Porto Venere

After a long wait, I was finally reacquainted with the adventure of the outdoors this weekend. All the city traveling and siteseeing has been fun, but I was itching to get back into the open where there would be nothing but ocean and stars to look at. So Friday morning Matt, John, and I headed to the train station and took the usual route to the Ligurian Coast. Liguria is a beautiful region with a steep coastline, and of course, Cinqueterre. Porto Venere was just south of the last town in Cinqueterre, and many people we talked to had raved about it. I had set up the trip earlier in the week with the school's travel guide, Peter, who is extremely enthusiastic about that region.

We got to La Spezia around one and then it took us a while to find the bus to Porto Venere. When we finally did, we ended up accidentally getting off at Le Grazie, the town just before Porto Venere. This was not a bad mistake, however, because we found a quiet little port town with a nice harbor and some amazing sailboats and yachts parked there for the winter. After exploring this town for a while and then realizing we were in the wrong town, we hopped back on the bus and went over the hill to our actual destination. Porto Venere was of course even more unique. Colorful narrow buildings stood above this little harbor. A large mideival castle and a dramatic bluff towered above the small town. It was much like any of the villages in Cinqueterre, but for me, it had a more unique, friendly vibe. The island that we planned to camp at, Palmaria, was very very close by. In fact it was just an easy swim. If we didn't have our bags, we might have considered getting there that way. Instead, we wandered around for a while until we found a traghetto, a small ferry that shuttled people to and from the little island. For two euro, we had a round trip ticket to our hotel under the stars.

We hit the trail pretty hard because we wanted to find the best view soon before the sun started setting. We winded through some green forests until we reached the top of the hill, which had some old military buildings that had long been abandoned. We headed in the direction of the ocean, finding several old gun turrets and bunkers that had been built into the hillside. We went down a smaller trail and found the perfect campsite. It was on top of a large turret above a cliff where you could see nothing but sky and ocean. We broke into our food supply. Mine was pretty simple: rolls and cream cheese, with a cheap candy bar for dessert. This sunset was yet another incredible one. There are some beautiful things that you don't appreciate nearly enough while they're in your presence. This definitely wasn't one of those. I savored every single sound, sight, smell, and sensation of that night. To the right I could see Porto Venere getting ready for another lonely evening. To the left I could see a lighthouse on the small island next to Palmaria. Straight ahead I saw the bright colors of the sunset and watched as the water and sky merged together. I watched the seagulls flying below us as their black sillouettes intersected the orange stripes of the horizon. That sunset was my paradise.

The stars eventually came out, but they were accompanied by one of the brightest full moons I had ever seen. There was very little darkness and I had to find a shadow in order to eventually fall asleep. John, Matt, and I talked for hours about nothing and finally dosed off around midnight. That's when the wind started to kick up, which made things very cold for me and my thin sleeping bag. But the morning sun came soon enough.

The next day we hiked around the island, exploring various trails and catching different views of the ocean. Virtually the entire island was covered with old military bases and gun turrets from WWII. It was pretty interesting for exploring. After that we boarded our ferry back to Porto Venere. We explored the beautiful town, which was very quiet and peaceful at this time of the year. We sat down for some tea at a little restaurant right on the water and then had lunch on the tiny beach. Then we eventually made our way onto the bus, then to the train, and then back to Florence. We all agreed that we'd be back to Porto Venere before the year came to an end.