I was excited to see a familiar face and take a break from cycling. Over the previous ten days I had but one English conversation (with the three German girls) and the lack of interaction was starting to get to me. By the time Morgin and I returned from the airport it was late so we decided to crash and save the festivities for the next day. After breakfast we hopped on a train departing for Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a UNESCO world heritage site on Italy’s west coast comprised of 5 amazing towns. Built directly overlooking one of the most beautiful coasts in the world; they are a sight to behold. Cinque Terre was not always a tourist centre. In the past, agriculture was the main economy and the mountainside is a procession of carefully terraced orchards and gardens, adding to the already beautiful panoramic. With the clear blue ocean gently crashing against the cliffside it is hard not to be impressed. After checking into our hotel we spent the rest of the day relaxing and walking around Manarole; one of the five towns. We found a natural swimming pool where the local hooligans take pleasure jumping off the rocks into the water to the delight of ogling tourists. During our swim we befriended four Canadians that we would see a few times during our trip.
Cinque Terra can lay claim to both Pesto and Foccacia bread. Its quite surprising the tiny Cinque Terre has birthed two foods that have been reproduced and enjoyed the world around. After eating our delicious supper; pesto pasta, we found a bar with a open jam session. There was a collection of 6 unbelievable musicians jamming out to Italian and English songs. The home brewed wine was 3 eu for half a litre; not surprisingly this lead to a pleasant over indulgence. As it was an open jam, the musicians asked if anybody wanted to come up and join. Our Canadian friends (the ones we met swimming) took them up on the offer. As it turns out 3 of the four Canadians study musical theater and one of them toured with Shania Twain (or maybe it was Cheryl Crow, I cant really remember, the wine was making everything foggy). Making Canada proud, they belted out tunes into the early morning to the delight of everyone in the bar. Equally drunk and sitting beside us was a 55-year-old architect lady who wanted to smoke hash with us. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes before it throws up. We declined her offer and decided it was time to sleep as the bar had emptied out the lights were being turned off.
Cinque Terra can lay claim to both Pesto and Foccacia bread. Its quite surprising the tiny Cinque Terre has birthed two foods that have been reproduced and enjoyed the world around. After eating our delicious supper; pesto pasta, we found a bar with a open jam session. There was a collection of 6 unbelievable musicians jamming out to Italian and English songs. The home brewed wine was 3 eu for half a litre; not surprisingly this lead to a pleasant over indulgence. As it was an open jam, the musicians asked if anybody wanted to come up and join. Our Canadian friends (the ones we met swimming) took them up on the offer. As it turns out 3 of the four Canadians study musical theater and one of them toured with Shania Twain (or maybe it was Cheryl Crow, I cant really remember, the wine was making everything foggy). Making Canada proud, they belted out tunes into the early morning to the delight of everyone in the bar. Equally drunk and sitting beside us was a 55-year-old architect lady who wanted to smoke hash with us. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes before it throws up. We declined her offer and decided it was time to sleep as the bar had emptied out the lights were being turned off.
Words can’t do justice to Cinque’s beauty and I will let the pictures do the talking. For the next two days we had a lethargic pace of life consisting of hiking around, drinking coffee and bullshitting. Over the past few years Morgin and I hadn’t hung out too much as we both spent most of our time traveling the world. Morgin is living in Germany and working in Iraq, Darfur (Sudan) and the jungle in Papua New Guinea and I have been traveling Africa the Middle East and Europe.
On the last night in Cinque Terre we went to a bar that got our attention because of the collection of people chanting and singing outside. This was a rare sight in the quiet towns of Cinque. A homeless man approached us like a centipede that is missing 98 legs. Taking a seat, he started blabbering on about stories from his youth in Croatia. A few of the more interesting stories involved crawling through mine fields and almost dying in quicksand until the police saved him (The stories were a welcome contrast to the useless jabbering we endured at the hands of the American girls we had to share a dorm with. One of the girls had a mind like a steel trap; only it had been left out too long and rusted shut. They chirped endlessly about which boys they ‘made out’ with the previous night, and other useless rabble). Back at the bar our curiosity got the best of us and we asked one of the guys outside, what it was that they were chanting about “there are two people who run this bar, one we like, one we don’t. The one that we don’t is working tonight, so we chant and sing because we know how stressful it is for him”. Minutes later a ‘piss bag’ was thrown from one of the residential balconies overlooking the bar, hitting the pavement like a hefty bag filled with vegetable soup. A local told us this was a regular occurrence whenever the people living close by got angered with the noise level at the bar. At closing time, everybody went down to the ocean armed with bongos, alcohol and hash. The music played into the early morning
On the last night in Cinque Terre we went to a bar that got our attention because of the collection of people chanting and singing outside. This was a rare sight in the quiet towns of Cinque. A homeless man approached us like a centipede that is missing 98 legs. Taking a seat, he started blabbering on about stories from his youth in Croatia. A few of the more interesting stories involved crawling through mine fields and almost dying in quicksand until the police saved him (The stories were a welcome contrast to the useless jabbering we endured at the hands of the American girls we had to share a dorm with. One of the girls had a mind like a steel trap; only it had been left out too long and rusted shut. They chirped endlessly about which boys they ‘made out’ with the previous night, and other useless rabble). Back at the bar our curiosity got the best of us and we asked one of the guys outside, what it was that they were chanting about “there are two people who run this bar, one we like, one we don’t. The one that we don’t is working tonight, so we chant and sing because we know how stressful it is for him”. Minutes later a ‘piss bag’ was thrown from one of the residential balconies overlooking the bar, hitting the pavement like a hefty bag filled with vegetable soup. A local told us this was a regular occurrence whenever the people living close by got angered with the noise level at the bar. At closing time, everybody went down to the ocean armed with bongos, alcohol and hash. The music played into the early morning
The 5 towns are connected by a stunning hiking path
Senor Mackie
We bid adieu to Cinque and caught the train to Pisa. Unbeknownst to me, Pisa was once a very powerful city with one of the top navy’s in the world, rivaling Genoa and Venice. Pisa’s decline started at the battle of Meloria, when the numerically disadvantaged Genovese fleet destroyed them. After, the Genovese burned the port and salted the ground in the surrounding area. Florence followed and sacked the city. The Medici family (the main ruling family of Florence) set up multiple universities and research stations as they rebuilt the city. This tradition continues today, as Pisa is one of the most sought after research and university centres in Italy. Without saying, the main attraction is the leaning tower. Recently the scaffolding was taken off the leaning tower after almost 20 years! The Italians performed an engineering miracle as the foundation needed to be completely redone or run the risk of the tower falling over. They had to dig out all the soil (the reason of the lean is the soil is very poor for construction. Pisa is only a few feet above sea level and the ground is a mixture of clay and mud and cant support large structures) and replace it with a sturdier substance. Almost equally as impressive and right beside the tower are the cathedral and baptistry. This particular location for the tower and cathedral was chosen because their used to be a river flowing behind them. The river no longer exists.
Sadly that was the end of Morgins trip in Italy. He caught a plane back to Germany and I boarded a ferry to Sardinia. Back on two wheels, I will be spending the next month cruising around the gorgeous Mediterranean island until my next rendezvous in Milan for a John Butler Trio Concert on June 29th with some friends from Chamonix.
Sadly that was the end of Morgins trip in Italy. He caught a plane back to Germany and I boarded a ferry to Sardinia. Back on two wheels, I will be spending the next month cruising around the gorgeous Mediterranean island until my next rendezvous in Milan for a John Butler Trio Concert on June 29th with some friends from Chamonix.
I apologize, but picture is refusing to be rotated.
Inside the cathedral
Solid gold roof