L'ostello, la spiaggia, il fuoco, e lo sentiero numero 9...

Buonasera!
Well, what a weekend it has been indeed. I don't have very much time to write, however I will give you a brief update of the major points:

-Saturday 8am a group of friends and I took a 4 hour train from Stazione Centrale to La Spezia (just outside of Cinque Terre).
-The next four hours of the trip included train rides to Riomaggiore and back, lunch at a cute cafe, taxi rides to a remote hill-top town, the discovery that our hostel reservations didn't actually go through, and finally, our return to Riomaggiore where we all miraculously found beds to sleep in due to some very nice Texans (or Georgians, we weren't sure) wanting leave the town early.
-After relaxing on the pebbly beach, taking pictures of the sunset, and soaking our tired feet in the cool, clear water, we decided to grab some dinner. however...
-We noticed a crowd of people looking up into the hillside, so we decided to follow suit. At first glance, it was really quite a beautiful sunset: pinky yellow clouds billowing from the...north? No, it wasn't actually a pretty sunset. The hillside was ON FIRE. Yes. It looked like Hades. However...
-The locals appeared to be quite calm about the whole situation. They kept trying to explain to us tourists that the wind wasn't blowing in our direction and that there was a road blocking our town. In fact, there was a small carnival going on - run by firemen. So the firemen would switch off posts, either manning the carnival games or fighting the monstrous forest fire that appeared to be advancing closer and closer to our town. Needless to say, we packed up our things and had them with us, just in case. : )
-The next morning, my two friends (Mike and Greg) and I got up bright and early to go hike the Cinque Terre! However, we decided we wanted to take the really mountainous Sentiero Numero 9. In short, we ended up getting off trail, asking for directions from a hilltop restaurant, and finally meeting an old Italian man who allowed us to cross his property to get to civilization. Seemed pretty simple enough right? Oh, but how it was not. The "trail" leading down to the town was overgrown with thorns, brush, and all sorts of folliage. After getting off-trail a couple more times (and tasting some of the grapes of the man's vineyard along the way), we finally made it back to civilzation!
-After our initial attempt at hiking to Vernazza (which last about 2 hours) we decided to take the other (albeit easier and more crowded) trail, got some panini, went to the beach one more time, and took the second-to-last train from La Spezia to Milano.

Some of you may read this and think, "Hostel problems, forest fires, getting lost in the wilderness of a foreign country...that sounds like an awful trip!" Quite to the contrary! It was truly a wonderful adventure and I can't wait to see what other predicaments I'll have to overcome while I'm here in Italy!

Baci,
Lauren