Yesterday, I went to a place called Cinque Terre. It's consisted of 5 villages along the Mediterranean Coast. Beautiful. It was seriously so gorgeous. It's supposedly a 12km hike from the first town to the fifth town. However, due to mudslides, the pathway along the coast from the third to fourth and the fourth to the fifth were closed, but everything else was open. It really didn't affect us anyway though. A few friends had told us that the prettiest part was between the second and third towns and was capable in one day - we really didn't want to stay the night to save some money for other trips.
It actually only took us about 15 minutes to walk from the first one to the second one and, if we didn't stop at all, probably only 25 minutes to walk from the second to the third. In between the second and third we were able to get down to the coast. We packed lunches so we sat on the huge rocks and ate our lunches as we absorbed the beautifulness of the area. After arriving in Corniglia - the third town - we stole some lemons from the mass amounts of lemon trees. They were so delicious, if you like tartness and sourness of lemons that is. We wondered around for a bit and found a restaurant that we decided we were going to eat at later.
There was a road that went from Corniglia to the next town, so we were going to follow that, since the pathway was closed, but we found another pathway that we decided to take. It wasn't on the coast, but there were lots of toe paths off of it that we took to be adventurous. They really did take us to a lot of really pretty stuff that not many people would have been too daring to do. One of the paths we chose consisted of a rope to help you get down the very steep path. Once you got down that part, it was literally about a foot wide path that if you fell to the left, you were dead - plain and simple. No guard rail. Not even a person in sight. It was pretty crazy but awesome at the same time.
We found our way down to the coast by following that toe path. There were a few older guys down there with a couple dogs. Pretty nice, Italian, but they knew some English. We didn't really know where to go after we got down there because it took us back to the paths that were closed so we asked them for advice. They told us that we could go through this tunnel that was 1km long and it would take us like right by the train station to get back home. So, after hanging out by the coast for a little bit, we decided to go through this tunnel to get back to the restaurant for an early dinner. Let me tell you this is probably the craziest thing I've ever done in my life. I seriously thought that I was going to die. First of all, on the way down to the coast there were signs on rocks that said beach - in English - with an arrow that followed the path. So pretty much luring in dumb English speaking people. This tunnel was pitch black and all we had were our cell phones to light the way. Mind you, at the beginning there was a gate - that the guy closed as soon as we started to get deeper into the tunnel. I was freaking out and almost cried. I was just waiting for someone or something to pop out and grab us, but somehow we made it out alive.
The restaurant that we went back to was sooo delicious! I got spaghetti with clams and we all shared a couple bottles of white wine. The wine was literally made in the backyard of the restaurant, and it was so tasty! We sat outside because it was so nice and also because of the view - great view of Corniglia and the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately, it got cloudy and our plan to watch the sunset failed, but it was so beautiful all day that I can't complain about anything. One awesome trip that lead to one crazy adventure.
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