Riomaggiore

I am back. I am still alive and the journey keeps going. The internet access in Cinque Terre was no too accessible, so that attributes to the lack of updates.

The hostel I stayed in was in the first of five villages that make Cinque Terre. The first village, Riomaggiore, is stunningly beautiful along with the other villages. I don't think you could call the place I stayed in a hostel, I would call it more a private ocean side Villa house.

After some hard late and missed trains coming from Roma, I made it to the hostel office in downtown Riomaggiore. The woman took me and two other fellow backpackers up winding little streets and stair cases for what seemed forever with our heavy packs. After being out of breath and sweaty she brought us to this house overlooking the brilliant blue waters of the Mediterranean. It was the most amazing place with a beautiful terrace. Don´t worry I took many pictures.

After our trek up the mountain, my two newly bonded friends (Tracy and Pete) and I decided we were in for some showers and then wine. We found some wine and explored the streets of Riomaggiore. Found some delicious eats. After an evening on the town, we grabbed a bottle of wine and headed up to our terrace and sat with fellow backpackers on our killer terrace from UK, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, and Denmark.

We slowly got our stuff together, consumed some espresso, and were hiking by noon. The villages of Cinque Terre were once extremely excluded and self-sufficient. They were once only accessible by foot or boat. So the villages were not built with roads. Much of this character remains in the villages today. The mountains are covered with grape vineyards and gardens that have been gouged into the mountain side. You can hike the trail that connects the villages that was built ages ago. Words cannot describe the beauty. I was kicking myself sooo hard for not planning a longer stay. If you travels do bring you to Italy, this without any doubt in the world must be one of your stops.

Our hike brought many adventures: wine tasting at a wine co-op, a swim in the Mediterranean, stop for dinner in the last village, a train ride return to Riomaggiore, and many adventures in between.

My Cinque Terre travel buddies, Pete and Tracy, were perfect people to run into. It made the experience unforgettable. Both of them are Architecture students at University of Oregon, so a visit to Eugene will be in the works very soon. 75% of our conversation had some thing to do with architecture or design. It was great. They were eating up the buildings in Cinque Terre.

JOEL