Thursday, April 26, 2012

Spaghetti... Or pizza

After a good nights rest we awoke and had  breakfast on the town square of  vernazza.  The town was much more lively this morning.  I had a chocolate pastry, fresh cut fruit, and of course a cappucino.  Then we set out to hike cinque terre. The trail was closed in the direction of corgnelia so we headed towards monterosso. The climb was steep and there were hundreds of rocky steps along the narrow trail.  Despite my hesitation due to being totally winded after only 20 minutes of hiking, somehow the next  hour and 40 minutes was easier. And it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip.  It was a beautiful trail through the mountains, across waterfalls, and above the jagged cliffs that overlooked the sea. On either side there were spring flowers and lemon trees. At one point on the trail we came across a lady selling fresh squeezed lemonade with handpicked lemons and an old school juicer.  When we reached monterosso we had lunch in the small touristy beach village ; a local pasta dish called trofie that has a worm shape. We walked around for a bit, found an atm ( since they were all wiped out in the mudslides in vernaza and we were near broke at this point) then we took a € 1.80 train ride back to vernazza. We gathered our belongings and set out for Pisa.  €7 later we arrived  via train 3 blocks from the leaning tower of Pisa. Naturally we joined the flocks of tourists in posing for a picture pretending to hold up the tower. From there the polizia directed us towards a campground. Walk down a graffiti decorated tunnel and we arrived at camp torre pendente. Again we were the only tent campers but this time it was much drier and warmer too.  We had dinner at a pizzeria. The options for breakfast, lunch, or dinner in Italy are primarily pizza or spaghetti. Unable to consume any more carbs in one day I opted for salad tonight. We ended our night in pisa with one more view of the tower lit up at night and gelato.  Tomorrow we are off to Rome. 

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