CINQUE TERRE

The view of Maranola from the hiking trail


The porcelain hole had Grace bamboozled


Our balcony lunch in Vernazza with Mary and Jill


We are almost to Vernazza on the Cinque Terre National Park trail

Yes, we hiked this high. Can you believe this view?

I've always wanted to come here to Cinque Terre ("Five Lands") ever since Rick Steves started writing about it in his Europe Through the Back Door books. It's about an hour north of Pisa and is simply a group of five small villages perched on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and connected by a 10 kilometer walking path. Here's how the day went:

6:49 a.m. Took the train from Pisa to La Spezia, then changed to the local train to Monterosso, the first of the five villages

8:16 a.m. Bought tickets for the National Park, which includes the walking path

8:17 a.m. Gloria threw up, dashing from inside the train station to a trash can mounted on the wall at her chin level (very flexible manuevering on her part)

8:20 a.m. Cleaned up Gloria and sat at the cafe while she sipped her Coke and we waited to see how she was feeling

8:35 a.m. Grace had to go to the bathroom, but couldn't figure out how to use the toilet

8:57 a.m. Wandered slowly toward the center of Monterosso to see what we could see

9:28 a.m. Noticed that we were right at the start of the trail and that Gloria was feeling good

9:29 a.m. Began the 3 km hike to Vernazza, the next village, not realizing that this was the most strenuous section of the trail. We climbed up and up and up.

10:03 a.m. Stood gaping at the incredibly cobalt sea below, the green, grape-laden hills above. Snapped photos right and left, landscapes, seascapes all.

10:35 a.m. Paused to rest and eat a little snack. Chatted with two fellow hikers, one an American nurse from San Francisco/New York named Mary and her traveling partner, Jill, a doctor from Cambridge, England. They had met while working in Cambodia some 20 years ago.

11:45 a.m. After climbing up and up, we then hiked down and down until we arrived at Vernazza. Mary and Jill invited us in to their hotel room to use the bathroom and to share some lunch.

12:00 The six of us gathered on Mary and Jill's balcony to share a delightful lunch of bread and cheese, salami and olives, cherries and nectarines. Gloria discovered two new open sets of ears for her incessant chatter and Grace loved talking with two new interesting English speakers (besides her ever-present, ever-interesting parents.)

12:54 p.m. We all wandered to the harbor to buy some Italian gelato. No other ice cream as good!

2:12 p.m. All six of us took the train to the next village, Corniglia, then hiked up 356 steps to the town center. Gloria got stung by a wasp and Jill just happened to have a bug-sting stick in her bag. Plus acetametaphine. And who knows what else. Doctors and Scouts hike prepared.

3:25 p.m. Bid a fond farewell to Mary and Jill as they began the hike back to Vernazza and we headed the other way toward Maranola, the fourth village. Mused about buying property on the Mediterranean as we walked, on flatter ground now.

4:45 p.m. Wandered through Maranola, getting tired now, but looking forward to the last trail section, a flat 20 minute walk to Riomaggiore, the last village.

5:32 p.m. Realized we couldn't be on the right trail, as we had been climbing for 30 minutes toward the high hills. Headed back downhill.

6:14 p.m. Found the right trail, but were too tired to manage the last leg, especially after we learned that we had to be back in Monterosso to catch our train to Pisa and that we couldn't catch it in Maranola, as we had supposed. Took the train back to Monterosso (a 13 minute ride).

7:03 p.m. Caught the express train back to Pisa. Talked over our perfect day, despite throwing up, wasps, strange toilets, and losing the trail. Smiled over the surprises of travel, the new friends we made, the stunning beauty of this area of the world. Looked forward to sleeping in the next day.

8:30 a.m. Got up the next day.