Back Again

Cinque Terre for the last time. It was tough to say goodbye.

This year, I've been to Liguria five times. This weekend was my third camping trip through Cinque Terre. The school had offered an official trip there this weekend, but the cost was way too high and I knew that they wouldn't be able to give us the type of trip that we could have on our own. However, I had received a call from John earlier this week telling me that the weather forecast was bad and that rain and cold weather was almost guaranteed. Still, we decided to go through with it, mainly because we had planned on doing this trip for so long.

In the end, it was only myself, John, Harrison, and Peaceful Pete, who was visiting from London, who decided to go through with it. We took a train there early in the afternoon, which was quite the experience. It was so crowded that we had to sit in the doorway on the pull-out seats, which we coined the "Gary Box" (Gary is sort of slang for bums). We had a great time in there just kicking it and not really caring about anything. When we reached Pisa Centrale Train Station, we were getting off to transfer when we saw Ream, who was getting on our train. He insisted that the train we were getting off on was actually the train we wanted to be on, so we jumped back on. When we got all the way down to Livorno, we got off and realized that he was wrong. We waited for about an hour, played some cards, got back on the right train, and eventually wound up in Monterosso.

Monterosso's weather wasn't as cold and rainy as Pisa's or Livorno's. It was partly cloudy but a little warmer. We went to the grocery store, got a few remedies, then made the steep hike up Monte Rosso to the great campsite in the abandoned church. It was just as steep and difficult as I had remembered, and I broke quite the sweat. When we got to the top, we saw that regular incredible view of ocean and sky, except that there were some really thick, dark, threatening clouds to the north.

We ate dinner, drank a little wine, and relaxed as the sun set. While there was still some daylight, we scouted out the abandoned monastery located below our campsite, searching for potential spots to sleep in case it rained. There were a few rooms that looked decent, although they were pegged with random graffity, much of it anarchy symbols. Overall, the place creeped me out. There was a room above, right next to where we usually slept, with a roof and hollowed out windows, but I had remembered in the past that it did not keep the rain out very well.

When dusk arrived, Grace and Grazia arrived to join us, which I thought was really cool. We had some dessert and a little wine and talked late into the night. As we got ready to fall asleep, we felt a few drops of rain. We were already prepared, however, as we had already put our bags in the more open shelter above. When the rain began to fall harder, we simply moved our sleeping bags inside. In the beginning, it stayed dry. I was still worried, though, since I had seen the room fill up with water the first time I camped up there when it poured in the morning after we woke up. This time, it was different. Harrison and I checked the windows for at least 20 minutes searching for leaks, but the shelter was holding up just fine even as the rain continued to fall harder. In the end, we had a great sleep and remained completely dry. When morning came, I got up to see the sunrise, went back to bed, and woke up around 10. Everything was almost completely dry and the sun was back out.

We swam down in Monterosso around 11, drawing a pretty big audience because no one else was swimming at that time. A lot of people thought we were crazy. The water was cold but felt so refreshing. The hike through the villages was the same incredible experience as usual. The sun was out and the views were stunning. We caught a train out of Corneglia and made it back to Florence at a decent time. We sat in the "Gary Box" again, playing cards and grubbing on some of our left-over food. Some guys from the Ivory Coast were intrigued by our style, and came in and talked with us as we played cards. We bonded over our appreciation for Drojba and card games.

It was another awesome trip to Cinque Terre. All three have been incredible and unique in their own ways. I was, however, disappointed that more people didn't join us up there. Originally, this was supposed to be the last hurrah, the last time for us to come together, camp out, and have a great time as a group. Like a lot of things this year, it didn't happen that way. Too many people were scared away by the weather and other things. I kind of wish that more people here this year had been more willing to roll the dice, take a few risks just to see what would happen. I feel that much of my experience here has been based on those ideals, and as far as I know, things have panned out pretty well for me. It was really hard to board that train today and say goodbye to the sight of the light blue Mediterranean hugging the rugged green cliffs of the Italian coastline. It may be a long time until I see that again.