Friday, September 09, 2005

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre was of course wonderful. We found so many people from Syracuse there, or people from California studying in Milan – as the guys behind me at the bar said, there were more American girls there than there were in America. But Monterosso was beautiful, and there is no one I would have rather spent that time with than Kristen, Tina and Amanda.

Immediately after arriving we found and rented a rather large apartment for $30 euro each, which we still can’t believe was so easy. Kristen Tina and I hiked the 2-3 mile trail between Monterosso and Vernazza in flip flops (enduring many rather condescending comments from passing English or English-speaking travelers) in good time, taking some delirious pictures along the way. In Vernazza we ate some much needed gelato before continuing on to Corniglia, a small middle town only accessible by long flights of stairs or by a bus which runs back and forth from the train station every half hour.

After returning back to our apartment and freshening up we headed out to the pier to drink a bottle of Cinque Terre white wine while watching the last of the sun retreat behind the cliffs to the west. Dinner was delicious; we all ordered things accented with pesto (a sauce originally created in the region) and we were certainly not disappointed.

We called a friend we knew to be staying at the island and met up with him and his friends at a bar. There we found (along with hundreds of other people we knew) Maggie Nick and Craig, to whom we spoke to for most of the remainder of the night. Around 2, deserted by everyone else and waiting for Nick and Craig to return from their room, Kristen and I sat on a door stoop as the bar closed down, pretending we spoke Chinese to deter the drunken advances of the emerging Italians: it worked brilliantly.

Today was spent mostly hung over, wandering all over Monterosso, sitting down in different places for forty five minute intervals. Not altogether regrettable, but I’m beginning to realize that, as much as I enjoy it, it is simply impossible to drink only wine all night and not suffer any consequences the next day. Che brutta!

Of course there is always more to say but I’m deliriously exhausted; there will be more later.

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