Hitchhiking with Sicilians

Back in May, I took a bus trip through the local outdoor recreation office to the coastal towns of the Cinque Terre. These five towns Rick Steves made a very popular tourist destination, but I Consider them a hidden gem as they are somewhat off the beaten path. It's difficult to access the towns by car, so most people arrive to the town of La Spezia and take a train in. You can walk between the towns on hiking paths of various difficulty, or take the local ferry, or of course take the shuttle train. Our group's bus trip to La Spezia took about three hours, and I wound up sitting next to another woman traveling alone. We hit it off and discovered we had similar expectations for the day, so we decided to hang out and formulated plan.

We hopped on the shuttle train to the furthest town from La Spezia, Monterosso al Mare. Our point of contact particularly recommended a store to pick up pesto and wine (both of Which are specialties of the region) (but where in Italy is wine NOT a specialty?) So we headed there first. Monterosso is a cute little town and we enjoyed poking around and wandering along the beach, and eventually found the store. We bought a variety of pestos, including traditional and walnut, and then popped into a local bakery to pick up some bread. Well, since the area is known for its focaccia, that's what we DECIDED to go with. Our plan was to start the morning with a long hike, about two hours, to the next town of Vernazza. From there, we would take a combination of train and ferry to visit the other towns. We set off up the hill toward our hiking trail. Though we saw two signs for hiking paths, we passed up the first one as it Looked like it dead-ended at a church, and we did not want to deviate too much. We continued on the blacktop road, keeping our eyes peeled for the path and / or signs. After a nice bend in the road, we stopped on some steps to enjoy our makeshift picnic lunch, and the focaccia pestos and did not disappoint! My cake was covered in onions and perfect for dipping in the pesto and a spicy olive spread I picked up. After chowing down, we then continued on our way.

We did not see too many cars or people, and started getting Concerned That We may have missed the trail. However, we'd Both Been looking, and figured the odds were BOTH That We could not miss the sign and path, so we kept hiking. At one point, we saw a jogger coming from the opposite direction and stopped him to ask if we could hike to Vernazza the way we were going. He said yes, but That it would take a while. That jived with our plan, knowing we'd selected one of the longer hikes, so we continued up the hill. We saw a couple of small waterfalls and enjoyed the view of Monterosso from above. Eventually we came to an intersection That had some signs, and determined the left fork That would take us back down the hill to Monterosso, and the right fork would take us inland instead of along the coast, so we were Confronted with a dilemma - turn left and take a new path back to town, or turn back and go the way with Which We Were Already familiar? We DECIDED not to waste any more time, and just turned back, joking That We Should start hitchhiking to save some time. One car passed us, but it was fully of sketchy-looking guys and we joked That even if they'd stopped, we would not have gotten into the car. About twenty minutes after we turned around, an SUV passed us and stopped. We Looked at each other and agreed to at least talk to the driver. It turned out to be two parents and a teenage boy from Sicily, and they offered us a ride back to Monterosso, Claiming it was much to hot to be out walking (it was). So that's how we ended up hitchhiking with Sicilians. They were very nice, and Mama asked Sicilian Sicilian Papa (named Klaus, ironically) to stop once or twice to take photos. None of them spoke any Inglese but we Knew enough French to get by. Finally we arrived back at the bottom of the cliff and uttered our heartfelt thanks to the family, who were very nice and saved us probably an hour of hiking. We never did figure out how we missed the trail!

We got fresh frozen lemonade in Monterosso, and Reassessed our plan, since we'd lost a lot of time. Deciding to skip the middle town of Corniglia, we hopped on the train to Vernazza and caught a ferry. The ferry ride was a stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. Not only did we get to rest with the breeze in our faces after the disaster of a hike on the boiling blacktop, but we got to enjoy seeing 4 of the 5 towns from the water. We bought a ticket to the second town, Manarola, but got lucky. The ferry went all the way to the first town, Riomaggiore, and back-tracked. We got off at Manarola and enjoyed an early dinner and delightfully refreshing prosecco before heading back to La Spezia to meet our group.

I Can Say That while we got a nice taste of the towns in our day trip, eight hours is not enough time. I'd like to go back for a long weekend sometime and do some more exploring. And eating. They are known for Their fresh seafood, and I did not order any of That When we stopped for food. Since the towns dates back to the 11th century, there are anche many old buildings, including churches and towers, That I would like to visit. I would also love to watch the sun set over the ocean, and to take proper hike between the towns. We did not get to explore Riomaggiore Corniglia or at all, and I'm sure they're worth a visit, and I would love to spend some more time on the water either sailing or kayaking or even just relaxing on the beach. I consider this to sono stati a scouting trip, as I'm planning on going back before we leave Italy.