Sophomore, Meaghan Latella, Week 3 in Italy

Chapter 3:

Cinque Terre Earns 5 Stars in My Book

This past weekend was spent traversing around the most beautiful place I’ve ever been: Cinque Terre. This part of Italy consists of five towns situated along the coastline. A railroad runs through the mountains, connecting each of the five towns together. In addition, you can hike between each of the towns or take water taxis. The buildings in each town are all painted different colors, making the Cinque Terre look like a rainbow when seen from afar. Much of Cinque Terre is designated as a national park; because of this, it is against the law in many parts of the region to repaint or renovate your house. The laws are in place to preserve the unique, antiquated beauty that each town boasts. Below is a picture I took of one of the towns, Manarola, as the sun was setting:

We spent a lot of time on the beach, swimming in the Mediterranean and skipping rocks. We also devoted an entire day to hiking through the mountains from Monterosso (the town we stayed in) to Vernazza (the next town over). We embarked on the hike thinking that it would take 1 hour 40 minutes, as that is what the sign at the start of the trail indicated. Somewhere along the way, however, we clearly took a wrong turn because after nearly 2 hours, we still weren’t in Vernazza.

Thankfully, we ran into a family of hikers (they were legit: equipped with snacks, hiking poles, proper footwear- the whole nine yards), who had a map on them. They were from France, but spoke English as well. It was nice to take a breather and to get to know people from a country that I know very little about. Seeing as they clearly knew where they were going, they kindly gave us their map to keep. After pointing us in the right direction, we said our goodbyes and they wished us luck. I love friendly people!

We finally made it to our destination after 3 hours of hiking. I’m actually happy we took an unexpected detour, because our accidental route provided us with priceless views of the coastline and the ocean:

Since Cinque Terre’s economy heavily relies on the ocean, we got the chance to try some great seafood dishes. We went to dinner in a different one of the five towns each night. Below is linguini with anchovies and tomatoes in a wine sauce:

 (^ I hate to be disloyal to Frank’s penne a la vodka, but this was some of the best pasta I’ve ever eaten.)

It’s hard to believe that a month has almost gone by and that I will be back in the U.S. in a week. Stay tuned for one last post from the lovely land of Italy!

 

Until next time,

Meggo