Thursday May 24th to Saturday May 26th

Rapallo's Harbor

After roughly 2 weeks of following a regimented daily routine, the free travel days were a welcomed opportunity for our entire group. Seven other group members and I decided to travel to the Cinque Terre region of Italy after a few days of deliberations. Cinque Terre literally means “five lands” because Cinque Terre is comprised of five different cities spaced fairly close together. We actually chose to stay in Rapallo, a small city on the northern outskirts of Cinque Terre on the western Italian coast.

View from the kayak approaching Vernazza

While Cinque Terre is a very remote area, our travel was actually extremely easy. We utilized the Eurail passes included with our trip to take an approximately five hour train ride directly to Rapallo. Our hotel was perfectly situated across the road from the beach and a ten minute walk from the train station. Since we didn’t arrive until about 2 Thursday afternoon, we decided to grab lunch in town and relax on one of Rapallo’s beaches for the rest of the day. Wanting to enjoy a few Italian beers while relaxing on the beach, we stopped by the town’s supermarket on the way to the beach. Unfortunately, as has been common in a few places we have been in Europe, the market did not stock cold beer or ice. Being resourceful, I decided to buy a few bags of frozen French fries to lay on top of the beer to cool it down. While it definitely was not the coldest beer I have ever tasted, I was pretty proud of myself for devising a plan to remedy our problem. After a few hours on the beach we made a quick stop at the hotel for showers and then walked to a restaurant on the beach for dinner. We timed our dinner perfectly, eating our meal as the sun was setting over the Mediterranean. 

Waterfall on the Mediterranean

Friday started early with the group taking the 8:30 train from Rapallo to the small Cinque Terre town of Monterosso. After the hour long train ride, we walked around town for a little while before making our way down to the beach. A soon as we descended the stairs to the beach we saw exactly what we needed to explore the area; kayaks. After a member of our group haggled with the vendor for a few minutes, we agreed to rent the kayaks for the day for 15 Euros each. The ensuing hours were filled with some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. As the pictures show, the coast is mostly comprised of steep hillsides and rocky faces rather than actual beaches. It was incredibly refreshing to look around and only see water and steep mountains rather than tourists and cars blazing past us. We stopped a few times as we paddled both to rest and explore a few caves and a waterfall. We eventually paddled to the next town south of Monterosso, Vernazza, and ate a quick lunch before paddling back to return the kayaks. I’m not sure of the actual distance we paddled Friday, but my arms were definitely sore the next day. We finished the day by heading back to Rapallo to eat a delicious Italian dinner and get some rest after a long day.

We slept in a little later Saturday morning to regain our energy after the previous day. After eating a quick breakfast, we walked to the train station and boarded our train to Florence. Because the whole group was not scheduled to meet up until noon on Sunday, we booked our own hotel and took in a few sites to round out our Saturday.

Vernazza

 Looking back on my free travel days, I am still in awe of the beauty of Cinque Terre. This region of the Italian coast definitely had some of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen. More than anything, it was really nice to leave the hustle and bustle of the big cities we have been visiting and simply relax. While I enjoyed our days off, I’m glad we’re about to see even more sites on the second half of our trip abroad.