Cinque Terre

Today we had breakfast at 9:00 and drove about an hour to the villages that make up Cinque Terre. We parked the buses just outside of the village of Manarola. We walked into the town and began to make our way on the walk path along the coast that connects all 5 of the villages together (the only way to reach the towns is by boat, train, or on foot). Before we could get anywhere, there was a sign that said the walkway had been closed due to dangerous conditions. That messed up the entire day’s plans, so we all had to wait a while as our trip coordinators, Doris and Eva figured out what to do next. We ended up taking a boat to the village of Vernazza. The boat ride was nice though and when we got out we had free time for 2 ½ hours. Crash, Johnny, Sam, Izzie, and I tried to hike from the opposite direction to the town of Cornigilia we overshot with the boat, but it would have cost us extra money, so we decided stay put. Instead, we walked to the rocky beach that was on the other side of the docks. It was surrounded on all sides by cliffs and rocks jutting out into the sea. We stayed there for a while because it was such a great atmosphere. After that we were all really hungry, so we got some cheap pizzas for lunch. The pizzas tasted amazing, and we felt a lot better afterwards. We went on one last trek in the town up the hillside and got a great view of the town, the hills, the docks, and the sea. It was already the late afternoon, so we took the train back to the first town and loaded the buses. It was a little disappointing we couldn’t see any of the other villages, but I hope to some other day. In the evening we had dinner and then went swimming on the beach again. There were a lot of jellyfish and the waves were pretty big, so I didn’t go out far or stay in long, but it feels good to swim every chance I get!