Today's highlights:
- Hike to Corniglia
- Beach day #2 (better)
- Another casualty
- First experience with Anchovies
***Robbie writing, what up Internet?***
Cinque Terre has been so great. Just chillin' in these little villages, swimming at the beach, and eating at delicious seafood restaurants has been the life!
Today was a lot like yesterday in that we started in Vernazza and traveled to another village. We hiked to the middle of the 5 villages, Corniglia. Look at this beauty on the cliff's edge!
We actually had a plan to do a lot more hiking today, to get some good use out of our pass, but didn't realize until we started that two of the hiking trails were closed because of a flood, so we could only hike to one more village.
We got a late start because we had to do our laundry this morning. This delayed hike cost us big time! It was BLAZING hot. So hot that I had to wear a du-rag (sp?). Yeah, I know. I felt ashamed to wear it because I looked like a total nerd. I'm turning into my dad, though he totally pulls off the du-rag look, hah! I gotta protect my ever revealing scalp from the elements. I only wore it on the way to Corniglia, but not on the way back (story to come).
At Corniglia, we scaled down the cliffs by hiking down a steep staircase, and when we arrived at the lagoon, we noticed two things: no crowds and no sand. No crowds, kachow! So great. At first we were sad about swimming around and not having a beach to play on, but I dare say that I prefer the big boulder beach to the fine sandy one. There, I said it. When we got out of the water, we didn't need to worry about getting sand everywhere and drying off was easy.
We swam to these little caves at the base of the cliffs and you wouldn't believe what were in these caves--are you ready? Well, let me tell you... thousands of the most perfect, polished, skipping rocks you have ever seen. Almost every rock was amazing, one was so perfect that I couldn't bear to throw it. So I kept it and I am bringing it home to frame or, I dunno, cover in gold? I skipped rocks for at least an hour while Angie entertained herself in the sea. Even in the ocean, with good sized waves I was getting up to 7-8 skips. I can only imagine what it would be like if it were on a calm lake or something.
Anyway, it was great. On the hike back I had a little incident. Angie and I were trying to remember and sing all of the Hercules songs as we hiked, and while we were singing one of them I jammed my head into a big, knotted, poky tree branch. It gave me a nasty cut. I used Angie's red bandana to put pressure on it, and man it stung. After waiting until it wouldn't seem insensitive, Angie told me that I should've been wearing my du-rag on the way back and maybe I could've avoided this catastrophe. Stylish and practical, now I know why my dad wears them.
Back at Vernazza we ate at a cool little place on the main road. We have been told that Cinque Terre is famous for two things as far as food goes: anchovies and pesto. I ordered a dish with anchovies, potatoes, and seasoned tomatoes. Angie ordered a pasta dish, trofie with pesto. I know what you're thinking, anchovies?! But fresh, it is a whole different food my friends. It was the first time I had eaten them, and they were good. Angie thought they were great, I felt they were just good. But the pesto? Mmmm, mmm, MMMMM! Delish. It was a great end to a great day.
Tomorrow is Pisa and Florence!
Oh yeah. Also, here is your moment of zen (we saw this outside of a restaurant and, while I want to wholeheartedly endorse this message, I can't. I would be a hypocrite. I love technology, but I also love nature, that is all.):
Also, this:
No comments:
Post a Comment