Day 6 Cinque Terre Hiking; June 21, 2008

"Go to the Pirate Bar, (pronounced pee-rrrah-tay) turn left, and go up, and up, and up and up!" Those were the instructions from our landlady on how to get to the shrine above town, and boy were they an understatement! We hiked "up and up and up and up" forever!

Yesterday in Vernazza, Shelley bought a really cool little necklace. It has a dark bronze chain and 2 little charms that hang from it, one dangling above the other. The store owner painted the charms herself, and they put exactly the charms Shelley wanted onto the chain she chose. The lady explained to Shelley that the Madoninna was the saint for this town, and "We are very devoted to her." When she said it was to be found in a shrine above the town, we determined to go there.

So our landlady gave us instructions on how to get there. She said she'd been jogging up there last Sunday. So how far could it be? Wrong!

We found the Pirate Bar and the left turn, no problem; and started up and up. Two hours later, we were still admiring the ocean views on our frequent rest stops, and still hiking up and up and up and up! We passed a number of small shrines and several signs. We weren't giving up!

When we finally found it, we laughed and laughed. There was a small, decaying building with an arched roof, peeling stucco (everything in Italy is peeling) and a rusty decorative iron door grate that was padlocked shut. Inside, an altar was visible, and behind that a very small painting on the wall of the Madonna and Child. We'd finally found her, and she was so tiny we had to use the zoom and the flash on the camera to see what she looked like!
We decided that was why she was called "Madoninna" meaning tiny little eensy-weensy Madonna, and that the picture on Shelley's neclace charm must be about life size! I can't wait to put my pictures of this one into this blogpost!

After our hike we were so hot and sweaty we definitely need another swim, so back to the beach we went. We're getting great suntans, be jealous, will you?

This evening we took the train to Monterosso, which is the next town. As much trouble as it was, you'd think we went to Paris, not just 2 miles down the coast. The train going was 45 minutes late, so it was packed. Returning, there were several trains that were in ritardo (delayed,) so no one could tell which train was the 8:32. Those trains were packed, too. We got on and off one train twice while it sat in the station, and a very confident lady from California assured us loudly that "This is the right train. My husband said so, and he's never wrong." Well, we left that train and ran to the next one, jumped on, and were in Vernazza 5 minutes later. I think she and her husband may still be waiting for that train to take off and get here!

We're going back to the beach to see the lights of the other towns... wish you were here!