The Italian Riviera

Our 5 star hotel.
see all photos »

We left nice and drove around for about an hour looking for a gas station with diesel.  We decided to take the scenic route from Nice to Genova so that we could see Monaco, Menton, and the small ocean towns along the way.  What was about a 2 hour drive turned into 8 hours of windy traffic.  Luckily, our car runs on diesel so it only took about a ¼ of a tank, which costs about $18.

We got on the Autostrade and quickly learned the rules of the Italian road.  Jennica is in love with Italian-style driving – fast, brash, courteous, and no-nonsense.  It was quite easy to get used to and the French really know how to make an easy clutch.  The Autostrade is smooth and you can do 135km/hr when the “speed limit” is 80.  The best of all is that they have off ramps for EVERY exit so your lane doesn’t ever suddenly change into an exit only lane.

We’ve sunned ourselves on a beach we shared with Conan O’Brien, though we have yet to see him.

Our campsite's restaurant atop a big hill overlooking countryside.
see all photos »

Anyway, we found a campsite in a small town called Riva Trigoso, outside of the Cinque Terre region.  There is a cheap train (plus they never check your tickets so sometimes we didn’t buy any) that takes about 30 minutes to get to Monterosso al Mare, the first of the “5 Terre”.  Monterosso is the “resort town” of the 5, and is full of Americans, including Conan O’Brien (according to some girls we talked to on the train).  Jennica also overheard someone saying they’d seen Mark Wahlberg, but who cares about Mark Wahlberg when you’re on the same beach as Conan O’Brien!  The next town south(east) is Vernazza, Rick Steves’ favorite.  This was not our favorite, but they did have the only internet café so we spent a good portion of time there.

Vernazza
see all photos »

The train runs between each of the towns, but there are also trails between each of them, trails of varying lengths, difficulties, and ruggedness.  If you’re lucky like we were, you’ll start your hike when the ticket guy is closing up for the day, too late for them to charge you 5 Euros to gain access to these trails, which are actually part of a national park.  Upon our arrival in the 5 Terre, we hiked from Vernazza to Corniglia, a rocky, cliffy, uphill climb lasting about 1 hour and 15 minutes, and we weren’t going slow.  Corniglia was by far our least favorite town – it seemed dead, like no one did anything there.

Vernazza's harbor
see all photos »

The next town down the coast is Manarola, which has the BEST food.  Best pesto we’ve ever tasted, and some damn good wine.  Oh, and the desserts, we won’t even try to describe them, it would just be mean to you all.  We cowboyed ourselves up for the hike between Manarola and Riomaggiore only to find out that the “hike” is actually a comfortable stroll down a completely pedestrianized, lit walkway with fantastic views (see pictures).  Riomaggiore was also a pleasant town, so Rick Steves is full of crap.

Corniglia
see all photos »

We explored the towns of the Cinque Terra over the course of 4 days, each night returning to our campsite after a very long walk from the neighboring town of Sestri Levante (the train didn’t stop at Riva Trigoso in the evenings).  Each night, we improved our “hotel room” (car) with more “window coverings” (straw beach mats and packing tape) and tried several “beds” (seats).  By the last night, we’d managed to block light out of each window by shutting clothing in the door and find decent sleeping positions and use the proper accessories (water bottles for foot rest, bag of swimsuits for pillow) to make ourselves as comfortable as possible in a tiny, European car.

Riomaggiore
see all photos »

Friday morning, we drove back to Nice and found a great hotel room, with towels and toilet that doesn’t leak pee, and a bath mat, and a garbage, and provided toilet paper, and tv and soap and a light switch by the bed and an armoire.  We’re very pleased by simple luxuries after a crappy hostel and “Hotel Rental Car”.  The car works and we'll be using it again, but there's nothing like a flat, padded surface to sleep on, one that doesn't involve hanging your own shades and contorting yourself to avoid honking the horn with your foot.

Lifeguardog
see all photos »

Friday night, while Laena was making a phone call, a kindly wino named Felippe engaged in conversation with Jennica outside the phone booth.  After about 25 minutes of listening to him tell us the same stories about 14 times, we managed to get away by promising to send him and his sister postcards from home.  He was very genuine and knew several languages that he taught himself by watching DVDs.  So far, out of all our time spent in France, Felippe the self-ascribed “drunkard” has spoken more English to us than anyone other than Jennica’s friend Felipe from Paris.  Though, we don’t know how much of it counts considering he was pretty much on a loop.

Sunbathing in Monterosso
see all photos »

Anyway, as you read this, we’re probably sunning ourselves on the beach, planning our trip through Tuscany, reading our respective Harry Potter books.