"Come si Dice '"The Climb'"

Cinque Terre. Amazeballs. I don’t really know where to begin with this story, so I guess I’ll start at the beginning—most stories start there anyway.

           

The pictures of Cinque Terre that are on Pinterest definitely don’t do it justice. My group arrived at our apartment in Levanto and I gasped at how beautiful and authentically quaint it was.  As the six of us explored our home for the next two days, we smiled and laughed. How can you be in the brightest and most beautiful place in the world and not be automatically happy? Impossible. It was dinnertime when we arrived, so we ate pizza at the cutest little restaurant and just hung out at the other group’s apartment. We made a plan to meet at 8am to go ride a train to Corniglia (the first town in Cinque Terre) and then we would hike from there to Vernazza and then on to Monterosso. I missed my alarm and woke up to my friend on the phone saying “oh my gosh! We’ll be right down!” I jumped out of bed, got ready for my hike and rushed down stairs. My group was waiting and we started the walk to the train station. We arrived in Corniglia and got breakfast at a coffee shop where the Wi-Fi was free. His sign said, “My wife is expensive, but my Wi-Fi is free.” It took awhile for us to get our food and start hiking, so six of us went on and set out on the most beautiful hike I have experienced.

          

 The trail wasn’t crowded at first, but as we hiked into the early afternoon, we saw a lot more people on the trail. After about an hour and a half of hiking, we got to the city of Vernazza where we found a beach that was on the other side of a cave. It was beautiful—the rocky beach with the turquoise water hitting the rocks like in Little Mermaid. No words or pictures can truly capture how unique this place is. You have to come here.

           

After eating some much needed gelato in Vernazza, our hike continued onto Monterosso. For twenty minutes, it was straight up hill. My legs burned and we didn’t talk a lot. It was great though because it gave me the opportunity to just soak it all up. Watching the sea hit the rocks and being surrounded by trees was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. We passed a huge lemon tree and we were all so confused because we were so high up. Someone has to climb up there and harvest the lemons. The sun was shining and the views were unbelievable. But like I said, you have to come see it yourself.

As our hike came to a close, we approached the beach at Monterosso where we spent the entire rest of the day laying out and floating in the sea. It just doesn’t get old. Ever. 

                                                                                                        - Piper W.