Taylor Boys Blog: Europe Day Thirty Five to Thirty Nine

In the morning we all woke up a bit tired so we didn't do much. We had some toast for breakfast and relaxed. At lunch, Sage and Mom took a train to get groceries. She let us stay at the apartment to get some rest and within a couple of hours they were back. The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the small apartment as it was quite windy out and the only thing we did was make some gnocchi for dinner.

The next morning we walked down the hill and took the 5 minute train ride to Manarola for lunch. We explored around the town for a bit and then saw a restaurant at the top of the cliff so we went up to see the menu. Once we got up there the view was fantastic, but the restaurant wasn't open and the tables were filled with school kids having lunch outside.

So we went back down. At the bottom there was a restaurant that served gelato (Italian ice cream). They only had one vegetarian option for lunch so we tried the avocado, boiled egg, and lettuce sandwich which we didn't think was going to be that bad. (It's even worse then it sounds.) After we finished we all had some gelato before we left and went back to the house for the rest of the day.

The next morning when we went into the living room Mom decided that two days of relaxing out of thirty seven was too much so she insisted that we lazy sloths should go on a hike while we were in Cinque De Terre. Knowing that we couldn't get out of it we reluctantly got ready and left the apartment. We took a train to Monterosso (the farthest village at the north end of Cinque de Terre) to walk along the beach a bit before our hike. The beach was nice and there was a big rock that was overlooking the ocean that started right on the shore so we climbed up to get a beautiful view of the ocean.

After we left we explored the town a bit before we found the entrance to our hike. Once we did we saw that it was almost straight up so we climbed and we climbed, up and up and the hike just kept going and going. And after an hour of hiking we were still going up and up the steep stairs of death.

After another half hour we finally stopped going straight up and started walking only slightly up, though technically it was still up. So then we kept walking until our legs hated us and our muscles were dying so we took a little break thinking that the end was just around the bend, but it wasn't so we kept going. We ran into a group of hikers coming from the other direction. They said that we were about halfway there so we kept going. Within another hour and a half we finally made it to Vernazza.

In Vernazza Mom had promised Sage that she would get gelato if she finished the hike so we all ate our gelato at the harbor for lunch and then had fish and chips before taking a train and going back to the apartment. The second we got in the door we all collapsed from exhaustion on the bed and relaxed for the rest of the day.

We woke up in the morning and had some breakfast before doing a bit of school like making travel videos and writing a blog post before heading out into our little village to explore. We went over to talk to the guy who takes care of the airbnb that we were staying in. He worked at a little cafe in town so we decided to meet him there. Once we got there we talked to him about our stay and that all was good. After that we got a few paninis for lunch and walked around the town and saw some of the local kids playing pickup soccer in a courtyard by a church that looked out over the ocean. After a good half hour we walked back to the apartment and did some more school and read our books until Mom and Sage went to pickup Dad in Monterossa. When they got there Dad's train was delayed so they went down to the beach and found sea glass by the shore. Dad's train finally arrived and they all came back together to the apartment. After a while Mom and Dad went to dinner in Manarola so we watched Sage while they were gone. When they came back they said they had a great time and they picked up some pizza for us on the way back. All the kids ate and then we all went to bed for the night.

The next morning we headed over to Riomaggoire, the only village we hadn't been to yet. We walked the village for a bit and went to a small hiking trail on the side of a seaward facing cliff and got some fantastic views of the ocean. Halfway through we saw a strip of rocks that were out on the ocean. We really wanted to go down and check it out but, we didn't have enough time so we turned around and doubled back to the train station. All of us except for Dad who thought that he could make it there and back in time. We tried to argue but he's Dad so he did it anyways. We sat at the train station for ten minutes waiting for Dad to show up and he didn't. The train pulled into the station and the next one was due in an hour so we thought we were doomed. Finally as the train was about to leave we saw Dad at the other side of the train station out of breath and sweating like crazy waving his hands in the air. He ran over to us and we all got on the train just in time to go to Vernazza.

Once we got there we had some got some flatbread pizza and some gelato to eat in the harbor. While Mom, Dad and Sage finished Zaddek, Kaden, and I played in some of the rocks that make up the wave barrier and found some caverns between them. Then we decided to take a nice hike back to Corniglia.

The hike wasn't as bad as the first one and Zaddek and I created a strategy. Because we walk faster than Mom and Dad and Sage, instead of walking at their speed we walk ahead for awhile and take a nice long break until they catch up. When they do catch up we do it all over again. Most of the time we found a nice place to sit on like a rock, but we got lucky once and found a perfect olive tree to climb up and rest in. The hike took an hour and a half and when we got to back to Corniglia we got a special treat of another round of gelato (Mostly because Dad wasn't used to the heat). We all enjoyed our delicious gelato before walking the rest of the way to the apartment for the night.