The Trail Is Chiusa!

This past week, Kevin and I decided we needed to get out of town for a few days.  The weather forecast was great so we decided to drive to Cinque Terre.  We had never been, but always heard great things so we booked a hotel a few nights before, planned our trip, and headed out on Tuesday.

The drive took us about 4 hours and Alessia slept the whole way.  After checking in and feeding our girl, we hopped on the train and headed to our first village, Vernazza.  Not two minutes after we stepped off the train, it started to rain.  But don't worry, we came prepared with umbrellas.  Or not...they were laying on the bed in our hotel room.  Luckily for us, it was just a light sprinkle and it only lasted about 15 minutes. 

The sky cleared up, the sun came out, and we were able to get some great pictures.  Since Alessia was starting to stir a little in her wrap, we decided to just grab a quick slick of pizza and head back to La Spezia (where we were staying).


Rain, rain, go away
 



Vernazza

The next day, we knew we were in for a full day.  We wanted to check out the remaining four villages, plus the city we were staying in.  We headed out at about 10 am to our first village, Corniglia.  There are 377 stairs you have to walk to get from the train station to the actually village.  Since we had Alessia and were going to be hiking all day, we decided to take the bus up to the village instead of the stairs.

After checking the village out, chatting with old ladies using hand gestures (old ladies love babies), and walking down the 377 stairs, we headed for the start of the trail to the next village.  And we were greeted with a sign that said it was closed due to landslides.  WHAT???  It was okay though because there was another trail we were going to take once we arrived at the next village.  So, we headed to the train station...only to find out we had just missed the train by about five minutes and would have to wait another hour for the next one.  This is where I would insert the f-word. 



Corniglia



The view was amazing.

Our next village was my favorite, Manarola.  Here we had focaccias, a must-have when visiting Cinque Terre, and gelato.  We watched kids swim in the water, which had to be freezing.  And we even saw a little naked girl running around...I never did understand why she was naked.  After all this, we went to take the trail to our next village and, as luck would have it, it was closed too.  Son of a bitch!  



Manarola



The sunbathers were out in full force.



Manarola was definitely my favorite village.



Focaccia

We had to take the train again to the next village, Riomaggiore.  It seemed a lot bigger than the other three villages we had visited.  If we were to have actually stayed in one of the villages of Cinque Terre, I would have probably picked to stay there.   There were a plethora or restaurants, cafes, and little shops.  We grabbed some fruit from one of the places and the mandarin oranges were delicious...the regular oranges were not (Kevin picked those out). 



Riomaggiore

I love all the bright colors.

Once we made it to the train station in Riomaggiore, Alessia was awake.  We decided it was probably best not to go to the last village and just head back to our hotel in La Spezia to feed her.  After showering, we set out to see what our surroundings were all about, but Alessia wanted no part of it.  She didn't want to be in her stroller, she didn't want us to carry her, she wasn't hungry...she was just pissed (and a little gassy).  So instead of a nice Italian meal, Kevin and I ate at a kebab shop.  For you Americans, you probably have no idea what this is...Google it.  Needless to say, Alessia's tantrum lasted for a few hours and Kevin and I were actually almost on the verge of jumping in the car and driving back to Vipiteno that night.  But eventually, she fell asleep and woke up being her normal self...not the devil baby that possessed her the night before.

We had planned on going to the last village that next day, but after the night before, we decided it was probably best to play it safe and head back home.  We made a quick stop at the pier to check out the water and then made the four hour drive back with a sleeping baby in the backseat.



A quick trip to the pier before heading home.



La Spezia

Even with the trails being closed, we had an amazing trip.  And despite the one night of hell with Alessia, we would have to say she was an angel, especially when it mattered.  And who knows?  Maybe one day we can take Alessia back and she'll actually remember it.