(Vernazza, Italy)
It wasn’t easy…but I am finally in Italy’s renowned Cinque Terre region!
Allow me to explain. I first had to take a train from Kingston to Dorval, Quebec. From there, a shuttle bus to Montreal’s international airport. I then flew from Montreal to Paris: this was the easy part, as the favourable winds made it only a 6 hour flight. However, as it was an overnight flight, this also left very little time for sleeping. After going through customs and security (again) in Paris, I waited for my next flight from Paris to Genoa, Italy. This was a smaller plane so I had to walk out onto the tarmac to board the plane…with nasty winds and rain swirling around.
The flight to Genoa was fine (early again!) and then I caught a shuttle bus from the airport to the train station. There, I caught a train for Levanto. It was about 20 minutes late, but I had a buffer before catching my final “local” train to Vernazza (located only 8 minutes away from Levanto by train). I boarded the train and waited. And waited. The train never left and we were eventually told to go to a different platform. But there was no staff to say which one and…well, it was a fiasco. To make a very long story short, I arrived in Vernazza 2 1/2 hours after my scheduled time. Quite a delay for an 8 minute train ride! Having not really slept on the overnight flight, I was rather ill-tempered by this point and decided it would not be a good time to write my blog. I’m writing this blog the next day, after a long and satisfying day of hiking (details coming soon).
And what about this Cinque Terre place? Picture an ancient Italian village full of colourful houses stacked almost one on top of another, located on the Mediterranean coast, surrounded by cliffs, off-limits to cars, free of retail/hotel/restaurant chains, free of hotels generally, served only by rail (and boats during the summer), blessed with amazing hiking, and proud of its food specialties. That’s Vernazza…and, that also describes (more or less) every one of the 5 Cinque Terre villages. The others are Monterosso al Mare, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore…and they are all linked by coastal hiking trails!
I’m fortunate to be visiting Cinque Terre during the off-season. Everybody who is here now really *wants* to be here…which means that they are here to hike the trails. There are beaches but it is too cold for them right now. Well, maybe not for Canadians!
My next couple of posts will cover my hiking adventures. Today’s post just has some pictures from Vernazza: this is a village of about 500 people (more live here in the summer) and it will be my home for three nights. As there are no hotels, accommodation here is essentially just in camere (“rooms”) rented out by local residents. It’s similar to a B&B, without the breakfast. I’m very happy with my room and location.
My first meal in Vernazza was pizza. I enjoyed it but it’s not a specialty of this particular province (Liguria). Tonight’s meal will hopefully be a little more regional.
Stay tuned for the next few weeks – I am going to be sharing a lot from my first European trip since late 2014!