Cinque Terre

I know this isn't typical, but I had an infuriating Cinque Terre experience.

 

Maybe it was expectation. A series of five villages dotting the cliffsides in Liguaria, with houses hanging over the Mediterranean. You can't drive here- you either are on foot or on a train that runs from La Spezia and stops at each of the five villages. We were staying in the first of the five, Riomaggiore.

 

Oh, also, there is a ferry connecting the towns but the seas were rough and it was cancelled.

 

 All the cliffside beach trails were closed- we had bad thunderstorms and rough seas that made them too dangerous and they close it off. So we bought train tickets to get to Manarola, the next town over.

 
 


 So, from the train platform, I realize that you can look down the tunnel and see Manarola. In fact, all the villages were just minutes apart by train, and you could see them down the line...and yet. The train. Never came. Or rather, we dealt with constant cancellations and every single time we were on the platform, it was 10-20 minutes late. So instead of there being frequent, useful train service, we'd be stuck at each village and then the train station for hours without being able to escape. I was about to run down the train tunnel 500 yards to get to my destination, as I could see it but the train just wouldn't come.

 


Hilarity ensued, as it does when you are traveling with family, and the family is all as frustrated as you are.





It was really unique and charming, with an old-world fishing village feel, and we did get pretty decent seafood while there. If I would have been in a better mood, I think things would have been overall sunnier for me.



So anyway...don't let my stories of mushy pasta and infuriating train delays deter you. I'm sure this is perfectly awesome in summertime, or when the 5 hour cliffside hiking trails are actually open and you get to the other villages without being held hostage by the rail.



Ah,  but leaving was a pain in the ass as well, as we had a cancelled train, followed more than an hour later by a very delayed train, which messed up the rest of our travel day. So much for getting into Florence early!  Or at all, suckers!

Recco

The highways in Piedmont were ridiculous. Winding up and down mountainsides, through more tunnels than I could count as our GPS and radio gave out every two minutes. Really fun, but exhausting. Any chance to stop between Milan and Florence was a good one, and someone had clued us in to a local specialty in Recco:

Focaccia al formaggio. Like it name implies: it is doughy soft bread, nicely drowned in a generous puddle of cheese. It's like fondue, I think? I don't know. It was addictive.

The town was also quite nice- seaside, mountains, fishing village. Old men gathered by the beach to play bacci or boule or whatever they call it here. People walking dogs and kids playing futball.

Fethiye

Our last day on the boat.

Our Capitan took ill during the night. Quite alarming, but he could barely get out of bed with the fever chills and flu. The cook and deckhand stepped in and got the boat to a cove when they realized the Captain could barely uncurl himself from a vomiting fetal position, never mind navigate a ship. A new Capitan was ordered up, and they took our sick one to hospital.

After lunch and one last swim in a secluded cove, the boat pulled into port at Fethiye. We said our goodbyes and all went our separate ways. That is, after the rep from the boat had made sure that we paid our tabs.

Fethiye had a booming port and market, but as soon as you climbed the hill in town, it because a desperately impoverished place. Home-made houses made with scraps of plywood and sheet metal and chickens everywhere.

THe rock tombs carved out of the cliffside were most impressive.

There was a fish market in Fethiye. You chose your fish, then you gave it to one of the cafes nearby to cook it up for you.

Çalış beach was a gorgeous place to take in the sunset.

This part of the coast seemed to cater to British tourist, as every other place on the boardwalked served fish and chips and bangers and mash. Because, you know. When you are on vacation someplace where the cooks actually know how to respectfully cook vegetables, you start to crave mushy peas. We avoided the anglos and sat on the beach with our kebaps and effes. Bliss.

I had no idea how beautiful Turkey would be.

St Nicholas Island

We anchored in a calm bay near St Nicholas Island. So did lots of other boats, and there was a good amount of ice cream being sold from small skiffs.

We climbed to the top of the island to catch the sunset. The island is covered with ruins of Byzantine churches.

The captain had told us, "Nothing is fucking free in this country". You get charged to see anything, but it's generally around a dollar or two. That is, unless the "official" selling tickets at the dock happens to not be there that day, or headed home early, or had to pee. It's dubious where the money is going to in most of these places, but I'm operating on the assumption that if we are wealthy enough to travel to the middle of nowhere in Turkey, a few more dollars can be thrown down to see an amazing old island.

And damn it, we hiked all the way up there and forgot the wine.

We hiked through the ruins of what used to be a huge tunnel that connected some of the churches. There were gigantic spiders all through it. I had to do a few dances to make sure I wasn't bringing them home with me.

It is called St Nick's because that is were the original tomb of the Saint was. It's long been a Christian pilgrimage site. When we were there, it was pretty quiet and we had it to ourselves to enjoy the sun sinking below the clouds.

Most of these islands and sites had herds of feral goats roaming around to keep the vegetation from choking out the trail.