Cinque Terra - Cont (Roller Coaster Story)

Ok, so I am not sure if I will be able to adequately describe this so that you get it but I will try because I was shocked, amazed, and frightened.

As we walked through the hills of Cinque Terra we kept seeing this metal rail. Cinque Terra is a region full of both grape and olive vineyards.  Phil thought that the farmers used the rail to attach bags to and send up or down the mountain.  This made sense, but not quite to me because of how close to the ground it was, I thought all the grapes or olives would get smashed against the ground on the way and prove useless in the end. But we kept seeing them everywhere so we knew they had to be for something related to the crop.  Well it turns out this single rail that goes straight up and down the mountain in places, switches back and forth in others, and goes anywhere from 2 to 15 feet off the ground is a trolly system for graps and olives.

The trolly cart pictured below holds a rider and two or more cars full of olives or grapes.  The person who rides this cart has no harness, I didn't even see a seatbelt, and it goes over and through the hillsides in some pretty crazy ways.  So next time instead of great adventure you should consider heading to Cinque Terra for a ride on the trolly.  Phil said that they probably put kids on it when they are really young so that they don't know it is something to be afraid of, I said they probably put old people on it because if they are "lost" they don't lose the healthiest/strongest hands of the young. Either way I would not get on it!

Cinque Terrra

For those of you who don't know once a month in Europe we get a four day weekend, sometimes this is over a holiday and other times it is just for the heck of it. I like to think of it as SLOWLY paying me back for all the weekends, nights etc I didn't get off while deployed. Whatever the reason it is AWESOME especially when in Europe because it makes for the perfect time to go gallivanting.  This past weekend Phil and I went to Cinque Terra.

Cinque Terra is a group of five towns located on the coast of Northern Italy.  So on a hot weekend in June what better to do than go spend some time by the water.  The towns are built on the sides of cliffs and are truly beautiful and amazing especially since interspersed with the towns are equally beautiful and amazing vineyards that are terraced along the hills. 

So after a short 4 hour drive we arrived in Monterosso, the northern most town, on Friday.  We enjoyed a few drinks, a short walk into the old part of town and to the top of a hill, and a lovely dinner on the board walk.  Monterosso is the most developed town of them all and the most tourist packed.  It also has the largest beach areas.  While we stayed in Monterosso we really didn't spend much time there.

On Saturday we woke early and set out to hike from Monterosso to Riomaggari, the southern most town.  We made it to Vernazza without problem after about 1.5 hours.  We were told that the path to Corniglia was closed, we tried it anyway and besides a few OSHA violations it was perfectly fine.  While the rest of the towns terrace down to sea level, Corniglia is situated at the top of the cliffs, so to get there from the Train it is 300 steps up and to get to the water it is 300 steps back down.  Despite adding 600 steps to our journey, we swam there anyway since we had just completed 3 hours of hiking and thought we were through the worst of it.

Then we tried to reach Monarola.  The map again said the trial was closed but we thought we are smarter than the map (the last part was allegedly closed too) so we tried. Well this part unfortunatley really was closed and the detour took us STRAIGHT up to the top of the mountain for over an hour before winding down vineyards on the other side.  It was truly amazing and probably the prettiest part of the whole hike but also the hardest and longest at the hottest part of the day. Luckily we were able to reward ourselves with Gelato and it was only a 20 minute handicap accessible hike to Romaggio where we rewarded ourselves again with an amazing dinner and a train ride back.

(I was so exhausted we didn't take single picture of the hike UP! But here is one of the view from the top -- note the city to the left in the picture is on top of cliffs, so that is how high we were. )







This picture doesn't even begin to describe the beauty and intrigue we saw along the way. Doorways to terraces in the strangest places reminding you of Secret Garden, old rock foot bridges over small gullies, the crazy roller coaster (I will tell that story later) all while surrounded by friendly locals and workers along the route.  All in all it took us from 9am until 6pm to do the whole hike with breaks and exploring included. 

So on Sunday we did a lot of lounging and no hiking! We took the boat down to Rommaggio enjoyed the towns via the sea, then we went to Monterola via train and enjoyed some beach/rock bathing another lovely meal and a train back to Monterosso. Where we sat on the hill of our hotel with some beer and wine and relaxed as we watched the sun set. 

(Picture of Monarola while swimming)

Monday was also pretty lax with a little beach time including some paddle boarding and a train ride to Vernazza for lunch. A short train ride back to Monterosso and some more gelato and we were on our way back to Vicenza.

(Picture from our hotel in Monterosso)

Stay tuned for our next adventure: Paris in July.

Memorial Day Weekend: Salo, Italy

So after a week home on the couch in a neck brace, Phil and I set off on Friday for Lake Garda to meet some friends for the long weekend. The road trip was pretty uneventful until we got there and ended up on city center roads that make Vicenza city center roads look like highways. They were tiny! We eventually found the place and were even able to get our friends there when they showed up at 1 am. The third group showed up on Saturday just in time for a lovely dinner.

We spent the whole weekend, walking the streets of Salo,window shopping, sitting by the pool, eating gelato, and drinking prosecco with some great fellow dark siders (who are all leaving me!).  Salo is a beautiful peaceful lake side town.  It also has many lovely waterfront restaurants and cafes, a large and open market on Saturdays where we bought fresh cheese, meets, and fruit and The Duomo di Santa Maria Annunziata, a beautiful church we visited.  I could sit all day with a bottle (or two) of prosecco and people watch which is what we did for the majority of the trip. 

Salo also has historical significance as it was the headquarters of  the Repubblica di Salò's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (headed by Mussolini). 

The fun part of the weekend was the fact that my friends got exposed to true Italian living. Before I got here I was told everything in Italy is slow and I thought, no big deal we were coming from Hawaii where everything runs on Island time. I was also told that everything in Italy is just a little bit off or different. Well, we quickly learned this all to be true.

Within the first month of moving into our house, we had no hot water on at least 3 occasions, we blew the electricity (which we still do on a regular basis), and we flooded our kitchen twice.  We have "figured" out the water situation (knock on wood) but as indicated the electricity well we chalk it up to being in Italy. Also you may recall that it took me about three months to fully understand how to work our oven.

You are probably thinking wow what a tangent... but no this is relevant because on Saturday morning when we all wake up to take showers etc, there is no hot water. Phil and I work our magic and knowledge of Italian water heaters and get it to work in our apartment but the other apartment is no as successful. No big deal everyone showers in our place. The landlord comes and fixes the water sometime while we are out on Saturday and in the evening all is well.  In the morning - a different story - this time the second apartment has no hot water and no electricity. Landlord comes again to fix it, it works one minute and it is out the next. So Monday morning comes and we are all getting ready to go home and once again the second apartment has no hot water and no electricity and the hot water stops working in our apartment, but we got it working again. In addition to all this, our stove worked, but our oven didn't and we couldn't figure out how to work the dishwasher either.  

The moral of the story is while others were getting frustrated I just thought allora welcome to Italy and laughed thinking about our first few weeks in our apartment. 

(Hopefully I will add our photos once Phil gets back from Germany)

First Blog

So, here it goes... my first blog:

Saturday night in Vicenza with Cat.

So a few months ago Cat told me she would show me how to create this blog thing and I bought wine and snacks and she never showed up. So tonight we had attempt two, she was a little late and I just realized that we forgot to eat the dessert, but here I am blogging. 

We went to dinner at Zushi, shared a bottle of prosecco, edamame, and she even tried some of my sushi (it was really romantic). Then we came back to the apartment and we looked at yearbooks and pictures and chatted about a lot of stuff not blogg related. But in the end, it all worked out, because here I am. 

My intent is to use this to keep friends and family up to date on Phil and I. So right now Phil is up in Germany for two weeks for work (boo) but it seems like it is a lot more play than work. The plan was for me to visit him for the weekend, but my neck hindered my ability to drive four hours on Friday, so I am here and he is there. 

I will try to have him blog on here about his trip when he gets back. Right now I will tell you about my weekend: it was full of errands and cleaning.  I went to Ikea today as well as the commissary, PX, and emis fero (Italian Walmart). I got a much needed fan as well as some finishing touches for the apartment. It is officially open for guests.  I will try to add photos later, after all this is my first blog. Tomorrow will be a lot of relaxing I have a few more errands to run but most things are closed on Sundays so no point in trying that. 

My blogs will go backward in time for a little while. Next time I will tell you about our Memorial Day.