27 July 2016
Distance: 101km
Transportation: 3cars
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes
I was very excited for this trip to happen. It had been years I thought of going to Cinque Terre because I wanted to see those cute towns in real life instead through photos. That trip was even more exciting because for the first time I had a company with me. I met Manoela in Milan through Couchsurfing. Having spent few days with each other, we had that click that we decided to travel with each other. Early in the morning, she took a trip from Milan to see me in Genova and the plan was to hitchhike together. For Manoela, it was the first time so I was so glad to show her what I had been doing the last weeks.
We started the trip from the train station Genova Principe and certainly it was a rough start. After asking around the way to the highway, we got a bus ride towards the ‘Autostrada’. That moment on, all struggles started. We went to the North-west of the city which all highways there were quite complicated. We went from one gas station to the other and somehow we still ended up in the wrong gas station. In the end, we stood very close to the highway and hoped for a ride to the main highway towards La Spezia. That took an hour.
A car with a French registration plate asked us if we wanted to have the ride. Oh well, he spoke French and I could only said ‘je parle pas français’ which obviously couldn’t help. Manoela is Brazilian and she could speak a bit of Italian which already was a great help for our trip already. With the very low Arabic music on, he drove us to the highway. Then come the exit to Milan, he dropped us in the middle of the highway where the exit was split into 2. We were terrified standing there because trucks were passing us and got pretty close. Luckily, after 5 minutes, a car accepted to drive us. We were happy running quickly crossing the highway (and laughing at the same time because of being so happy). He was heading to Rome but he agreed to bring us to the exit of La Spezia. Just before the toll, we got out and 2 women kindly took us in their car and drove us to La Spezia.
It was just 10′ train ride from La Spezia to where we were gonna stay – Riomaggiore. We took a rest, ate some Chinese (since we were both sick of eating Pasta everyday) and took the train to Riomaggiore.
Hitchhiking with 2 people, in my opinion, might be slightly more difficult because we were with two. Well, there is no proof though. However, it is always good to have a company because you wouldn’t like to wait for an hour by yourself.
Angela Koblitz 