Cinque Terre was amazing, and Cassis is.... funny.
So, we arrived in Monterosso, the fifth of the five terre's in Cinque Terre in the late afternoon on Monday after a long day of travel from Venice. The travel day on Monday included a train from Venice to Florence, change trains and travel from Florence to La Spezia, then from La Spezia we changed trains again to Monterosso. It was a long, and hot day of travel so once we arrived to Hotel Punta Mesco in Monterosso, we were pretty deliberate in getting to the beach as soon as possible. On monday afternoon, early evening we sat on the beach and did some swimming before the sun went down. The water was so warm and the beach was pretty comfortable compared to the rocky beaches in Greece. From the beach at Monterosso, you can see all five towns! It's a pretty sweet view. Dinner on Monday night was amazing. We walked to the old part of town from our hotel to look for a place to eat and found Ristorante Ciak. We had this delicious ravioli and shrimp plate with a local red wine that was also very good.
Tuesday was a hiking day; an hour and a half hike from Monterosso to Vernazza (fourth town). I was thinking about doing a morning run before the hike, but I'm glad I didn't because it turned out to be a much more difficult hike than I was expecting (apparently I am a rookie hiker). There was a total of about 750 uphill stairs throughout the hike and a few other hills. Once we got to Vernazza, though, it was totally worth it. The view of Vernazza from the top of the hill from the hiking path was amazing. We sat on the beach in Vernazza for about 2 hours. I ended up falling asleep for like an hour, and woke up with my face in a pile of drool. I guess I was tired after the hike. So, after waking up from my coma, we walked through the center of Vernazza back to the train station to catch the train to the first town (Riomaggiore) to have lunch and see the town. We decided to go back to the first and second towns because Ellen had not been to the first or second town on her previous visits to Cinque Terre. After lunch in Riomaggiore, we walked the Via dell Amore' which is the path between the first and second (Manarola) towns. This path takes about 30 minutes but its a much easier path than the hike from Monterosso to Vernazza. There was incredible views along the way, too. We then got some gelato and walked around Manarola for a bit before taking the boat back to Monterosso. Tuesday evening we had another delicious dinner (Spaghetti with clams) and walked around the town for a bit soaking up the last little bit of time we had in Cinque Terre.
We both agree that we would have liked to have some extra time in Cinque Terre because Cassis is a pretty difficult town to figure out. I will explain more after I explain our travel day yesterday. Yesterday (Wednesday) was a full day of travel. Our first train left Monterosso at 6:55 AM and we didn't get to our hotel in Cassis until 7:20 PM. Literally, the entire day was either spent on a train or waiting in the station for a train. Our travel day went like this: Train from Monterosso to Genoa. Change trains in Genoa and train to Vamigilia (sp?). Change trains in Vamigilia and train to Nice. Change trains in Nice, and train to Cannes. Change trains in Cannes, and train to Marseille. Change trains in Marseille and train to Cassis. Take a bus from he train station in Cassis to the city center in Cassis and walk 20 minutes uphill with our suitcases to our hotel. Finally, after an outrageously long day of travel we decided that we would treat ourselves to a nice dinner, but to find out, Cassis is a very upscale town and we had no choice but to have a nice/overpriced dinner. Cassis is a very small fishing town just outside of the French Riviera and I don't think much tourism happens around here. Not many people speak English, so communication is sometimes kind of difficult. All of the menu's are in French so we have to ask what everything is and getting waited on at the restaurants is like pulling teeth, it seems. I don't think they are being rude, I think the culture is just a little different here, and we seem to be having a hard time figuring out how things work. Anyway, the hotel has an infinity pool, which is really sweet so we are planning on sitting around that for the rest of the day today. Tomorrow we are planning on either hiking to a Calanque or taking a boat to one. If you want to know what a Calanque is, I suggest you google it because I don't feel like explaining :) Overall, Cassis is a pretty cool town but the language barrier seems to be the only thing holding us back. I'm sure if either of us knew any French, it would be much easier and more enjoyable.
I am so grateful to be able to see this beautiful world God created, He has blessed me so much. Keep praying for us as we travel!
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