Cinque Terre via Dell'amore
there was only one thing in mind when i was going to Milan this time.. i wanted to go sightseeing.. cinque terre or monte carlo, it didnt matter cos i know possibly this could be the last time and i wanted to go somewhere which i never been before.
being CNY eve didnt help very much too but thank goodness i got very nice colleagues, which makes things much easier and better.. touching down, plans were made to move out to cinque terre immediately, i got Sue Ann with me, she was game enough to wanna go sightseeing immediately without rest...
the journey there takes 3 hours by train, but first we had to take a cab to the main train station to try to catch the direct train if not we are going to end up paying more for a train tt goes by detour and on top of that its more expensive and we had to change train 2 times. So in the end, we had to change train at Genova and La Spezia before reaching the first terre at Riomapgiore...
Scenary was beautiful... not to the extent of breathtaking but good enough for city dwellers like us who don't see places like that everyday.. From Riomaggiore, we tried to take a walk to Manarola, connecting the 2 terres was this walk which was famous as the lovers' walk... Dell'amore... coincidentally, on this day of sightseeing, it was the Valentine's day... walking the Via Dell'amore on Valentine's day wasnt something that everyone can get to experience and especially how coincidental it was. naturally, the romantic part of me got a little positive feelings towards her after all the interactions, i find tt i can talk to her, be myself and not having to worry about what she think about me. We see couples graffitied on the rocks and walls.. placing locks on anything tt can hang them to signify their love.. how much it must have meant for them...
The walk to Manarola was refreshing, the gentle sea breeze coupled with the scenic view, it was so Quaint... like how Huazai would put it. Manarola is a beautiful village with all the colourful houses perched on the cliffs, there was a little harbour from which, u can catch the full view of Manarola in full view on cliffs... so picturesque. There seemed to be some festival going on tt day, we saw kids dressed up in various costumes from Zorro to smurfs, ninja turtles and angels playing all ard the centrale square, throwing confettis at each other. Maybe its Valentine's tts why.. we had confettis rained on us as we were walking through them... =) Corniglia was the next village, the walk this time wasn't as smooth, its a little rough, more like trekking amongst the rocks, and on normal days, we are supposed to pay to walk thru, but i guess because its Valentine's Day, tts why it was free. the rocky walks took us 40 mins, there was a suspension bridge too.. so beautiful albeit it being so small.
Vernazza was one of the villages with a proper harbour, we had to take a train from Corniglia to Vernazza cos there is no more through path, inter villages train come by very easily, so it wasnt a long wait before our train came. Vernazza was one of the bigger villages, but it seemed all quiet when we reached there, probably cos of Siesta, where they took afternoon breaks. streets were empty, dead quiet, we were one of the few people roaming in the streets while we were there... The harbour at Vernazza was petite and beautiful with a beautiful lighthouse. we managed to trespass a barrier and climbed up a cliff with a man-made balcony. it gave a nice view into the sea and overlooking the harbour port itself. The sky began to turn dark and we decided that its time to look for lodging since we havent finish exploring the last village. night view of Vernazza was beautiful, too bad i din have a DSLR, otherwise the photos would turn out much nicer.
Then on, we proceeded to Monterosso, the last and biggest village among the the 5. we got a room at 70 euros for the night, and we walked to town in the cold to look for food. luckily, there was a restaurant which opened till late. Food wasnt fantastic, but it was better than nothing, better than having to starve thru the night. though the night view is beautiful, we were wishing tt we could teleport back to our room on the way back. We slept early tt night, cos we moved out without rest since we arrived in milan.
Next morning was greeted by sun rays peeking thru the old fashion wooden windows. I couldnt resist the urge to look out of the window with the morning sea view greeting me. breathtaking!!!
so glad we stayed over, we got time to explore and while away since we stayed over, making sure tt we dun miss the train back to Milan tt is. breakfast was at a traditional italian grocery shop with a very homely feel, it was simple bread and youghurt and juice with coffee and danish pastry.. very simple.. very european.. very I like...
the rest of the morning was spent walking through the streets of Monterosso, exploring the small town, we managed to find our way up to some residential places and sat there talking to each other... walking around, snapping photos, before sitting by the seaside basking in the sun, enjoying the breeze before heading back to Milan on the train. It was a trip well worth it... worth every penny spent..
Back in Milan, Darren was trying to organise a trip to watch AC Milan vs Manchester United. who can miss that? its not everyday where u get to be around to watch a CHampions league game, let alone one by your fave club, against your fave italian team. there was much squabble becos of the tickets, cos we were not getting what we were promised.. nevertheless, still we made our way there and hoped that we can get in, the stewards denied us entry at first but seeing that we are tourists, and we probably got conned, they let us through anyway since we wun be able to make any trouble. Seated in the Milan corner, it was amazing to hear the songs and their cheerings and admiring the San Siro stadium... the only bad thing was that its damn constipated not being able to celebrate Man U's goals and near misses. not especially when Milan scored after 3 minutes. Wazza was on form and scored 2 and in the end Man U won 3-2 away, so who had the last laugh?? hahaha... i did...
all in all, it was a very fulfilling Milan trip.. i done visiting to one of the places i always wanted to go, i watched a champs league game, esp one which involved my fave team... shiokness i say....
being CNY eve didnt help very much too but thank goodness i got very nice colleagues, which makes things much easier and better.. touching down, plans were made to move out to cinque terre immediately, i got Sue Ann with me, she was game enough to wanna go sightseeing immediately without rest...
the journey there takes 3 hours by train, but first we had to take a cab to the main train station to try to catch the direct train if not we are going to end up paying more for a train tt goes by detour and on top of that its more expensive and we had to change train 2 times. So in the end, we had to change train at Genova and La Spezia before reaching the first terre at Riomapgiore...
Scenary was beautiful... not to the extent of breathtaking but good enough for city dwellers like us who don't see places like that everyday.. From Riomaggiore, we tried to take a walk to Manarola, connecting the 2 terres was this walk which was famous as the lovers' walk... Dell'amore... coincidentally, on this day of sightseeing, it was the Valentine's day... walking the Via Dell'amore on Valentine's day wasnt something that everyone can get to experience and especially how coincidental it was. naturally, the romantic part of me got a little positive feelings towards her after all the interactions, i find tt i can talk to her, be myself and not having to worry about what she think about me. We see couples graffitied on the rocks and walls.. placing locks on anything tt can hang them to signify their love.. how much it must have meant for them...
The walk to Manarola was refreshing, the gentle sea breeze coupled with the scenic view, it was so Quaint... like how Huazai would put it. Manarola is a beautiful village with all the colourful houses perched on the cliffs, there was a little harbour from which, u can catch the full view of Manarola in full view on cliffs... so picturesque. There seemed to be some festival going on tt day, we saw kids dressed up in various costumes from Zorro to smurfs, ninja turtles and angels playing all ard the centrale square, throwing confettis at each other. Maybe its Valentine's tts why.. we had confettis rained on us as we were walking through them... =) Corniglia was the next village, the walk this time wasn't as smooth, its a little rough, more like trekking amongst the rocks, and on normal days, we are supposed to pay to walk thru, but i guess because its Valentine's Day, tts why it was free. the rocky walks took us 40 mins, there was a suspension bridge too.. so beautiful albeit it being so small.
Vernazza was one of the villages with a proper harbour, we had to take a train from Corniglia to Vernazza cos there is no more through path, inter villages train come by very easily, so it wasnt a long wait before our train came. Vernazza was one of the bigger villages, but it seemed all quiet when we reached there, probably cos of Siesta, where they took afternoon breaks. streets were empty, dead quiet, we were one of the few people roaming in the streets while we were there... The harbour at Vernazza was petite and beautiful with a beautiful lighthouse. we managed to trespass a barrier and climbed up a cliff with a man-made balcony. it gave a nice view into the sea and overlooking the harbour port itself. The sky began to turn dark and we decided that its time to look for lodging since we havent finish exploring the last village. night view of Vernazza was beautiful, too bad i din have a DSLR, otherwise the photos would turn out much nicer.
Then on, we proceeded to Monterosso, the last and biggest village among the the 5. we got a room at 70 euros for the night, and we walked to town in the cold to look for food. luckily, there was a restaurant which opened till late. Food wasnt fantastic, but it was better than nothing, better than having to starve thru the night. though the night view is beautiful, we were wishing tt we could teleport back to our room on the way back. We slept early tt night, cos we moved out without rest since we arrived in milan.
Next morning was greeted by sun rays peeking thru the old fashion wooden windows. I couldnt resist the urge to look out of the window with the morning sea view greeting me. breathtaking!!!
so glad we stayed over, we got time to explore and while away since we stayed over, making sure tt we dun miss the train back to Milan tt is. breakfast was at a traditional italian grocery shop with a very homely feel, it was simple bread and youghurt and juice with coffee and danish pastry.. very simple.. very european.. very I like...
the rest of the morning was spent walking through the streets of Monterosso, exploring the small town, we managed to find our way up to some residential places and sat there talking to each other... walking around, snapping photos, before sitting by the seaside basking in the sun, enjoying the breeze before heading back to Milan on the train. It was a trip well worth it... worth every penny spent..
Back in Milan, Darren was trying to organise a trip to watch AC Milan vs Manchester United. who can miss that? its not everyday where u get to be around to watch a CHampions league game, let alone one by your fave club, against your fave italian team. there was much squabble becos of the tickets, cos we were not getting what we were promised.. nevertheless, still we made our way there and hoped that we can get in, the stewards denied us entry at first but seeing that we are tourists, and we probably got conned, they let us through anyway since we wun be able to make any trouble. Seated in the Milan corner, it was amazing to hear the songs and their cheerings and admiring the San Siro stadium... the only bad thing was that its damn constipated not being able to celebrate Man U's goals and near misses. not especially when Milan scored after 3 minutes. Wazza was on form and scored 2 and in the end Man U won 3-2 away, so who had the last laugh?? hahaha... i did...
all in all, it was a very fulfilling Milan trip.. i done visiting to one of the places i always wanted to go, i watched a champs league game, esp one which involved my fave team... shiokness i say....
posted by EniGmAtiC NoStaLgiA at 2/18/2010 01:51:00 AM
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