Let me get you some wine: Cinque Terre

Post date: Sep 26, 2017 9:30:12 PM

After the Milan failure, Penny and I vowed to do Italy again, correctly this time. I had my eyes set on Cinque Terre, and flights to Pisa were cheap for both of us. So Penny and I packed our bags and headed to the 5 lands.

The great thing about Cinque Terre is that the towns are all really close, and are set in a National Park. It’s known for the hiking and the epic views. Penny and I will remember it for the wine and the delicious pasta.

We stayed in Riomaggiore, the furthest south, at a delightful little hostel. It wasn’t a proper hostel, as much as it was a apartment with a lot of beds in it. With a patio, in an excellent location.

The other thing that Cinque Terre is known for is the stunning towns. They are perched on the side of cliffs, on the edge of beautiful water. The buildings are very colorful, the hillside is covered with grape vines. It’s so stereotypically Italy, it’s beyond words.

It also has lovely beaches, and are the only “sandy beaches” in Cinque Terre. Don’t get me wrong, each village has a way to lay about by the sea, but these were the only traditional looking beaches.

Like the majority of tourists, we came dressed like we were hiking. We weren’t as hardcore as the people with the hiking poles, we were more like “athleisure people” but we were definitely with the “hiking Cinque Terre” people. However, like most of the hikers, we had no idea what we were doing. And I did research! But I was banking on getting there and the thousands of trails being immediately obvious to us. They were not.

So we did the only thing sensible. Walked into a souvenir-like shop on the beach, and asked the lady there if she knew anything about hiking. She sent us up the hill to a church, and told us we could walk from there to Vernazza.

Our friend Google told us that it was a 1.5 hour hike uphill to the church. We found (what I imagine) is the only taxi in Cinque Terre to take us up the hill in a fraction of the time.

In addition to being more convenient, the taxi ride was one of the most amazing parts of the trip. Not only was he playing Italian music the whole way, as he was winding around tiny mountain roads like a maniac, but he was singing along. Did I mention he was a redhead? A redheaded Italian named Luigi. I can’t make this up.

How do I know his name is Luigi? He showed us the inside of the church. His great grandfather painted the ceiling of the church. The redheaded guy in the painting is his grandfather. Also named Luigi. His son? Name Luigi. He said that he will live on in Cinque Terre forever. There will always be a Luigi.

Anyway! We hiked from the cool church and kept enjoying views like this.

It was a 3 hour walk, most of which was downhill (Penny commented that she might have liked hiking sticks. She hasn’t hiked enough to know if she’s a hiking with sticks person. I have, I’m not a hiking with sticks person).

The best part? We totally avoided the crowds. We saw maybe 20 people the whole hike. No, I take that back, hiking down hill was definitely the best part. Hiking that trail uphill would have been terrible.

In one of the vineyards on the hike. I thought it looked like a cool wine roller coaster, but Penny informed me it was probably just for carrying the wine up the hill. We didn’t see it in action, so it could go either way.

After the hike, we were both starving (we brought no food and not very much water)(because we were prepared hikers, although without hiking sticks). Penny requested “a place with great food that was cheap and with a great view”. I told her all three were likely going to be impossible, but we yelped it. And we found this place.

Yes, that was our view for a leisurely multi-hour lunch.

The food was so good I stopped and put my fork down after the first bite. It was life changing.

After lunch we headed back to Riomaggiore for a relaxing afternoon, before heading to the coast to watch the sunset.

But, because we are in Italy, we needed to enjoy this sunset with a glass of wine. Luckily there was a cafe right on the water perfectly positioned to enjoy both the great sunset and the local italian wine.

Fun fact, Cinque Terre is a DOC area. So everywhere we went we’d ask for recommendations on which local wine to try and EVERYONE we asked knew someone who had made one of the wines on the menu. There was no correlation between wines suggested and price (you better believe I checked), so it’s unlikely the were up selling the wine. An alternative hypothesis is that Cinque Terre has a small enough population size that everyone really is one degree of separation from a wine maker.

Please note, Penny kept jumping up to take more photos of the sunset, but it was because it kept getting prettier and prettier. It was amazing.

The next day we planned to see the last two towns, starting with Corniglia. Corniglia is located on the top of a cliff, and takes 364 steps to reach the town. I was no longer wearing athleisure but had instead changed into a dress that was “instagrammable as fuck” (Please note, while I had it in mind to look awesome and feel luxurious on vacation, I haven’t been on instagram since 2011). It wasn’t the best “hike up a lot of steps” outfit, but I kept going with the knowledge that there was pasta and wine at the top.

And we were rewarded for our efforts. I meant to take a photo of the very tasty focaccia we ate, but unfortunately after our epic stair walk we devoured our second breakfast. I might need to start working out.

Unlike Saturday, Sunday was a windy day and the waves reflected the change in air movement. And so they featured prominently in our conversations.

After walking around town and viewing the the huge waves crashing against epic cliffs (I really like Cinque Terre) we needed to refreshments. Which had to be carried down the intensely steep flight of stairs.

We planned to only get wine but the table next to us got this bruschetta and it smelled so good we couldn’t focus on whatever the hell we were talking about. So we had to get some. How do Italians take such simple ingredients and make magic?

We rounded out the five towns by a visit to Manarola.

The water was epic. During my MS we used to go to minor league hockey games. Between periods we would try to chat, but inevitably we would stare at the zamboni as it made the ice perfect again. We coined it “the Zamboni Effect”. Watching waves is very similar to that. Hence all the wave photos in lieu of commentary.

On the way back to Riomaggiore, the train was very delayed. But this was the view from the platform. Not a bad place to wait.

Penny thought so too.

As apparently, did I.

Final night, final sunset. The waves made the light look even more epic.

I commented to Penny early in the trip that I’m fascinated by the color of water. She commented that the color of water never changes, it’s just clear. I disagree (although fundamentally she is correct, the poetic interpretation of the moment is better if you can discuss the variation. JUST SAYING)

We headed back to Pisa for a hot second before our flights left that evening. Turns out there isn’t much in Pisa but this tower.

Penny went to help hold it up, but this guy decided that he wanted a different photo.

Don’t worry, Penny still did her part to hold up the tower! What did that guy know anyway…

It was HILARIOUS watching everyone lining up to take a similar photo. This couple next to us, the husband kept yelling at his wife that she was doing it wrong. There were strong words said on both sides. Luckily, Jordan is obsessed with photos like these (like in Paris, and at Stone Henge), so I know how to get a good photo.

As we round out our year of travel (new place every month), this trip is definitely one to remember. Mostly the food. And the wine. But seriously, the food.