DocDivaTraveller: May 2017

La Spezia is a highly underrated destination. There are always pros and cons of being neighbours with a celebrity. You get to see and know a lot of people because of that famous subject. But your own special features are totally overlooked. Same is the case with La Spezia. Thousands of tourists coming to Cinque Terre every month arrive at La Spezia and then go further. Maximum travelers like us stay too in La Spezia. But the people are already so overwhelmed with the five villages that no one pays attention to the beauty of La Spezia.

My partner has a thing for ports. Maybe because of his upbringing in Varanasi (the land of ghats and boats), he is very fond of ships and waterfront. Even before we had reached La Spezia, he kept on mumbling that the port is very beautiful and we should definitely pay a visit. I ignored him as I knew that we hardly would be able to take out time from visiting the five villages.

We reached from Rome to La Spezia in the late morning. After that we immediately checked into our Bn B and left for Cinque Terre. That day we explored two villages Monterosso and Vernazza and hiked from Monterosso to Vernazza. That took a lot of time and we returned to La Spezia at midnight.

The second day we had to explore La Spezia as it was our last. So after breakfast, we packed our bags for a dip and hike and left to explore the port.

The majority of the residents did not even have an idea where the port was. That was kind of ridiculous. I mean La Spezia is such a small place. So we followed my partner’s internal GPS and could smell the sea at a distance. The people there could give us proper directions. On the way we came across a farmer’s market. It was probably run by Filipinos as it was known as Manila market. I was overwhelmed by the variety of sea foods on sale. Also the promenade of the market was lined by orange trees which I found very beautiful!

The port was scenic. It was a major port both for passengers as well as cargo. It was connected to all the ports of Italy and abroad too. There were boats which took tourists to the Five Terre as well as Levanto and Portovenero ( two sea side towns adjacent to the Five Terre). We took pictures quickly as we had three villages to explore plus half an hour walk back to the Railway station. Not to forget we had a hike left too. So it was a short yet very fruitful excursion of La Spezia.

Dress: Globus

Hat: Accessorize

Purse: Jabong.com

Sunnies: Forever 21

Necklace: Lifestyle

Belt, bracelet: Kazo

May 29, 2017 7 comments

Oh I am so not a sports person. Not only sports but I hardly ever workout. That pretty much sums up my lack of physical activity. However I can walk. I mean if I am not wearing heels 😁 I have endless stamina for walking. That pretty much sums up that I fit the bill of a true traveller as I can explore on foot. But when it comes to walking on uneven terrain, I am not at all game.

After braving the rains in Monterosso, it was time to move towards the next village of Vernazza. I had read so much about hiking in Cinque Terre. Partly I was looking forward to it; partly I was scared. Hiking on the hills was not a cakewalk. I had trekked to the smallest volcano in the world three and a half years back in Phillipines. However there the trail was not so rocky; only the distance was overwhelming. Here both the terrain and distance was intimidating.

It was around 3.6 kms on the trail from Monterosso to Vernazza. It was five in the evening; our stomachs were full with pizza, we were equipped with water and God had been kind enough to stop the rain. So we started. Initially it was not so tough. Partly because we were full with energy and adrenaline kept us pushing. As we progressed further, my energy started dwindling. I had walked relentlessly in Amsterdam as well as Rome. The major chunk of our trip was still left. And I was already running out of energy 😩

As we climbed higher and higher, the views compensated our tiredness. The blue Ligurian Sea with greenery all around. I had only read about the views from the hike and now I knew why they were raving about it. We walked, stopped, enjoyed the view, caught up on breath, sipped water and then again walked. This process continued till we could see Vernazza from the top.

As soon as the village could be seen, all our exhaustion vanished, We toppled over the safety fence to take good pictures along with crazy hikers. There was one Romanian couple who were sitting at the edge of a cliff, I was scared and was saluting their bravery. Later I saw them taking drugs: they were inhaling through their nose. It was my first time seeing someone do this. Later I realised that they were sitting at such a dangerous place as they were not in their senses!

After pictures, I got a surge of energy to walk. It was a climb downhill and although it was tough gripping the slope, I managed to climb down fast. It was half past seven.

The village of Vernazza was already at dusk. I immediately fell in love with the alleys and was excited to explore it more.

Top, Skirt, Accessories: Forever 21

Bag: from Dubai

May 24, 2017 8 comments

Sorry for being MIA for so long! I had not even taken this much long break from my blog even when I gave birth! We actually shifted to a new home in a new neighborhood and it took really long to set up internet. Too sad. Now when all the woes are over, I am back again with my travelogues!

So we had arrived at one of my dream places : Cinque Terre! The five villages in the order of farthest to nearest is : Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. The easiest way to explore them is to take the Cinque Terre Express from the La Spezia station. When we reached the station, we realised our train was waiting at the platform to depart. The time of departure was at 12:25 and it was 12 20 pm already. There was a long queue at the ticket vending machine. However none of them was boarding our train. So after a series of requests, we reached to the front.

We wanted a ticket to Manarola (or that is what my husband said) It was our first time at an Italian ticket vending machine and we needed some time to understand it. It was 12:24 when our tickets got the command for print and I ran to train to board; thinking I might stop it from departing without my partner. There was a green button at the side and someone advised me to press it. As soon as I did, the door started closing. My husband started screaming and running towards the train. Then a passenger shouted at me saying that the door was already open; why did I press the button? So finally we both made it inside the train without losing a single moment. I am literally in splits as I am writing this. the verdict: The green button opened the train door when it was closed and vice versa. So one is not supposed to touch it when the door is already open!

Station after station passed. Every station was beautiful offering gorgeous views of the Ligurian Sea. The rest of the journey was inside the tunnel. Now my partner is really bad with names. I mean really. If he is extraordinarily good with maps and directions then he is equally bad with names. When he said Manarola, he meant Monterosso, the farthest of the five villages. When we reached Vernazza, he said that the next stop was ours. I said it was Monterosso. Now he got scared. When we asked the people, they said Manarola was the second stop. We had crossed it way back. Now as per Indian standards, the train tickets are really expensive. I mean 4 euro each for a ten minute ride is too much for us. He got really angry on me that since I had learnt Italian, it was my duty to guide him.

Well what we realised that he mistook Monterosso for Manarola and then we disembarked there. We technically did not violate any law as the ticket fare was same for all the villages: 4 euro each. But it was an eye opener anyway.

We literally walked out of the station in to the Ligurian Sea. I had never seen such a gorgeous view from a railway station before. We were famished and we gorged on lip smashing pizza from two different places. As soon as prepped up for taking a swim in the sea, the clear skies turned overcast and it started raining. It was raining really heavily. I swam in the rain only. We had plans of hiking after that so we could not afford any wastage of time. We took turns. When I was in the sea, hubs helped a young Russian couple guard their six month baby with our umbrella. It was so cute seeing them struggle with their infant in the horrible rain. It reminded me of our early parenthood days. By the time we finished swimming, the skies cleared. It was a blessing as we started the first tough hike of our lives in clear weather.