9/30: Cinqueterre Day 2

I woke up sometime between 2:30 and 3 a.m. this morning. There we were in paradise, sleeping under the stars on top of the Meditteranean in the middle of nowhere. But I woke up for a minute and heared footsteps coming down the trail. I know they were human steps because I could hear the rubber of the shoes against the trail. But they didn't keep moving down the trail. They just stopped. So I just laid there in my sleeping bag, waiting for whoever it was to come up to the platform we were on. I wanted to wake up Miller but didn't want to make a noise. And even worse, I had forgotten to sleep with my knife nearby. So I waited for probably about three hours until the sun finally rose. Nothing else happened, but my heart was beating until it finally got light outside. I still don't know what it was that I heard, and I don't even really want to. I didn't tell the others about it until we were on our way back to Florence. After that, everything was alright. We watched the sun rise over the ocean. It started raining pretty hard but it was still warm out. We gathered up all our stuff and headed down that hill. It was still raining down in Monterosse when we got there, but we had to get into the Meditteranean. The water was warm and a very deep blue. It was so salty that you didn't have to do anything to float. We stayed in there for a long time because it was warmer in the water than it was on the trail. We finally hit the road and the rain stopped. The first stretch was the hardest. There were a ton of steep steps and most of it was uphill. I sweat to the point that my rain jacked was soaked through. I had to wifebeat it up a quarter of the way up the trail because I was hot and I wanted to represent my country. The views of the ocean, the cliffs, and the four villages ahead of us were incredible. When we finally got to Vernazza, it was hot out. Miller and I used our cheap goggles that we bought at some tourist store to check out the fish. there were lots of fish but nothing too spectacular. The water was beautiful. We ate the regular poor man's Italian lunch, and as I was washing my knife in the sea, I cut my thumb pretty bad. Luckily someone had a bandaide and I was able to patch things up.I should mention that my backpack now weighted about 70 pounds. It was so heavy that I would sweat after about 10 steps. I didn't eat that much on this trip and I probably lost at least 10 pounds. No joke.
The third town, Corneglia, was up in the hills overlooking the sea. The hike there was probably the toughest but well worth it. We passed a very nice beach that Matt and I thought would be perfect to camp out at. However, we decided as a group to trek to the 4th and 5th towns. We were hoping we'd find a nice beach at one of the last two towns to crash at, but we had no luck.
The trail to the last two towns wasn't too hard, but neither town was as cool as the first three. We finished at Riomaggiore, the final village of Cinque Terre. I liked this one, but it was way larger and more spread out. There were no good beaches to camp at, as it was built on a steep cliff. So we tossed up the idea of staying at a cheap hostel and asked around for advice. Some lady recommended that we stay at Plaza Mama Rosa. She said that Mama Rosa was a little crazy but nice nonetheless. We had to meet there at 7 p.m. to set up our rooms.
However, after further deliberation, we decided it would be best just to take the train back to Florence that night. After all, we didn't plan on staying late on Sunday and the train was leaving at a convenient time. But as we went to the booth to buy our tickets, an old Italian woman rushed to the front of the line and brushed me aside. "Non possono partire," she said to the guy selling the tickets. They cannot leave. She went on to ask him if we could refund our tickets and stay an additional night. He said no. She turned out to be Mama Rosa, and she really wanted us to stay at her hostel. She wasn't too happy that we had made other plans.
We got some quick food and then got out of there as quick as we could. I was a little worried that Mama Rosa would put snakes on our train, but let's face it, the closest thing she probably had was spaghetti. After a long train ride home, I finally dropped my heavy bag and fell asleep in the comfort and safety of Savonarola.