back to cinque terre

Monday:
Michael and I went back to hiking the five earths, but this time we decided to try a different trail. Allow me to explain. It turns out there is more than one trail linking the five towns together, there's like 20 of them. We took the "lover's walk" from Riomaggore to Manarola, at this point we said fuck it we're going to get lost in these trails. So from Manarola we took this trail that goes over like two mountains...real intense hiking with thorny plants, etc. After 2 and half hours we finally found some form of life, a small mountain town called Castella. We were not sure where to get back on the trail so we asked a local who kindly pointed us in the right direction. This next trail was nicely shaded and it followed a mountain stream, but we had been walking for a while and were starting to wonder if this had been a good decision. Finally, the trees and shade tapered off and we found ourselves on a rocky path overlooking the mediterranean and pointing us in our final destination, Vernazza. We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the water which felt great after six hours of hiking. If you want to know more about Cinque Terre check out this website, http://www.cinqueterre.it/

Tuesday:
We returned to the five earths yet once again, but this time not for hiking. In Monterosso, Umberto (i talked about him in an earlier, rushed blog post) took Michael and I fishing for mussels. We left in the morning in his rowboat to this secluded spot of rocks. We donned snorkel gear and with knives in hand picked at the rocks to get the covetted mussels. It turns out that the mussel fishing we were doing is illegal, but Umberto has never been caught and he's been doing it for like 50 years. So after a morning of mussel pickin' we rowed back to Monterosso and steamed them up and just went to town on an awesome lunch.

Tomorrow is chill out day, we have decided we are just going to sleep in and then just spend the day on the beach.

Sidenote:
Pictures have been updated. http://picasaweb.google.com/pat.gazzolo