The next stop in our journey is the Cinque Terre. This morning, we had to find our way OUT of Venice (literally...had to get off the island!). We managed to take a water taxi from right outside our hotel to the bus station. Then we had to weave our way through all the buses (with luggage!) to find the one that was headed to the airport (and where we would pick up our rental car). We finally made it! Not too bad. Getting the car took quite a while, but then we were off. We picked up a road map of Northern Italy and hit the road. Although we can both drive stick shift (and were planning on it), they were out of stick shift cars so we actually got a free upgrade to automatic! We quickly learned just how crazy it was to be driving in Italy! At least they drive on the right side of the street.
We didn't have directions really, but knew the general direction and the town(s) we planned to stop in. Our first stop, about an hour and a half away was in Verona, Italy, home to "Juliet's balcony." The town itself was pretty cute, though we weren't there too long. When we reached the balcony made famous by Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, it was CRAZY! Of course, there is a lot of speculation whether or not there ever was a Juliet Capulet, but the town was home to many cap makers, whose name would have been "Capulet." There were people packed shoulder to shoulder, just trying to get a look at the balcony. Some paid the money to climb up it and take their pictures. We just took a few obligatory pictures, including me fondling (ok, rubbing for good luck) Juliet's breast. There were also thousands of locks (similar to luggage locks) attached to the wall behind the statue. I'm not sure the relevance of these. I had hoped to go upstairs in the embroidery shop to see the place where volunteers answer letters to Juliet (Juliet Club), but it was so crazy we just made our way out as quickly as we came in. I still am glad we went, but it was totally pointless and annoying to Joe:)
random photo...but what a GREAT idea for a parking garage!! Green lights indicate available spots so you can just glance down the row....duh!
the colosseum in Verona (like a mini Roman one!)
After a quick bite to eat, we headed out in the direction on Modena. We were warned by our server that there are a LOT of trucks on the road to Modena so to be careful. I guess we were being too careful because we were so focused on this that we didn't realize that we were supposed to turn. (ok, Italian roads make NO sense....we were on the A1, which is what we were supposed to take all the way out toward the Cinque Terre....so who would have thought we would have to turn....but they mark all their roads by cities, not numbers....) Anyways, we were driving along, enjoying the changing scenery. We had started getting into the mountains and were driving through lots of tunnels and a lot of up/down. It was exciting since the rest of our time in Italy thus far had been very different. I had pulled out a guide book, just reading about the area that we were supposed to be in, but paused when it kept talking about the area being very flat...hmmm....something didn't add up. Finally, I realized that we were going in the complete opposite direction!!!! Ok, we'll just turn around and it will only be a slight detour right? Well....Italy's autostradas (highways) aren't like ours. They have rest areas about every 2 km or so, but you can't change direction! We stopped at one such area and drove around, trying to find out how to go the other direction. Then we tried asking a couple people who really didn't speak English. Finally one guy spoke enough to understand what I was saying and sort of laughed and pointed in the direction we had been heading. Basically, there was no turning around until the next big town...only 20 km outside of Florence (remember, we had been there before Venice...it was certainly NOT the place we wanted to be!!!) But we had no choice but to carry on....
At the next possible exit, we got off. Now, the way their tollways work is that when you first enter, you get a ticket (sort of like a parking ticket) and when you exit, you insert the ticket and pay the very steep toll. Well, we didn't really know...and we got off and tried to insert the ticket but it kept refusing it. Finally, there was a "call for help" button, but of course the guy working the toll booth didn't speak a word of English, so he kept yelling things that WE couldn't understand. It's all very frustrating, especially when you have someone behind you and can't go forward or backward! Finally, the guy behind us got off his motorcycle and tried to help. He also didn't speak English but kept pointing to his ticket. Apparently we had the wrong ticket (we realized later that it was the parking ticket from Verona...oops!) and he was trying to talk to the guy at the toll booth. Eventually, a ticket spit out for us and the arm raised. We didn't really understand, but the ticket appeared to be an "unpaid toll" ticket that we could pay online. Unfortunately, there would be a steep fine. We searched and searched the car and FINALLY found the right ticket, but didn't really know what to do about it. What an expensive wrong turn!
Anyways, we got our bearings and headed back and hour toward where we came from (all in all, the detour probably cost us close to 2 hours:( The guy renting us the apartment in Riomaggiore had said to call when we got to the town of La Spezia (about 15 min from our destination). I had originally given him a rough estimate of our arrival time. Now, it was obviously going to be much later. I tried calling and he said he had to leave by 8 so we had to be there by then. Otherwise, we'd have to find the apt ourselves and he would leave the key. So we were nervous about this. We said we'd call as we got closer. Finally, we made it to La Spezia and we knew the end of this REALLY long day of driving was in sight! But when I tried to call him, I kept getting a message (I didn't know what it said, of course!) I kept trying and trying but couldn't get through. This was a huge problem since we didn't even have an address of the apartment or anything or know where to meet this guy. We kept driving into Riomaggiore and then stopped at a bar/store where I was able to find enough people who spoke English/Italian to figure it all out. One guy tried calling our host on his own phone and got through and tried to figure out where we were supposed to meet. Then the owner said he would drive us there himself and we should follow! So nice. We meant to go back for some coffee on our way out of town but the store wasn't open yet. Eventually, we met up with our host and made our way to the apartment.
All the towns in the Cinque Terre are small, quaint fishing villages set right on the Ligurian Sea. They are built right into the hillside, so getting to our actual apartment required a lot of lugging suitcases uphill and up/down a lot of steps! But the place was nice and had a nice view of the sea from the balcony. Unfortunately, it was right overlooking the one main street so it was a bit loud at times, but we'll take it:) What a way to spend our anniversary! We made the most of it by heading down towards the sea and finding a nice place to eat, overlooking the water. When we got back, we relaxed a bit on the balcony and soaked up the beautiful life. This was when Joe "re-proposed" to me with a new ring (and also when I laughed at him, thinking he was kidding...oops!) Despite the long, tiring, frustrating day, it was quite a place to spend our 10th anniversary with the man I love:)
Views from our apartment...
Down by the sea...
Day 12- July 26
Today we were up early to get a jump start on our hike through the 5 villages. The hike between the villages is along an old goat path that has been "commercialized" by the addition of a "National Park" that charges admission to the trails now. Oh well... Due to some recent floods and landslides, the paths between 2 of the towns were closed (we now realize this was a blessing! There was NO WAY we could have managed 4 hikes!) so we took a train from Riomaggiore 2 towns over to Corniglia, which is the town set up amongst the cliffs. To reach the START of the trail, we had to hike way, way up! Then it was about a hour and a half hike to the next town of Vernazza. The trail was moderately strenuous, but really beautiful. We stopped for about 45 minutes to look around the tiny town of Vernazza before continuing on to Monterosso.
This is just the walk from the train station to the town of Corniglia...
up, up, up we go...
The actual trail begins...Corniglia-Vernazza
Our 1st destination-Vernazza
while we sat and rested, we were entertained by 2 Italian men, one older gentleman who was driving this tiny "truck" and a young guy, whose greatest pleasure was playing tricks on the older man by lifting up the truck or holding onto it so he couldn't drive away:)
that's where we're headed!
well, what goes up must come down...and down....and down....
After a very strenuous, long and HOT day of hiking, we made it!! This is the path leading into Monterosso.
After lunch, we enjoyed a nice, leisurely swim in the Ligurian Sea!
Then we hopped on a ferry for the ride back to the Southernmost of the 5 villages.We were thankful to rest our legs and enjoyed some breathtaking views of all 5 villages (and the trails we walked!)
We enjoyed one last dinner along the sea on our last night in this beautiful place!
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