Hiking in Cinque Terre

At the tail end of my grand adventure through Europe I spent a few days in the amazing town of Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre area of Italy. If I ever have the chance I would love to spend a few weeks in Cinque Terre taking Italian lessons in the morning and hiking in the afternoon.

All of the people in Riomaggiore were so nice. I speak about 3 words of Italian and have excellent pointing skills; but, I was able to get around and work it out because everyone there was so patient and kind. I couldn't be more in love with this little town!

One morning I decided to take a hike along the coast line to another town and then a moderate to hard hike from that town, up through the mountain ridge, back down to my own little town.

This was the only map I had. A terrible terrible map with just basic squiggles for directions. Being fairly foolish, I decided that I could make it! I was a girl scout and a camp counselor (can you see where this is going?).

I made it along the path, called Via dell'Amore (Lovers Lane), stopping to take lots of pictures of these amazing cliff-side towns.

And without much trouble I made it to the trail and and started hiking. But being the responsible hiker I am, I checked the warning first:

(I actually took this picture with Stephanie from Le Sigh of a Fashionista in mind!)

Warning: do not wear high heels while hiking! Well, thank you, how thoughtful AND helpful. To be honest, I wasn't wearing the best of hiking shoes; no boots, only a pair of worn down converse.

After about thirty minutes of hiking I came across this sweet little altar. It was no more than 6 feet tall.

The gorgeous fall leaves reminded me of being home in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina (my personal happy place).

After about 2 hours of hiking I had made it about 3/4th of the way up the mountain when I encountered this:

and this!

WILD BOARS? WILD BOARS! WILD BOARS!

I didn't actually see any boars. But I was on the look out.

I hiked for another hour (about 3 to 4 hours total) and finally made it to the top! Wooo! At this point I knew I needed to turn right to head across the ridge but I just wasn't actually sure where to turn but kept my eyes open for a sign or arrows or something.

As I kept on the path I soon realized that I was incredibly lost. I had really only two options: try to keep on going or turn around for what was guaranteed to be a steep and slippery four hour hike home. So... what did I do? I called my mom.

That's right, I took my international blackberry on top on a mountain in Italy and called my mom. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hey Momma. Sorry to interrupt your meeting but I'm lost.
Mom: Yea? Are you okay? Where are you?
Me: Oh yea, everything is fine. Nothing to stress about. I'm just in the middle of the woods in Italy.
Mom: In the woods?! You have no idea where you are?!
Me: Erm. yea.

Eventually I found my way out of the forest, but at that point I had passed over the mountain ridge, out of one national park and into another. In the distance I could see a large town. I decided that town was the best bet for a ride home-- I would find a bus, a train, a donkey, something! I walked down a long winding road for 9 kilometers. After asking for directions and making some lucky guesses I got into town and found the train station. Using my Eurorail pass and passport (which, THANKFULLY I HAD IN MY BACKPACK) was able to take a 30 minute train ride home to Riomaggiore.

Getting off the train I was welcomed home with this amazing sunset!

After 9 hours of hiking, wandering, a bus ride, a train ride, and generally being lost I made myself a huge carbo-loaded dinner of lemon linguine with squash, tomatoes, prosciutto, and fresh ricotta:

(this is the picture appeared on the blog just a few days ago and got me started thinking about this story!)

This story could have turned out badly, forcing me to use my survival skills (of which I have none) and spend the night in woods. But honestly, I am so glad I got lost and spent those extra hours wandering through the woods. I'm also so glad I made it home that night!

But I will tell you that I was so sore after 9 hours of hiking and walking that I had a hard time walking for days!