After the family headed home I was fortunate enough to have Rosanne stay with me for an extra week. That weekend we went to Cinque Terre to go hiking.
Getting to Cinque Terre was perhaps to most memorable part of the trip rather than the hiking itself. Ro and I got up early Saturday morning to catch an early train to the coast. Making the necessary change over in Empoli and Pisa we had one more two-hour leg of the trip to go. However when we arrived in Pisa we were met by a massive crowd of young students. A train conductor informed us that the crowd of maybe 200 was on their way to Genova to join a mass demonstration. Lucky us, the train to Genova heads through Cinque Terre, so we had to share the ride.
Despite the general noise and crowding, the kids were pleasant on the train, undisruptive and in good spirits. We arrived in La Spezia, which is the stop ten minutes away from our destination in Riomaggiore—the first of the five towns. However, for a reason we will never know, the train was delayed in La Spezia for a great deal of time. Thirty minutes passed. Forty-five. Nothing. The kids were getting antsy, people hopping off the train to by snacks from the vending machines, smoke cigarettes, and stretch their legs. Finally, Rosanne and I decided to get off and try and find another train that would pass through to our destination.
As we stood up to leave a voice from the student crowd shouted excitedly for everyone to get off the train. We pushed our way through the crowd, off the train and onto another track where fortunately another train to Riomaggiore was headed. As we were about to climb on the student protestors decided that if they couldn’t make it to Genova they would protest in La Spezia. Waving flags and singing songs, the crowd made their way across the tracks sitting down blocking trains from departing or arriving. Rosanne and I were stuck.
The train conductor told us that a taxicab would cost around 50 euro, but with limited hours of daylight left and deadline to check in at our hostel, Rosanne and I headed outside the station to try our luck. We offered the cabbie thirty euro for the trip and he eagerly agreed. I wonder what the actual price would have been. Nevertheless, we were on our way.
We arrived at our hostel, threw down our things and quickly headed out onto the trail. With only 2 hours or so before dark and not knowing if the trains would be running, we started out on the closest path taking a leisurely stroll through “Lover’s Lane”. The sites were beautiful, the weather not too cold and we had the trail mostly to ourselves. All those things paired with the greatest mozzarella cheese we’d ever eaten, made up for the struggles it took to arrive.
We returned to the hostel after dinner, ready to relax after a long day however more antics ensued adding to the craziness of the day. With the sun having set it was very chilly in the apartment so we turned on the space heaters in the three rooms. Unfortunately, with added electricity flow from the lights being on and the TV tuned to CNN, the power cut out. Frantically searching for the breaker box, twenty minutes passed until we found the correct switch outside our room, down the stairs and just inside the main door to the apartment building.
Next, getting ready for bed we went in to the one bedroom only to find a giant grasshopper nesting on the top of the window curtains. We frantically removed all of our belongings from the room and closed the door so the gigantic bug would not visit us in our sleep.
Finally, as if things couldn’t have gotten any worse, while trying to drag the two single beds closer together the leg broke off and wouldn’t stand anymore. We finally fixed the leg in a relatively secure position, but Rosanne had to sleep very still that night. What a nightmare.
The next day we headed out on the trail. The trains were running again, the sun was out and the water was beautiful. It was a really great day. On our way back to Siena we even took a little detour in Pisa to take silly pictures by the Leaning Tower. It was a fantastic trip.
Rosanne stayed in Siena for a few more days entertaining herself with the shops and museums while I went to class. We went out to dinner at some great restaurants and had a wonderful time just being absolutely silly together like sisters do. It was great to spend that much time together since we don’t see each other that much during the year. I’m so happy she stayed.
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