The Hiking Houses

For our final European holiday (while easily living within Europe), David and I headed to Cinque Terre with the Tarts.  I absolutely love Italy, and I’d wanted to visit Cinque Terre for years.  I was initially put off by how difficult it is to get there, but once we were on our way, I realized I had nothing to worry about.  Sure, we took lots of planes, trains, and automobiles, but part of the appeal of Cinque Terre is its remoteness. 

Cinque Terre means ‘5 Towns’ in Italian, and that’s exactly what it is – five small, seaside villages in a national park.  Cars are not allowed within the hamlets, so tourists are encouraged to hike between them.  The trails are clearly marked, but they are a bit treacherous in places and the walk is definitely not just a stroll in the park.  Many people choose to take the train or ferry between villages instead.

Alyson and I booked flights for the four of us to Genoa and then a hotel in Manarola, the fourth town in the series of five.  When we arrived in Genoa on Friday morning, we got on a bus to the train station, and from there, found seats on a regional train to Cinque Terre.

When we arrived in Manarola that afternoon, the directions to our hotel stated, ‘Exit the train station, walk through the tunnel, and head towards the sea.’  That is a testament to how small the towns along the coast are.  It’s nearly impossible to get lost, and yet the next day we met two women from New Jersey that had gotten very lost on their hike between Monterosso and Vernazza.  How does that happen?  (Too much wine is my guess.)

Throughout the area, there were either signs like the first one, or red and white stripes along walls, rocks, and posts to assure hikers they were one the correct path.

Sure enough, our hotel was found near the water, surrounded by fishing boats.  Across the street was a focacceria and each morning, we were woken by the smell of fresh baked bread.  Once we checked in, dropped off our backpacks, and picked up a few cones of creamy gelato, Paul, Alyson, David, and I decided to hike to Riomaggiore.

Our hotel was the pink building with the awning close to the bridge

Unfortunately the coastal trail between Manarola and Riomaggiore, Via dell’Amore (or Lover’s Lane), was closed the weekend we were in Cinque Terre.  In fact, most of the seaside paths were closed due to rock slides, so we hiked up in the hills instead. 

Easy trail of Via dell'Amore

Slightly rougher hike through the mountains

At least these steps had a railing!

The hike to Riomaggiore took about 90 minutes, and brought us through picturesque vineyards and gardens full of wildflowers.

Tiny grapes growing on the vine

Riomaggiore

After taking the train back to Manarola, we had dinner at our hotel’s restaurant, Marina Piccola.  We cooled off with refreshing local white wine, limoncino (Cinque Terre’s version of limoncello), and then packed on the carbs with bowls of seafood pasta and pesto gnocchi.

On Saturday morning, we decided to hike the remainder of Cinque Terre – from Manarola to Monterosso.  Paul carried a day pack full of water bottles and beach towels, but the water was gone before we even left the outskirts of Manarola.  Luckily, within Italy there are public water fountains everywhere.  And they are adorable, with spouts shaped like various animals, offering weary travelers cool, clean water.  

Also, many of the vineyard owners were working in their fields on Saturday afternoon, and easily persuaded us to break for their homemade lemonade.

The coastal path from Manarola to Corniglia was of course closed, so we hiked through the hillside again.  

After a couple of hours, we reached a tiny village at the top of a hill, with great views over the landscape.  A small winery was just opening, so we sat down for a snack of bruschetta and sweet, syrupy sciacchetra, Cinque Terre dessert wine. 

Paul wore a Texas shirt every day in Italy, as an homage to our pending return to the Lone Star State.

We found Grumpy Cat's Italian cousin near the winery.  This cat was miserable... 

When we reached Corniglia, we had even more focaccia and gelato for lunch, and then headed to Vernazza.  

Here, we were warned that the coastal path was ‘officially’ closed as well, but ‘unofficially,’ everyone was still using it.  So we decided to risk the rockslides and walk along the sea.  Truthfully, I have no idea why those paths were closed in the first place – they looked much safer to me than the interior trails we’d been hiking along.

Vernazza was stunning.  It was my favorite town of all five.  I loved getting lost in the alleyways, the clock tower in the harbor, and the hidden beach accessible only through a huge hole blown through the rock. 

We made it!  Almost there... only one more town to go!

Vernazza harbor

Plus David and I had the best cheese focaccia and dark chocolate gelato in Vernazza.  David’s face says it all in this photo – he’s like a giddy schoolboy with his afternoon snack!

13 miles and 7½ hours later, we had conquered all five towns and arrived in Monterosso. 

The walk would not have taken quite as long had all of the trails been open, but we were glad they weren't.  Instead, we had the opportunity to explore other tiny villages in the hills, meet some really sweet Italians working in their vineyards, and get better views from above.

That night, we celebrated at Trattoria dal Billy back in Manarola.  We split a giant platter of lobster pasta and watched the sun set from the restaurant’s patio perched atop a steep cliff.  It was a beautiful ending to a perfect day.

Manarola at night

Sunday, we took the train to Santa Margherita and then a ferry along the coast to San Fruttuoso and Portofino.

San Fruttuoso is a miniscule beach hidden in a cove and dominated by a Benedictine abbey.  

It can be reached either by ferry or an hour-long hike through the woods from Portofino.  We all decided that we had done enough hiking on Friday and Saturday, and we would be exploring by ferry from then on.

Plus after all of the hiking we'd done over the past few months in Uganda, Cape Town, Italy, etc. my shoes finally called it quits.  By the time we got back to Manarola on Saturday evening, I had multiple holes in my tennies.  Guess I need to go shopping! :)

We relaxed on the San Fruttuoso beach for most of the day.  

We talked, read, and finally, got hot enough to attempt getting in the water.  With some liquid courage from the wine we had brought along with us, we slowly inched our way into the chilly waters of the Med.

The water looks beautiful and inviting, but it was soooo cold!

After many, many, many minutes of huffing and puffing and whining my way into the sea, I finally made it all of the way in.  As I swam around, furiously, trying to warm myself up, I exclaimed to David, ‘This water is gorgeous!  It’s just like Sardinia, but freakin’ freezing!’  An Italian man nearby heard me and started laughing.  ‘Hahaha, that’s exactly right!’ he said to me.

I beamed.

I was relating to a real-life Italian about another place within Italy!  My Italian grandparents would be proud.

After our swim, we dried off in the sun.  Warm and happy, we waited for the ferry to take us to Portofino.

For lunch, we had pizza in Portofino, and then shopped for some outrageously priced art.  

Nice yachts in the bay

Portofino is known for its painted houses.  The trompe l'oeil paintings are meant to fool the viewer into believing the house's facades are three-dimensional. 

That evening, we caught the train from Santa Margherita back to Cinque Terre and had dinner at L'Ancora della Tortuga, a former WWII bunker carved into the hillside of Monterosso.  Paul entertained us by playing with his seafood.  David, Alyson, and I had had enough shellfish by then.  David ordered the spaghetti bolognese, while Alyson and I chose the Genoese-style ravioli with walnut pesto cream sauce.

Mmmm, parmesan

One of the items on Paul’s bucket list was taking an iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa photo.  While booking flights, Alyson and I made sure to fly into Genoa but out of Pisa to give Paul the chance to tick that item off his list.  So before our flight back to London on Monday night, we had a full day planned!

First was a short ferry ride to Portovenere, another seaside village outside Cinque Terre recommended to Alyson by an Italian coworker.  

The town was made famous by Lord Byron, as he stayed in the area and swam across the gulf to visit Shelley, another Romantic English poet.  It was another picturesque place, dominated by old churches and medieval castle walls.  

After a couple of hours of wandering through the marketplace and admiring the view from the ramparts, we grabbed some pizza and gelato and then made our way back to the ferry.

Then we took the train from our hub of Manarola to Pisa.  When we arrived at the Pisa train station, I spotted the Leaning Tower from the window and I could not believe my eyes – it was leaning so much!!

Ah!  Watch out below!

Pisa was a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be.  I felt bad because people probably just pass through on their way to Tuscany or other parts of Italy, but there is a lot to offer.  The Leaning Tower is the bell tower of the gigantic Pisa Cathedral.  On the other end of the complex is the ornate, Romanesque baptistery.

I was thrilled to discover that visitors can actually go into the tower, and climb up the flight of stairs to get to the top.  So after taking an absurd amount of pictures, we went inside.  

David's Leaning Tower of Pisa pic

A normal pic

This one is ridiculous.  

I was standing just a couple of feet from Alyson, but the tower really does create an optical illusion of making me look tiny, and Alyson look like a giant. 

Another normal pic with the group

It was obvious there was something wrong within the tower.  Some parts of the walk up were extremely easy, and felt like we weren't really climbing at all, while other parts of the staircase were steeply sloped.  It was strange, but really neat.

After our last hike, we had dinner in the shadow of the tower at a small café. 

Then it was time to leave.

Two days later, we left our home in London.  We are definitely going to miss travelling around Europe with friends, but I can’t think of a better way to say ciao.

Time to Say Goodbye

Samuel Johnson, the Londoner who compiled A Dictionary of the English Language once said, ‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.’

Over the past four years, David and I have strived to enjoy all that London offers.  I'm proud of what we've been able to accomplish and be part of, not only in London, but England and elsewhere.

We have taken advantage of every opportunity we've received to travel around Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.  We have created massive to-do lists and spent evenings and weekends ticking things off by eating out at the hottest new restaurants or booking tickets to sold-out shows.

About a year ago, we bought a guide book called Tired of London, Tired of Life:  One Thing a Day to Do in London.  Since then, I've been maniacal about getting off the beaten path and making an effort to do all 365 things listed in the book.  We've managed to do a lot (but not all 365!), including:

Visiting the HMS Belfast moored in the Thames across from the Tower of London.  The Royal Navy Cruiser is now a museum that gives visitors insight into a sailor’s life onboard the ship during its Arctic journeys and on D-Day as it supported Allied troop landings.

Attending The Sound of Music production at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre during the height of summer.

Silently walking through Denis Sever’s House in Spitalfields near Christmas-time to get a better understanding of how people lived and celebrated the holidays in the 18th century.  

Singing Christmas carols along with hundreds of other Londoners during St. Martin-in-the-Fields’ Carols by Candlelight concert in December. 

Enjoying a midnight snack of reuben sandwiches in the American Bar at the Stafford Hotel.  

The hotel, in St. James, was the base for American servicemen stationed in London during WWII.  

The wine cellars below the hotel have a history dating back 360 years, and were used by the men as shelter during the Blitz. 

The Junior League of London held a wine-tasting fundraiser last fall in the cellars with Master Sommelier Gino Nardella.  After drinking lots of wine and exploring the hidden passageways full of vintage bottles and WWII memorabilia, we went above-ground to the American Bar.  

The bar is full of unusual items donated by American visitors.  The first is said to have been a small carving of an eagle.  Now the room is covered in flags, model airplanes, signed photos of celebs, baseball caps, etc. etc.

Viewing the 25,591st performance of Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap at St Martin’s Theatre near Covent Garden.  Mousetrap is the longest-running play in the world, and yet, audiences have managed to keep ‘whodoneit’ a secret.  I was shocked to learn the killer’s identity!

Drinking a pint of French cider at the French House in Soho, the bar where Charles de Gaulle wrote his famous speech, A tous les Francais.  Today, the pub has no TVs and music, and allows no cell phones, making it an ideal place for a good pint and good conversation.

Checking out travel guides at Daunt Books in Marylebone or browsing the selection at Hatchards on Piccadilly, the oldest bookshop in London.

And finally, catching the last tube home after a night out on the town.  Transport for London is finally agreeing to run a 24-hour service on the weekends, but this is not going into effect until 2015.  Of course, the minute we leave London, they open a Five Guys Burgers and Fries in Westfield and start to run the tube full-time during the weekends!

David and I also did a lot of things that were not part of the book or any to-do list.  These were things that we just happened to stumble upon while wandering through the city, reading Timeout articles, or talking to friends.

We discovered Electric Cinema in Notting Hill one night after grabbing Jamaican food at Boom Burgers on Portobello Road.  We had been to the historic Coronet theatre before, pretending to be Julie Roberts and Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, but Electric Cinema is much better!  The theatre offers its guests plush couches or snug armchairs, cashmere blankets, top-shelf drinks, and food from the Electric Diner next door.  We loved it so much that we went two nights in a row!

A few months ago, I met the women of my book club for afternoon tea at Sketch, a restaurant near Oxford Circus.  The restaurant is not famous for its food or tea, but for its bathrooms.  They are continuously voted one of the must-see, strangest bathrooms in the world.  So after many, many cups of tea, I needed a potty break and made my way upstairs… 

There, I found about a dozen egg-shaped white pods beneath a technicolor ceiling.  Half of the room was doused in pink light and the other half blue, to delineate the men’s side of the room from the women’s.  Within each egg/pod, there was a toilet and some kind of alien music with a man in the background talking gibberish.  It was odd.  Very odd.

For some reason, the British Library is not mentioned in Tired of London, Tired of Life.  As much as I love books, it took me more than three years to finally visit the library.  And it is so much more than a library.  Besides housing thousands of books and various reading rooms, the library contains numerous other treasures like Beethoven’s tuning fork and the original sheet music to Symphony Nine.  The first-ever print of Alice in Wonderland is surrounded by other first editions.  There are Beatles lyrics scrawled on the backs of birthday cards.  As its highlight, the library houses the Magna Carta. 

Though David and I never made time to see a play at Shakespeare’s Globe, we were given the opportunity to visit in April as part of the Junior League’s Spring Masquerade Ball.  We dressed in our finest, donned our masks, and headed to the Globe for the ball. 

It was also David’s birthday that evening (along with a few other guys we knew), so our friend had this themed masquerade cake made for the birthday boys.

We danced all night, but I thought the coolest thing about the party was the fact that it was under the Globe in a museum full of costumes and props. 

After so many amazing experiences, we are sad to leave London.  We will miss the ease of travel out of Heathrow to exotic destinations around the world.  We will miss the diversity and history of London – like walking down the street with a huge new skyscraper on our left and a 700-year-old church on our right.  We will miss not having to worry about driving and getting stuck in traffic.  We will miss the seasons (yes, even the colder, wetter months in the winter when we can curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and digestives and watch terrible reality TV).  And most of all, we will miss our family and the friends we've made.

Beautiful Summer day crossing the blue Bridge near Buckingham Palace

Walking Kirby around our neighborhood, admiring the Spring cherry blossoms

It is mixed emotions, however, as we’re really looking forward to moving back to Texas, too.  There, we will be first-time home-owners and we cannot wait to make our house a home.  We can’t help but look forward to all of the conveniences of America – from driving ourselves around instead of being delayed due to train signal failures or tube strikes, to having a dryer to dry our clothes, rather than line-drying everything.  And a dishwasher!  We went three years hand-washing dishes and I can tell you, that is no fun.  No fun at all.  And because everything is bigger in Texas, we cannot wait to have more space!  Instead of using our third ‘spare bedroom’ as a closet, we will have real closets and real spare bedrooms for guests!  We will have a yard for Kirby and a pool to keep cool in.  And most importantly, we will have our friends and family close.

So on that note, it’s time to say goodbye to London, the city we've grown to love and call home.  We are looking forward to the future and all it has to offer, back in America.