Pictures... FINALLY

It only took me two months, but here are some of the better photos,from this amazing trip... wish I were back there already!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephhendricks/

Monday - Winding Down.

Wow, my last day in Italy is already here. I wish I could add on some fantastic, last-minute adventure, but today was fairly quiet. The plan was to go back to Vernazza, since I didn't have time to see much of anything yesterday, except the long flight of stairs that hurt every muscle in my butt on the climb down from town.

I took the boat over in the morning and wandered around for a while. The harbor is great for both boat and people watching, but the light drizzle that I was doing a pretty good job of ignoring turned into outright rain, and I didn't have my umbrella with me. This tends to make beachy tourist towns lose some of their charm, so I headed back to Monterosso after lunch, thinking I would catch an earlier train to Milan.

NO SUCH LUCK. All the trains were sold out, so after collecting my luggage from the hotel, I ended up with several hours to kill waiting for a 5:30 train. Luckily, the train stazione is right on the beach, along with several bars and cafes, so I happily passed the time with a couple of glasses of wine and a book.

Sidebar here... once when I first moved to DC and had gone up to Baltimore to meet my friend Karen who was there overnight for her work, I accidentally got on the wrong train to come home and ended up in Wilmington instead of DC. Ever since then, I'm a little freaky about worrying whether or not I'm on the right train...

But here in Italy, it's been pretty easy so far, and I'm in vacation mind-mode, so I didn't really look at what the stops along the way would be, and I didn't have a map with me. Just get on the train with the sign to Milano and get off once I'm there, how hard can that be? I thought the train ride was about three hours long, but my ticket did not have an arrival time. So three hours later, I'm getting a little nervous because I see countryside, not city out of the window. I get more nervous as the next few stops remain pretty rural. But I'm too embarrassed to ask THREE HOURS IN if I'm on the wrong train! What am I going to do if I'm on a train to Venice or something? I'll just wait until the next decent-size town and get off, and hope like hell that I can somehow make it to Milan for the flight home tomorrow.

Eventually, I hear the Italian woman in the next row talking on her cell phone and made out "going to Milano" so I relaxed a bit, although true relief didn't come until I saw the first city, Turns out that Milan was three hours and 55 minutes away, and of course I was on the correct train.

I'm just weird, that's all.

Sunday – Strikes and Hikes.

Today was my day to explore the Cinque Terre. That literally means “five lands” – the five towns that are connected by an 11-km hiking trail and preserved as a national park and a UNESCO world heritage site.

There are several ways to get around the towns. There is a small train that runs between each one, buses, a ferry boat, and on foot. But it turns out that the trains were on strike for the day (evidently a frequent occurrence), and that for some reason, this meant that there were no buses either. I’m not sure about the logic on that one, unless it was some sort of sympathy vote.

So I got my boat pass and took the ferry to the southernmost town, Riomaggiore, to start my day. The town was cute, and I wandered around for a bit, then started on the first pathway. This one is called the “via dell’amore” (lover’s walk), and it was paved and relatively flat. I got into Manarola (also cute) and thought, hey, no problem! But I had a decision to make. Corniglia, the third town, was farther away and more of a climb, although it seemed easily doable. But, that is the only town without a port, so the boat didn’t stop there. If I continued on foot, I would also have to hike to Vernazza, which is the highest climb.

What the hell. Armed with a picnic lunch, (foccacia, which was invented nearby, as were pesto and limoncello), I set off. The hike was a little steep to start, and the pathways WERE kind of narrow and rocky, but it wasn’t that bad, and the views were incredible. On the way, I ran into the Australian couple I met on the train from Pisa, who were coming in the opposite direction. They looked pretty winded, and said that it had been really steep.

At Corniglia, the first real hurdle appeared. The guidebooks I had read on the area all made it sound like actually going up into Corniglia was optional, but unfortunately, the beach-and-tunnel shortcut was closed.

So it was up HUNDREDS, LITERALLY HUNDREDS of stairs into town. Now y’all know that I’m not really a stairmaster champion sort of girl, so I was sweaty and gasping by the time I hit the top (but so was everyone else, so it didn’t seem as bad). I wandered the town for a bit, and recharged with an orange granita. I decided to attempt the hike to Vernazza instead of turning back to Manarola (the easy option). This stretch is the longest and highest part of the hike.

I DID IT… I thought I was going to die at a couple of points, it was rocky, narrow (just don’t look down and oh god why did I think this was a good idea?) and really, REALLY steep. But the views were INCREDIBLE, and I was ridiculously proud of myself for making it without passing out, twisting my ankle or falling on my ass (or any combination of the above).

But not so proud that I was foolish enough to attempt the hike from Vernazza to Monterosso, which is not quite as high as the one I did, but evidently has parts that are much more steep (what, vertical?!?!). I decided that 8 km was ENOUGH hiking for one day, so I caught the last boat back to Monterosso, where I treated myself to an extra glass of wine and TWO scoops of gelato after dinner at an adorable bar/restaurant right on the beach.

The pictures above show Monterosso coming in on the boat, PART of the area I hiked (the town in the distance is Manarola, with Corniglia in the middle, this was about halfway to Vernazza), and a section of the trail (actually a smooth part).

Saturday - Destination Mediterranean

This morning, I finally got rid of the car, and I am extremely proud of the fact that I only made ONE wrong turn getting into Florence, and made it to the Hertz office on time with the help of a nice gas station attendant and a little dumb luck.

Trains were easy – Florence to Pisa, then Pisa to Cinque Terre. I actually thought I would have to switch trains once more to get the small local train, but it turned out the larger train did stop in Monterosso (the town where I am staying). I had actually only bought the ticket to La Spezia, but since Monterosso was just one stop away, I decided to just stay on the train and play Dumb Blonde American if anyone said anything. But since I have yet to see a conductor on an Italian train or get asked for a ticket, it seemed like a safe bet, which it was.

I’ve walked around a little bit. This is supposedly the most resort-ish of the five towns. Lots of touristy places, but a pretty walk by the sea. The weather has turned sunny again, which is great because this is the view of the Mediterranean from out of my new window...

Friday - Arrivaderci Toscana.

Spent my last day in Tuscany sleeping late, then visiting the two small towns closest to my hotel (Radda and Castellina). It was raining again, so kept things fairly quiet. More gorgeous scenery, more quaint churches. I’ve done my towns largest to smallest, and they just get more and more quaint.

Finished up my last night in Tuscany with another great dinner at the hotel, and got into a conversation with Vincenzo, the estate manager, on the way out – he knew I was leaving the next morning and hadn’t done a wine tasting yet, so I got my own personal one. The guy has a doctorate degree in wine (no kidding, you can get that here!), and let me taste several of the wines that the family makes in Tuscany and outside of Venice.

Very dangerous, as I am now having several bottles shipped back to the States. I think the shipping costs more than the actual wine, but I’ve just quit worrying about stuff like that and will deal with the shock when my Visa bill comes in. So the next people to come to dinner at my house will get some amazing Chianti, as well as the best prosecco I’ve ever had. As Vincenzo noted… “you LIKE-a the bubbles!”

Thursday - Wine and No Sunshine

San Gimignano today was a smaller version of Siena – storybook pretty, with lots of cute little shops, narrow stone streets, and a stunning cathedral. Even the small-town churches here are incredibly ornate and detailed. Then you stop and think when they tell you it was built in the 12th century…

It rained off and on today, which was actually a nice change – it’s been hot and sunny since I’ve been here. The cooler weather made it perfect for a bowl of ribollita at lunch (tuscan vegetable soup with bread boiled into it to make it thick). The food on this trip has, of course, been incredible. And I already think it’s going to be hard to kick my new afternoon gelato habit. Today’s gelateria had a sign outside proclaiming it the "world champion" of gelato for 2006 and 2007. I’m not sure who judges that, but it WAS the best ice cream I have ever tasted. I got the dark chocolate with orange. OH MY GOD was it ever good!

I think tonight, I’m going to try the enoteca (restaurant) that is just down the road from the relais. The hotel has it’s own enoteca, which serves traditional food, and it’s been really good so far. But it’s still raining, and there is no way in hell I’m driving on ridiculously curvy WET roads in the DARK.

Late update: add to the list of great foods I’ve had in Italy… pasta with wild boar cooked in wine. The restaurant down the road was completely charming, although I’m noticing a definite trend with Italian waiters. Unlike Americans, they don’t try to hurry you out ot the restaurant, so they can seat the next party. Eating dinner before 8:00 seems to be considered tacky here, and once you get in, you are at the table for the night. Waiters definitely don’t have any conception of THE LOOK that usually works to get someone to your table to take your order, bring you more wine, bring the check, or just bring the next freaking course already because I finished my appetizer a half an hour ago. It’s just a more relaxed way of enjoying your meal, and it works for me most of the time. But at quarter to 11 tonight, I really just wanted il condo, per favore (the bill please).

By the way, I have succumbed to the lure of Italian leather. I’ve been trying to be good, but the pewter peep-toe slingbacks got me a few days ago, and I was ensnared by a green suede hobo yesterday. I had intended to buy lots of Sienese pottery for all my friends, but two problems quickly appeared… it costs way more than I thought to get anything that doesn’t look like it was painted by a marginally talented kindergarten student… and, if I do buy it, I’ve got to pay to ship it back to the states and hope it doesn’t arrive shattered. I think I’m going to have the same problem when I talk to the guy in the hotel’s wine shop…

Wednesday - Under the Tuscan Sun

I haven’t had much luck getting Internet access here in Tuscany, so sorry these postings are so sporadic. If I have some solid online time soon, I’m going to post some of the pictures I’ve taken to Flickr. If not, I’ll do that when I get home.

The last couple of days, I’ve been driving around and checking out some of the towns. Siena yesterday, and San Gimignano tomorrow. Each are about 20-30 km from my relais (just a fancy word for country hotel). The drives are incredible. The roads are ridiculously narrow and twisty, up and down the mountains, and each turn gives you a view more breathtaking than the one before. Green fields and vineyards covering the hills, with red-roofed stone houses or churches off in the distance, and yellow, red and puple wildflowers all around.

I could stop a million times and take pictures, except for the fact that there are very few places to pull off onto the side of the road, except for driveways or dirt roads, and I don’t think my gold AAA membership would cover the tow out here! As well, I’m in the land of tiny little cars, and yet what am I driving? A big-ass station wagon that was the only thing available with automatic transmission. Now DID not seem like the appropriate time to learn to drive a stick!

The relais is part of a wine property owned by an evidently well-known winemaking family from Venice. They make sangiovese, chianti and olive oil here, and other wines in Venice. It’s incredibly remote and peaceful.

Last night I curled up in bed with a book, with the French doors open to my little stone patio, just me and the owl in the tree nearby. I’ve barely looked at a clock since I’ve been here (there isn’t even one in my room), and the only TV I’ve seen is CNN international, since that is the only English-language channel on my television.

The pics here are from Siena...