Buon Giorno Cinque Terre

As the train came around the bend and popped out of the other side of the tunnel I had my first view of the Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre, meaning five lands, is given its name for the five villages that are built on the cliff side along the most beautiful stretch the Ligurian Coast. The towns are connected by a walking trail and the train that I was on at the moment. As the train continued along the rails we would go in and out of tunnels and each time we emerged on the other side my breath was taken away by the scene of bright blue skies, perfect white clouds, and turquoise sea below. I knew I was going to like this place. The town I was staying in was Riomaggiore and is the first of the five villages. I had decided to stay here not really by choice, but because it was the only town that had hostel accommodation that was affordable. When I found my hostel I soon discovered why. Walking up the hill, giant 45 degree hill, to my hostel I couldn’t have been happier. Riomaggiore had the classic small town Italian feel, small shops, locals everywhere, pizza shops, bakeries, coffee shops, and fresh produce lined the pedestrian street on both sides, however when I reached my hostel’s reception area all that changed. The owner of the hostel was sitting/laying on the couch messing around on the computer and barely looked up to greet me. He instead grunted a yell to his girlfriend, Francesca, who was clearly in the bathroom because I could see her sitting on the toilet about 20 feet in front of me. She yelled back at him that she was on the toilet and slammed the door. He then told me she was in the bathroom, as if I didn’t already know, and that she would be right with me. She came out and introduced herself a few minutes later and I wearily shook her hand as she welcomed me to the hostel. Sweet! After having given them my passport info and them taking my money, which by the way, they demanded I pay before they showed me the room (red flag number one, well really number three, but who’s counting) they walked me practically all the way back down the hill to where the room was. Upon entering, Giuseppe, we’ll call him as he didn’t give his name and I didn’t care to ask, said, “Take-a which-a bed you-a like”. I looked around the room which had one bunk bed, one single bed, and the oddly placed double bed in the middle of the room. On further inspection I realized that all but two of the beds had been slept in and had not been cleaned yet, (its 4pm, red flag number four if I was counting) At the same time “Giuseppe” realized this and said, “You can take-a this-a one, or that-a one.” I chose that-a one. He then showed me the cramped kitchen and the bathroom which had a glass door. Odd, but the upside I soon found out was that in the morning you knew if someone was doing number one or number two, so you could judge how long you had to wait for your turn! Slightly confused I asked him about the 24 hour common area that was advertised on the internet and he again showed me the cramped kitchen and said, “Its-a open all-a day!” With a smile of course. I then inquired about the free wi-fi and he said, “Si. At the office we have-a the wi-fi.” I had other questions, but decided it better not to ask so I instead thanked him and he left. Alone in this shit hole of an apartment I sat on the edge of my bed and thought, wow, this is going to really make a beautiful place suck. Not really sure what to do I headed out for a walk around the town. Luckily Italy was playing New Zealand in the world cup that day, so I found a nice outside bar that was showing the match. Here I had a couple of beers and watched the game with locals and tourists alike. The game ended in a 1-1 tie which put Italy out of the tournament, and was another downer on my day. I walked back to the apartment thinking, wow, three days of feeling like this, perfect! I walked back to the apartment to find that the two other rooms in the apartment, consisting of five beds in total had been filled, and all the beds in my room had been filled as well except for the oddly placed double. I said hi to everyone and made my way to my bed to sit and think about what to do. That’s when Becky walked in. She introduced herself and we exchanged the normal backpacker conversation that consists of four basic questions: 1) Where are you from? 2) How long have you been here, or, how long will you be here? 3) Where have you been? 4) Where are you going? After we got that out of the way we just kinda started talking and got along really well. All I could think was thank God! Sometimes you can stay in a great hostel and have shit roomies and it ruins the hostel and sometimes you can stay in a shit hostel and have great roomies and it makes the hostel. Luckily this was a case of the latter. Becky was travelling with Tom, who walked in just a few minutes later and they invited me to join them for dinner. Of course I agreed, and the three of us walked the entire town looking for a restaurant that struck our fancy. So after ten minutes we had seen the five, maybe six, restaurants the town had to offer and made a decision. We had a nice time at dinner, though I am sure all of our meals were micro waved. Again one of those things, great food can be spoiled by shit company and shit food can be made better with great company. After dinner we made our way down to the rocks to check out the scene. There are no clubs or bars in Riomaggiore so everyone heads down to the rocks to have some wine or beers and hang out. We had no drinks so had a look and made our way back to apartment. On the way back to the place Becky and Tom asked what my plans were for the next day, and I told them I thought about doing the hike through the villages and they said they were going to do it as well, and suggested that we do it together. Again, I agreed and we set out for bed. First day in the Cinque Terre down, two more to go!