Italians love

Right now, I’m sitting in the jolly kid’s playground in the fantastic town of Vernazza one of the five (cinque) terre towns we’ll be visiting over the next five (cinque) days. While it would have been “neater” to hike between towns staying in a different one each night, we’ve somehow gained more luggage(no souvenirs, mostly books) and Ethan’s backpack has zipper issues and Angie has backpack issues which means I carry 2-3 packs at a time including the mammoth one on my back, so. . . I say forget what’s neat. Capisce? Vernazza is the crown jewel of the 5 so we have an apartment here and are hiking to the other 4 towns this week. (2 hour hike each way). We could take the 3-4 minute train but the amount of pizza and gelato we’ve been pounding back, gotta hike.

We arrived the other night after way too much train. We started off on an overnight train from Bordeaux, leaving at 1030pm. We reserved a sleeper (thank God and Angie) and I don’t know why but I had visions of something bigger. At the very least, fun. It was neither. No more than 8ft high and 6ft wide, it had 6 bunk beds and nothing else expect some poor old French guy who was the odd Close out. We arrived at the very dirty, crowded and not Nice (pronounced niece) station at 9am the next morning. None of us slept great (strangely the French guy slept amazingly) plus we were all starving so you can imagine how that went. Our next train left 90 minutes later – arriving in Genoa 3 hrs after - just 7 minutes before our third train pulled out.

We rode train #3 for an hour before getting off and boarding our final train, thankfully the shortest of them all. 14 hours, 4 trains, no sleep and ALL our luggage was enough to make us insane. We were grouchy zombies as we walked through beautiful Vernazza but somehow we found our apartment right away (a first) only to discover it was on the top floor which meant carrying all 8 bags up each and every one of the 70 steps to our apartment. Normally a walk like that up stairs that many would have been it, but after the kind of day we had I’m surprised we actually made it without someone losing their mind. As bad as all this sounds, it was probably worse. But. . . there’s nothing like personal space in the form of nudity and hot water and after all of us enjoyed both (privately in the form of a shower) we felt much better, said our sorries, had a group hug before proceeding downstairs (finally bag free).

We told Maddie she could choose the restaurant and she struck gold picking the best pizzeria in town. We devoured 3 “mamma mia oh how my heart pumps slower because of your greatness pizzas”, 2 helpings of Gelato each and my favorite – the local culture. I’ll let Angie and her gifted words paint the picture for you but let me just say this: While the French love what is beautiful, Italians love what is. . . Whether it’s the kind grandpa on the train helping our kids get off while patting them on the head and speaking passionate Italian, or the waiter laughing after asking the kids if they wanted wine too or the 75 year old who smiles from ear to ear every time we buy Gelato from him. Italians, especially Italians here, love what is. . .life.

The best though is Martina’s father, Guceppe. Martina is the woman we are renting our apartment from. When we arrived he must have seen us because he was right there and eager to help. He’s the town chatter, apparently, because every day on our stroll he’s sitting in the centre of town laughing and talking with everyone, including us, multiple times a day, showering us with gifts of grapes and homemade wine. Guceppe has grown up here you see, and this is his town which means all who come are his to care for. I have been humbled by his generous spirit and hope to learn from him this week. He, along with the other residents, love their life and this small town of 500 on the Italian coast has become a magnet for tourists everywhere (mostly the US and Germany). Here’s why. In general, people want a better life so they come to The Cinque Terre for its breath taking views, legendary hiking trails, mouth watering pesto, and party in your mouth gelato. They get it all but they end up getting something more, something they didn’t expect. A way of life. The challenge of course, is taking it home.

John