A few weeks ago, my birthday rocked up. We had a wonderful barbeque with all my school mates included. However there was nothing to be seen from my lovely man…no present no card? So…I complained. I was stopped and told that I had a surprise coming and that we were going on a trip to Cinque Terre for my birthday.
The week passed with days sat at school wondering what my surprise might be. I was getting a little wary with the hints I was being supplied by Marco. Finishing up school on the Thursday, I departed and waved good bye to everyone from school who were all off, out of Italy for Easter. Friday night rolled around and we went out for drinks and a concert and I was made aware of the date the next day. At this point in a relationship, we haven’t hit the ‘year’ milestone, and so months are noted down. That night I was given a ring, and I was very quickly told that this was not an engagement ring, more of a promise ring, one to tell me that, one day when Marco has the money and the time is right he will have that engagement ring ready. Very cute!
This set me in good stead for our trip to Cinque Terre, a set of coastal villages in Liguria. We left Carvico on Easter Monday and arrived in our apartment not long after lunch. With the weather looking clear, we took the bikes and our gear and made our way towards the Cinque Terre trail.
In October 2011, Vernazza, Monterosso and the surrounding area suffered terrible flood damage. This became more and more apparent as we passed through the valleys towards the coast. Once we had arrived at a T-junction, we chose to take the road to Vernazza, knowing that it was closed after a few kilometres. Taking a drive down the coastal road, we were able to see the beautiful sea views on the right and on the left the terrible damage all the landslips had created. We parked the car a few hundred metres before the road closed, the floods had more or less washed the road away. We decided to continue on bike.
It is all well and good going down about 250 metres on a bike, it gets a little chilly but it’s pretty plain sailing until you arrive at the bottom and think, “I got to get back up that…” We spent half an hour getting funny looks in Vernazza. It seems that these Italian’s had never seen people riding bikes or even wearing shorts in April! The town seemed to be recovering and there was a fair number of tourists there, however nearly all the shops on the ground level were still closed. Only a few restaurants near the harbour were open.
On the mission back up the hill, I was thankful the road was closed, with no cars pushing us, I was happy to go at my own pace more or less all the way up the hill. While cycling down, the landslips were apparent, but with such speed we didn’t take too much notice. On the way up however, I had all the time in the world whilst I was puffing away, to look around and take it all in. It was devastating to see scooters, boats, and pieces of people’s houses in the piles of debris. In places, the road had broken away completely. It was going to take a long time to rebuild everything that the floods had torn away.
After an hour of cycling up hill, with a few stops along the way, I made it to the top of the hill. When at the bottom, Marco proposed the idea of coming to pick me up due to the fact my head was rattling with a headache, but I am so glad that I persisted and got up there. Anyway, it would have taken him a few hours to cycle up and then drive 50 odd km’s! I’d have to say though, I couldn’t have done it without his encouragement, as soon as he even suggesting coming to pick me up, it made me push myself harder!
When we arrived back to the apartment that evening, I flaked out. As soon as we’d had dinner and a shower, I was out like a light! However this was a good thing as we had planned another full on day for Tuesday. With a 6.45am start, we headed to Florence, determined to queue and get into the Uffizi gallery.
Thankfully, with careful research carried out by Marco in the 5 minutes before we left the house, he found the perfect free parking just out of the city centre, which meant that we went on a whirlwind adventure around Florence to find it before setting off into the city by bus.
The Uffizi gallery was spectacular, and to help my observation skills, I was thankful of having a week of art lectures not so long ago. A lot of the paintings which we viewed in the lectures I was able to see up close and they were just stunning. After the day mulling around Florence, we headed back to our apartment near Pignone for a relaxing evening of cooking pasta!
Wednesday morning we were greeted at breakfast with the sound of thunder, a good start to the day! When the electricity went off, we took that as a message to get out and hit the road. A mad dash to the car up the narrow alleyways of the village, dismantle the bikes and off we go! Instead of the planned cycle ride along Cinque Terre, we decided to do the all-weather option and drive from village to village, which albeit will never be as good as walking or cycling, but we were able to see what we could.
A slightly stressful drive home has left us thankful to be back home in our own bed!
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