Furman University Journals

   I looked outside my window, and my eyes met the gorgeous blue Tuscan sky.  I'm from Tennessee, so I'm used to beautiful fall foliage, but I must say that fall in Tuscany beats anything I've seen thus far.  November was a busy month; we went to Milano as a group, followed right after by a quick trip to Bergamo and Lake Como for my birthday.  I must say, it's a hard life!  You'd think I'd want a quiet weekend in Arezzo, but I soon realized that the beach was calling my name.  After finding cheap tickets to Cinqueterre, Laura Schoonmaker, Jay Daniel (a theatre student), and I hopped a northbound train on December 1st to find good hiking and crystal blue waters! 

   Cinqueterre is on the Mediterranean coast of Italia, and literally means "five lands."  Some of the most beautiful hiking in the country is there, and they are known for their pesto.  Those two reasons alone were enough to spark our interests.  Though Cinqueterre is popular with tourists, we clearly went in the off-season; therefore, I found an apartment for 17 euros a person per night!  The apartment was completely precious, and so was our landlord.  After stepping off the train and being greeted by rocky coastlines, waves, and PERFECT weather, we traipsed up the road of Riomaggiore--the first city in a string of five--to find our apartment, "La Dolce Vita."  Inside we met our elderly landlord, who preferred to  speak only Italian, to get the key.  Thank goodness for all of those Italian classes and walks into the center of Arezzo!  We checked out the rooms, confirmed with the landlord, then set out for the water.  The sunlight was gently peeking through the soft clouds, forming a circle of golden light on the waves.  It was absolutely breathtaking.  Jay immediately ran to climb on the jetty, with Laura and I soon following.  Being the smart one I am, I was wearing a dress and jeans with flipflops--perfect rock climbing wear, right?  I decided to climb the rocks barefoot, which worked out fine until I slipped on some wet moss!  Laura was also unlucky and fell a bit, but we didn't get too wet.  For the longest time, we all just sat on the rocks and watched the sunset in the distance while the spray of the ocean danced around us.  Before the colors completely disappeared, we walked the short trail to the second city--Manarola--for some traditional Cinqueterre pesto.  We returned, exhausted, and soon went to bed.

    The next day, we woke up early to get a head start on the 6-7 hour hike to the fifth city, Monterosso.  The trail begins through the Via dell'Amor, one of the most beautiful places in Italy.  The entire portion of the trail from this point to Manarola is along the coastal cliffs; many small trails break off and lead down to the water.  After about 45 minutes of hiking and a short stop on a playground we found, we faced a problem.  There was a tall iron gate blocking the rest of the path to the third city, Corniglia.  There didn't seem to be a problem with the trail, so Jay decided to crawl through the mud and under the gate to inspect everything while I kept watch for others.  He gave us the go, so Laura and I skeptically wiggled under the gate and ran up the trail to meet him.  We weren't done, though!  We soon met another tall gate topped with spikes near two ladders.  Dirtied from head to toe with mud, we each carefully climbed over the top of the gate and successfully kept from being speared.  Corniglia was our next stop; however, you must climb over 350 stairs to reach this town atop a mountain.  The reward is great, though, because we could see the previous two cities from the center of Corniglia.  In addition, the roads are lined with numerous clementine and lemon trees which starkly contrasted against the rich greens and blues of the mountains.  The salty air greeted us as a warm breeze completed this heavenly view.  We continued on to Vernazza, the fourth city.

   The hike from Corniglia to Vernazza is the second longest hike, but also one of the most interesting.  We came to Cinqueterre just in time for the olive harvest, which happens the last week of November and first week of December.  There were orange nets everywhere, catching stray olive branches, but we saw no harvesters that day due to the rain earlier on in the day.  We suddenly stumbled across a side path that pointed straight down to the beach.  A piece of knotted seat belt material was tied to a tree, leading to another piece of yellow rope further down the drop-off.  Even as I write this, I wish I could somehow convey the steepness of this cliff.  There was nothing to catch us if we would've slipped, with the exception of the rocks below and the fast ocean current.  As I told Laura I wouldn't hike the path too far and mentally made out my will, I inched down the ropes and eventually joined Jay on the narrow dirt path that curved down the mountain and to Guvano Beach.  Guvano was amazing with its black stone beach and roaring waves.  I had already planned to swim in the sea and was wearing my bikini. Remember, it was December 2nd.  Probably temporarily out of our minds, Jay and I  ran for the waves.  I then heard laughing behind us and immediately stopped.  There was a family of bundled up Italians standing on their terrace above the beach, laughing hysterically at our antics.  "Nuotare?" they screamed.  I smiled back, gave a thumbs-up, and yelled back, "SI!"  We dove into the waves, shocked by exactly how cold the water was.  About thirty minutes later, we climbed back up to where Laura sat--cold, wet, but triumphant!

    Cinqueterre was probably my favorite place visited in Italia.  We didn't reach the fifth city, because we got lost in a vineyard for about an hour, but it still turned out to be one of the best and most stunning trips I took.  Just like the rest of my time in Italia, Cinqueterre embodied the adventurous, spontaneous, fulfilling life I learned to live. 

Ciao,

Sarah Martin