Italy Sibling Trip

"I'm going to hike Cinque Terre in Italy by myself," my sister Tracy told me.

"I'll go with you!" I said.

"You will?! Great! Let's ask Gage too!" she replied.

We did, set a date, booked some Airbnbs, and we were set for our second ever sibling trip.

Our first trip we went to Delaware, where Tracy ran a marathon and Gage and I ran a 9k. On this trip we realized how easy it is to travel together. We eat the same things, sleep the same, like to do the same things, and like being together.

Day one

For this trip, we could fly standby because Gage is a pilot. In the morning, there were 17 seats from Chicago to Milan. Later, there were none. Gage did some figuring and tried to get us on flights to Brussels or Frankfurt. 

I parked my car at the Chicago airport and met them there. We flew Brussels > Milan and took the train to Riomaggiore. Figuring out the trains is what I think was the most difficult part, because you can't really do it ahead of time, because we didn't know when we would get there.

(One interesting thing on the planes - I had a window seat and there was a button you could use to make the window dark or light. Even Gage hadn't seen that before.)

We figured out the trains, mostly thanks to Gage, and got to our town in about four hours with a few transfers.

It took us about 30 minutes to find our Airbnb, even with detailed instructions. We dropped our stuff and headed to the water. Just gorgeous, sunset, water and mountains. We ate dinner - pizza and lasagna, looking at the view. Finished with gelato. We were really here!

Day two

We each packed just a backpack, since we were taking everything with us from village to village. Mine was about 16 lbs. I wore everything I brought, but in retrospect I would have liked a lighter bag.

The place we stayed had a bell that rang through the night - every hour and half hour. So funny and loud!

We drank lattes, had breakfast sandwiches, and bought our tickets online to the Cinque Terre path. (It is the off season so there were plenty - like 200 a day and 187 available.)

We were off! The first path from Riomaggiore to Manarola was so fast and so pretty. Paved path, great views. Village 2!

We then started going straight up to Volastra. There were a lot of stairs and it was steep. We walked under olive trees and tasted ones that had fallen off! (Bitter. Whew.) The water was so, so blue and the views were stunning. Just gorgeous. We got to the town at the top and had some latte and gelato. Of course. This was a quiet little town. 

In all the towns people talked from open windows and had laundry out to dry. There were houseflies lots of places but the non aggressive and small kind.

The descent from this town was one of my favorite parts. Cliff paths, open view of the sea, steep. I loved it! And the water - SO BLUE!!!

We got down to Manarola and continued the path only to find...it was closed. Where we had been up on the top of the mountain is where it continued! So, we took a bus up the same way we had just climbed. Great option.

More olives, lizards, cacti, and places you could stop, like little juice places.

We hiked it to our third village, Corniglia. We met up with our Airbnb host and got into our little studio apartment. We did a wine tasting and had a focaccia sandwich. We showered, got dressed in different clothes, saw the church, watched the sunset, and ate more - pizza and tiramisu!

In this town, there were two churches, and one bell rang on the hour, and one two minutes after the hour. We were all awake in the night from about 2:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m....all in one little room, laughing. A rooster started crowing at some point. I ate my leftover pizza in bed. Eventually we all fell asleep again and got up at 9:00 am.

Day three

We could feel the steps in our calves that morning. We got breakfast in a café, saw the famous stairs to the beach, beautiful church, and started off for Vernazza.

There was an accordion player on the path! Again, we were really high. The water was bright blue. There were caves and mountains and water and rock walls and it was all gorgeous. We got to Vernazza, and it is built up all on a peninsula and very attractive!

We entered the town. It was way busier than the other towns, and lots of people were on the (tiny) beach and swimming. We got gelato, people watched, and I waded in the water. We also checked out their super old church. Then we tried to find the path and couldn't, so we backtracked and found it again.

Seeing the town from the next vantage point was also pretty, again - I never get tired of this - THE BLUE WATER.

We got to a precipice where you could see the entire coast all the way to Riomaggiore. So fun to see where we had come from!

We walked to Monterosso...our fifth and final village. We did it! We checked into our Airbnb, got our swimsuits on, and immediately swam in the Ligurian Sea. It was just as blue as when we were way above it. It was so clear and felt so great.

We showered, got dressed up, saw the church, ate dinner, and saw the village at night.

Day four

What a quiet place! No bells and no roosters. We headed out for a hike...but this time, no backpacks!

We chose to walk to Sanctuary of Nostra Signora di Soviore, which is about a 3 hour round trip hike.

We saw lemon trees along the way, chestnut trees, and then strawberry trees - a first for us! We ate a lot of them.

This hike was shady and there weren't many people. When we got to the top, we went into the church and the organist started practicing and church people sang along. Then he got and took a phone call. It was probably God.

We ate some tiramisu and pastries there, and then we walked down and went to the beach to swim!

It was perfect. The water was warm, clear, blue, salty, felt great. Sheer joy. Instead of sand it's all tiny colorful stones - interesting to see.

We stayed for a long time, bought some presents at the stores, and ate really fantastic pasta. And of course...gelato. ARE YOU SEEING A THEME.

Day five

We spent this day getting to an airport. We tried to buy tickets to the 9:00 am train, but it was full, so we bought 10:00 am. It was delayed, so we missed our connection and just got on the next one - which was also full. They made us pay more, but there were not seats, so we stood for 2 hours. (Fine, but not as great.) We got to a GIANT train station and had to figure out what to do. The internet directed us to subway, walk across what looked like a college campus, another subway...to the airport! (I definitely would have taken an Uber, but they don't have it here.) We caught a flight to Frankfurt on Gage's pass. We immediately bought and ate a pretzel, which true to German form were every direction you looked. We were actually able to walk to our hotel Gage found.

I found a rooftop restaurant only a few blocks away, so we went there and enjoyed the city lights - and chose the destination for our next trip!

Mountains plus water is one of my most favorite sights, and huge bonus points for the water color. Being here with my siblings - laughing, happy, great travel partners - made it even better. It was all so incredibly fun. We will talk about this for years and years to come, and I'm so glad it happened.

~

4,964 total elevation
3 hiking days 17.5 miles.
Total on my watch - 11 miles, 11 miles, 7 miles.