Day Three: the Cinque Terre

We arrived in Vernazza on the midnight train. We were supposed to get in earlier but had some, eh, difficulties navigating the Italian train system. Luckily we had reservations already, and Vernazza is a small town! We walked down the platform from the train and someone called out "Mandy?" So I guess that confirmed my worst suspicions, we totally looked the part of the lost American tourist. Michelle ( a San Francisco native who came to Italy and never returned) had never seen me, yet she singled us out immediately as her guests for the evening. She escorted us to Guiliano, her husband, who showed us to our cottage. I didn't remember much from that first night, but when we woke up late the next morning, we were greeted by these views. It was beautiful. I opened the door to the porch and saw old women dotting the hillside tending to their gardens. These gardens were absolutely something else. There were grown in what looked like should have been impossible plots smooshed altogether and climbing the steep cliffs of the village in little terraced harmony. The cottage was a work of art. It had been impossibly built by hand-carrying (oftentimes back carrying) the materials up several hundred steps to it's small plot amongst the gardens. No heavy equipment had been used, no vehicles, just a man with a vision and the nerve to make it work. Guiliano, with the help of some friends I'm sure, had constructed it from the foundation up himself with the materials he brought up the cliff. You could feel his pride as he shared the story and you could see what a labor of love and hope it was for him. This is where our vacation truly began for us. In the Cinque Terre we had time to rest, to relax, and finally feel in sync with the local time. Which brings me to another piece of advice: It was serendipitous that I planned "restful" locales in between the hustle and bustle of the cities. That worked so well for us to be able to take a breather in between Rome & Florence, and Florence and the Amalfi Coast. That was not on purpose, but I would absolutely recommend doing it that way to anyone who might be following in our footsteps. Whittling away three days in the Cinque Terre allowed us to refuel for the nonstop schedule I had planned for us once we arrived in Florence.