Strike Over
Many thanks to those who heeded the warning of the authors strike and sent lovely emails. But come on, did you really think it would be that easy to stop my writing?…
This past weekend I went on another excursion outside the city walls of Firenze, which has proven to be by far the best experience of this Italian adventure yet. Taking many peoples advice, I headed for Cinque Terre, a group of five tiny fishing villages spread out appx four miles along the rugged cliffs of the Mediterranean. The "Italian Riviera". The train ride up was only 2.5 hours, during which time I feasted on Vanity Fair magazine, which actually cost more than my ticket. And worth every euro.
As the train approached the end of the journey, I could feel with every fiber of my being the closeness of the Sea, although I could not yet see or smell it. The final stretch was thru a long dark tunnel, with teasing peaks of blue rushing by like the surreal windows of unimagined dreams. When the train finally came to a stop in Monterosso, the last village, and I stepped out on the platform and could see nothing but rich lapis turquoise emerald sea stretching out before me and inhaled the the salty breeze and felt the hot afternoon sun vibrating thru clear blue skies I was overwhelmed to tears. Maybe corny, but this Seattle girls soul was parched in need of lake ocean or sea that the slowmoving brown Arno of Firenze had not been quite quenching. Upon seeing the pink and orange almost tropical buildings fuschia bougainvilla and even sand outlining the beach I knew I had to find a way to stay the night, despite the many denials I had already received from overbooked hotels. I happily found the shitty hotel recommended by my neighbors, clearly pushing the limit of the two star system, I dropped off unecessary weight and started immediately on the hike that connects the five villages.
The path was far more treacherous than I had imagined, along rugged mountain terrain on steep cliffs up stone steps traversing thru vineyards that ran up the vertical hillside with deep dropoffs. But each step of ascention brought with it a widening view of hot sun sparkling on the horizon endless calm Mediterranean waves softly crashing below. Thru wild mountain blackberries fruited cactus refreshing pines ripe red currants carefully tended to grapes purple yellow wildflowers while bees buzzed birds sang butterflies alighted. It was out of a dream yet felt invigoratingly real and empowering and humbling all at once. In all the churches I have been to in the past several weeks I have never felt this touched by something more powerful than myself or felt more grateful to be part of this earth. My mind body spirit senses were overwhelmed by the power of this place and a tangible energy and as I was reminded recently that spirit runs thru all things, this could not have been more evidenced.
With mad determination I managed to reach all five towns- Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore each one a tiny cluster of bright colored buildings blending with Medieval stone structures and proud castles watching guard all impossibly nestled into the jagged cliffs spilling out into the calm Sea. I only fell once, a good hard fall quick lesson in patience that was worth the bloodshed. Completely exhausted and famished, I trained back to Monterosso to feast on the local cuisine of seafood olives mushrooms pesto lemons wine. Sadly, my options were limited as a diner of one…
After a failed attempt to adopt a wild cat for the night, I slept hard, awoken only by unfortunate rainstorms. My wishes of lazy Sunday beaching in the sun were replaced by beachcombing in the rain but I aborbed the sound of the crashing waves and collected pretty rocks and ate pesto lasagna and fragola gelato and milked every moment before heading back to rainsoaked Firenze.
Cinque Terre is beautiful amazing magical and everyone should go but please dont tell anyone wouldnt want to spoil such a treasure.
