains bypassed Pisa on the way, it was hard to pass up the opportunity to be ultimate tourists and take a photo with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. See proof:

The tower was cool to see on such a lean, but the best bit was watching everyone try and line up their photos and try different poses. I remember I saw something on the Internet once (see above) that had a picture of people in front of the tower, and the lyrics to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' underneath it, because when everyone is pulling the same pose it looks like they are doing the zombie-inspired dance from the film clip. After seeing it first hand, I couldn't agree more, and much to Mike's pleasure, I couldn't get Thriller out of my head while we there. Lucky Mike.

Lucca itself was a great afternoon. It's a tiny city that still has walls surrounding it from medieval times, and around the top of the wall is this beautiful path that circles the town. We hired bikes when we got off the train and rode through the streets (which was good because there weren't too many people, as I realised my people dodging skills aren't that good on a bike), and rode the ring around the top of the city as well.

CHIANTI WINE TOUR
No trip to Tuscany would be complete without trying the wine which the region is famous for: Chianti. Since we saved on gallery entrance fees, we put a little money towards an afternoon tour through the Tuscan countryside to a Chianti vineyard. We were a little bit skeptical about what sort of crowd we would be joining (and admittedly when we arrived, the average age looked about double our age) but as more people joined it didn't seem like a bus full of geriatrics. Phew. We toured through the small country towns of Monteriggioni and Castellina on our way to get a taste of 'typical Tuscan life', and then we arrived at Sant' Appiamo vineyard. I have only recently (as in, in the last month) begun to get the taste for red wine, and luckily, because Chianti vineyards produce a particular type of grape that is used only to make red wines. We had a taste of about 4 wines with some bruschetta, meats and an olive oil produced by the winery, and I have to say I definitely like the reds now!

SHOPPING
Piazza di Mercato Centrale: an entire area of Florence dedicated to leather. Shopping in Florence was by far the best looking variety that we have seen in Italy- all the big brands on the main streets, some nice looking little boutiques that were out of backpacker-budget, and a whole area devoted to leather goods. After one day scoping out the markets, on our last morning we decided to try our luck haggling for some leather goods. We were originally looking for a bag Mike's sister was after, but I soon caved and found one that I wanted as well. The markets were quite strange- 90% of the stall owners were from Bangladesh, and the little Italian I was using ("quanto costa"- how much; "sto solo guardo"- I'm just looking, and "e troppo caro"- that's too expensive) soon became redundant when I realised they couldn't speak much more Italian than I could. Mike managed to make it through the shopping alive, and eventually we bought two leather handbags from an Italian that seemed the most genuine and his bags looked the best. At €55 he wasn't going to budge any more, and was quite adamant that 'if you want to save €5, go buy off a Bangladeshi guy', so we gave up haggling and just paid that much. I was happy, because I got a nice new bag.. ( and Alex, yours will get home eventually!).

FOOD, NIGHTS & EVERYTHING ELSE
Shopping and sights aside, one of the best finds in Florence was food. We had some of the tastiest gnocchi so far in a place our hostel/b&b owner recommended, and one of the best gelato flavours ever:one ice cream containing pear, mascarpone & nutella! But our best food buy was following the Italian tradition of aperitif: you go to a bar and pay for one drink, and then you get unlimited access to a buffet of fresh Italian food. We found a place called Kitsch, where we got cocktails for €8.50 and a ridiculous amount of good food- there was not a single soggy sandwich or stingy portion in sight. There were two tables of fresh food (hot and cold salads, pastas, bruschetta, chicken, risotto, and my favourite- roasted eggplant and mushrooms), as well as fresh fruit and gelato to top it off. It was the best value we have gotten so far in Italy, and we walked out feeling full all for the price of one drink.

After four nights our time in Florence came to an end, and now we are on to our last stop in Italy: Cinque Terre.