"Nice place" -Antonio

Before we left the states, we had every hostel booked and had paid deposits at each destination. We were expecting to have a couple bumps in the road since none of us had traveled in Europe previously. We knew the ball would drop eventually we just didn't know when... Until we got to Riomaggoire, Italy.

After a very long travel day, we arrived in Riomaggoire and headed to our hostel (Mar Mar) with cash and confirmation papers in hand. We checked in and paid the remaining balance, and Tony (the owner) showed us up to our room. 

Everything seemed fine as he showed us around, until Tony introduced us to one of our hostel room mates (who also lives there) Oliver and informed us that one of us would be sleeping in the spare bed in Oliver's room-that was separate from the main sleeping room with multiple beds.

We all looked at each other in disbelief and sat down on one of the empty beds in the main room to have a pow-wow. Kelsey overheard one of the other guests out on the balcony talking to Oliver about how she had bites on her legs that itched. The word bed bugs all came to our minds instantaneously. Em noticed that she was starting to get some bites. We all realized pretty quickly that we didn't know how we would make it through one night (let alone the 4 nights we just paid for).

The hostel office was about to close for the night at 5pm...and our bed bug discovery was made at 4:45. With no Internet, no map of the towns (Cinque Terre is made up of 5 small coastal towns) and only 2 hours of daylight left, we unanimously decided to get the heck outta there in hopes we could find somewhere to sleep for at least the night. We thought we might have more luck finding a camere(room) in a different town so we left Riomaggiore without so much as a good bye... Went to the train station (which had breathtaking views) and bought a one way ticket to Vernazza (another one if the 5 towns). Kelsey went to take out her camera to take a picture of the great view and realized it was no where to be found. She frantically ran (with em and I speed walking behind her-oh and all our packs on) back into town in hopes it would be back at the bed bug hostel or the bar we had just bought bottled water at.

Luckily Kels found it at the hostel and she was so relieved as we headed on the train to Vernazza in hopes of a place to sleep (but not without getting some gelato to sooth our little hearts).

Vernazza is so small that buildings advertise rooms for rent and you ring a persons bell and ask if they have any space. We were fortunate enough to come across Enrica  who was kind enough to rent us out one of her available rooms right in the heart of town. 

We ended up finding rooms in vernazza for all 4 nights at a couple different places. Canceling Mar Mar ended up being one of the best decisions of this trip. 

Cinque terre is one of the most beautiful places we have seen... We've spent our days sunning on the rocks in the harbor, swimming in the Mediterranean Sea and making friends. We met the most delightful ladies from the Bellevue area. They were lifelong friends on vacation with their husbands. They both have kids our age and it was really comforting to have two moms in Vernazza! 

We also befriended Antonio, a lifelong Vernazza resident, one evening after dinner in the plaza. Antonio offered to take us on his boat the next day at 3pm, and sure enough the next afternoon at 3:00 sharp there was sweet little Antonio in the harbor getting his boat ready. He took us for a tour of the other towns and we threw the anchor in the water near Corniglia and jumped into the beautiful blue water. We all agreed that boating with Antonio was a once in a lifetime experience as we watched each hilltop town pass and listened to Antonio tell us stories about living in Cinque Terre. It was an unbelievable experience. 

Vernazza is an adorable, sleepy little Italian town. We befriended many of the locals and after about a day everyone knew us by name and would wave across the plaza. We are already talking about booking a trip there in the future!

Ciao!