Italy, Cinque Terre: quintessentially quaint, dangerously debaucherous

After a long day of trains, layovers, elevators, trains and shuttle buses, we arrived at our Bungalo-style campsite a few train stops outside Cinque Terre. We = me & 2 girls from Minnesota I met at a chicken doner stand in Berlin. Although disappointed at the unavailability of campfire, our creative juices rose to the very-tiny-corner-store occassion and we feasted on salad with tomatoes and oily tuna (the oil from the tuna can serving as a decent dressing) and PB&A sandwiches, where 'A' stands for AWESOME. or applesauce.... which we thought was jelly when we bought it from the store.

A beer, some other friends our age, and the world cup opening ceremonies on TV later, and we were soundly sleeping in our tent-style bungalows, cool breeze and fresh air leaving us in anticipation of the next day's hike.

Beginning in Riomaggiore, along the coast on 'via de l'amore' to Manarola, a decent clip to Corniglia where we split lunch 3-ways (fresh pizza, brushetta-type stuff and pasta smothered in the region's pesto), a crazy uphill, steep, twisty way to Vernazza - where we stopped briefly for gelato to provide incentive for the toughest part of the trail - stairs, twists, stairs, woods, and stairs into Monterosso.

Opted for raspberry gelato this time. Absolutely fantastic. Seriously, how do they make it taste SO similar to the real thing?

In the 4th town, we met 3 other guys, 2 from Toronto who themselves had picked up a solo Kiwi a few days back. The 6 of us missioned and sweated our way into Monterosso together, and upon arrival, not hesitating for a split second as we dove into the cold, refreshing Mediterranean - after all, it had been taunting us all day from JUST down below.

As all 6-hour hikes should end, we found ourselves a nice restaurant by the coast, ordered 2L of wine and some appetizers to share, thinking dinner would come a bit later, back at our bungalows.

However, out of the corner of our eyes, what's that? 3 more bottles for 16 euro? With cups? Let's toast to it on these rocks by the water. Well, those were great bottles, let's find some more. Needless to say, the remainder of the evening is slightly fuzzy, and best described in ratios. I leave it to the audience to decide whether or not they are positives. In no particular order...

3 boys / 3 girls
9 bottles / 6 people
1.5 bottles / 1 Michelle
1 message / 1 bottle
1 shoe / 2 feet
1 night / 3 locations

And the next morning...

Many types of pain / each person