Mamma Mia, Italia!

Getting up at 7am in Nice, France, we boarded a short regional train to take us across the border to Italy. During the train ride, we met a couple from Tazmania that were going to Cinque Terre as well and without saying so, we all decided to hang together for the rest of the day. Going to Ventimiglia, then Genoa, we were finally on the last train which was taking us to Riomaggiore (the last of the five Cinque Terre villages). We might have been on the train for about ten minutes when an elderly man in a suit came up to Alie and I. Noticing I had my feet on the seat and thinking that he wanted to sit down, I took my feet down and showed with my hands that he could sit there. He shook his head and instead said “tickets”. We hastily showed him our tickets, at which point he began quickly talking in italian, obviously telling us there was something wrong with our tickets. We kept repeating “sorry, we don’t know what you are saying”, until finally in fairly broken English he said that our tickets were not validated. Not knowing we had to validate these tickets, we said we would get off the train at the next stop and put them through the machine. However, he did not wait for the next stop and immediately said “50 euros” – the fine for two unvalidated tickets. 

All at once, the five Italian commuters sitting around us started yelling at him. Neither of us know Italian, but I can pick up a few words here and there because of the similarity to French. What did I pick up? Tourists, English, not fair. These five locals, who did not know us from Adam, were trying to prevent us from paying the fine! The conductor looked ambushed but kept fighting back, while Alie and I wrestled up the euros to give to him. The woman sat beside us turned to us and said, “You didn’t know you had to validate, right? Make sure you get a receipt so he doesn’t pocket the money!” A moment later, he took back our tickets and hand validated them, meaning that the fifty euros we had prepared went back in our wallets.  Because we were traveling with the Tazmanians, we got the same deal for them. I will never forget that moment, when five boisterous Italians stuck their necks out for us. As each of them left the train to their various destinations, we couldn’t help but repeat “grazie” several times with huge smiles of appreciation.

Besides this minor detail, the train ride was absolutely gorgeous – it’s maybe my favorite train journey that I have done in Europe thus far. It follows the coast, so you get to see small coast town after small coast town, with the sunshine shimmering on the Mediterranean the entire way. Once we arrived in Riomaggiore, we found the hostel office and he said to follow him up a few stairs. Few was definitely an understatement. We were staying at nearly the highest point in Riomaggiore, so when we went up one row of stairs, another would appear. Once we got settled and changed, we headed back out to do some hiking. Hiking through the Cinque Terre villages is a well-known tourist attraction, people come from far and wide to hike these magnificent trails that promise stunning views of the coastline and the villages. Since the next day it was supposed to rain, we set off in the late afternoon to make the most out of a beautiful sunny day. We were disappointed to hear that only one hiking trail was open – many were closed due to landslides that have been occurring in the area. Nevertheless, we took the first regional train to Vernazza and headed off onto the trail to Monterosso.

Hiking this trail was easily in my top five things I have done this experience abroad. With the sun shining on the clear blue water contrasting against the bountiful green earth, words and pictures truly do not do it justice. It is something that you have to do yourself to experience its beauty.

Vernazza

When were reaching Monterosso (the end of the trail), we vaguely heard upbeat, Italian music and a woman loudly speaking a mix of English and Spanish. We looked down to find a man who cut a hole in the fence of his vineyard and was selling his freshly made wines, limoncello and lemonade. And the woman? Her name was Joann and she hailed from DC, and she convinced us to buy a lemonade and chat with her awhile. To say that this was a pinnacle moment of our whole whirlwind trip through Europe would be an understatement – we were quoting Joann throughout the remainder of our travels.* Those are the moments you will always remember: the interesting people you meet while you are traveling all over the world. After exchanging e-mails, we continued on our way, reaching Monterosso just as the sun was setting. We ran out into the water, feeling like kids as we joyfully reflected on such an amazing day.

Our pre-Joann view of the vineyard

HAPPY

We took a train back to Riomaggiore and had what is a huge fad in this part of Italy: a fried cone of goodness! We went for fried calamari and fries and topped it off with a necessary gelato for dessert. We slept well and woke up to the sound of rain outside. Not feeling eager to walk through its wetness, we slept in and convinced ourselves to go outside and explore the other villages by train. When we arrived in Monterosso, it had blustering wind and was raining. Needless to say, we hopped the next train to Vernazza. It might have had something to do with the fact that the sun came out, but Vernazza was definitely my favorite out of the five villages - the most picturesque and the most things to do. And it helps that the hiking trail from Vernazza to Monterosso is regarded as the best.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Corniglia and Manarola, both beautiful in their own ways, and then headed back to Riomaggiore. This was already our last day in town, and I was left wishing we had more time and better weather conditions to hike between all the villages. Nevertheless, I had a traditional Italian dinner of spaghetti and tiramisu and got to bed early for a full day of train travel the following day.

View from Manarola

It was May 1^st and we woke up early to catch the first train to Pisa. I knew that this day was a huge holiday in France but I was wondering how it was going to be in Italy. Once arriving in Pisa, we went to ask about the bus that takes you directly to the leaning tower. The woman shook her head and simply said “not running”, it was the holiday. So, we set off on foot and walked through Pisa to find its crowning glory. Walking down the street and seeing the leaning tower at the end was kind of a surreal experience – it was REALLY leaning! I didn’t expect it to be so dramatic! We of course stopped and took all the obligatory photos, had a nice pizza margarhita lunch and then hustled back to the station for our four hour train ride to Milan.

Being a super tourist yet again

Upon arrival in Milan, we took the metro and found our hostel, which was more like a BnB on the seventh floor of an apartment building. Once we paid, we explained we had one night and asked for the best way to get to the Duomo, the number one thing to see in Milano. They explained to us the metro routes but then said that the metros would be closing in 25 minutes because of the holiday. Taking this as our cue, we hustled off to the metro and came up in the bustling center of Milan. The Duomo di Milano was just as amazing as everyone describes, very intricate, with every single detail showing its beauty. Then, we took our last night in Italy to eat all of the things we hadn’t gotten a chance to yet: cannoli, gnocchi.. and of course one last gelato. I mean, when in Italy!

Duomo of Milan

After standing in the taxi line for half an hour, we shared a taxi back to the hostel, which brought back the memories I had of horrible Italian driving. Leaving Italy the following morning was kind of sad. Italy is one of the countries that I feel oddly at home in – I don’t know the language, though I have seen almost every major place in the country. I feel comfortable there. And their food is downright delicious! I know that whenever I want to come back again, Italia will be there with open arms, welcoming me with two big scoops of gelato and a shot of limoncello. Ciao for now!

*Our favorite quote? “Girls, marry with potential. FINANCIAL POTENTIAL.” She had maybe a 

few glasses of wine……