Since the beginning of December – since I started writing this blog – I have been hiking several times. I slept outside in the forest three times, and once on the banks of the Danube. I also thought about writing a blog post about these hikes and the time spent outdoors, but in the end I discarded this idea. These hikes and simple sleeps in nature have been a part of my life, after all, and have nothing to do with the digital nomad lifestyle.
But now I have organized a hike for myself that was unusual. It already has a little bit of the digital nomad lifestyle in it. By the way! Last week I heard someone use the term digital wanderer. I like it! Although the term nomad is much more familiar, if I could, I would replace it with the word wanderer. Why is this hike related to my digital nomad lifestyle? Well, this will be the first European hike I am traveling alone. The emphasis is on European because I have not been to another continent yet. I rarely go hiking alone, but I’ve never been on a plane by myself. Off to adventure! It’s obvious that I’m not at all afraid of the experience of having no one by my side. No one I know. I’ll be surrounded by strangers until we get to know each other…
My connection to Cinque Terre
Let’s start with what Cinque Terre is! Cinque Terre is a picturesque coastal region in the Liguria region of Italy, consisting of five colorful fishing villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. These villages are built on steep cliffs and offer stunning views of the Mediterranean Sea. The region is famous for its walking trails, vineyards, and authentic Italian atmosphere. The area is part of the Cinque Terre National Park and is also protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Car traffic is limited, so it is best to explore by train, boat, or on foot. Cinque Terre is an ideal destination for lovers of nature, culture, and gastronomy. “Cinque Terre” is an Italian term that means “Five Lands” or “Five Countrysides.” This name refers to the five villages listed above that make up the area. The name is simply a summary of these nearby settlements, which are historically and geographically intertwined.
At the end of February, I spent with my daughters and their partners a very pleasant weekend in Budapest, where the five of us stayed at an Airbnb. There was a beautiful picture on the wall of one of the rooms that captivated me from the first moment. With the help of Google, we quickly found out that the title of the picture was Cinque Terre. I immediately had the desire to go there.
“My bucket list” is constantly being prepared. This place wanted to be on this list. After we got home, I thought I would look into this place. That’s how I came to the information detailed above. Based on this, I wrote this place on my bucket list. Along with the fact that the list not only included places, but also activities to be carried out there, as I had learned. So the item on the list became: “Hiking in Cinque Terre.”
The following week, the idea of how to get here occupied me so much that I put together my plan in two hours one afternoon. Then I gave this plan some more time to mature, but in the end I didn’t stop planning. On March 9th, I organized the entire hike.
The hike plan
I will describe the details of this trip in the simplest way, in bullet points. Obviously, it took a lot of searching (especially ChatGPT, but there was also plenty of Google), but the point was to complete the tasks. Here’s what such an excursion looks like.
- Decide how much time I need to spend on this trip. 3 days seemed enough, so I can solve it by setting aside a Friday-Sunday and taking one day off from work.
- Decide on the method of travel. It’s very far by car, so I’ll travel by plane. Milan will be the right airport. There are several airports in Italy, so it wasn’t easy to decide which city to fly to.
- Choose the airports. Since I live the same distance from Vienna and Budapest, and Milan has three international airports (Milano Malpensa (MXP), Milano Linate (LIN), Orio al Serio / Bergamo Airport (BGY)), there are 6-6 variations for the outbound and return journey. There are five sites where I usually choose flights: Skyscanner, Kiwi, Google Flights, Ryanair, Wizzair. From all this information, after searching several times, I decided to book the Budapest-Bergamo outbound and Malpensa-Budapest flights.
- Looking for accommodation for two nights. The destination area is very expensive. Even in the off-season, prices there are above the stimulus threshold. That’s why I decided to stay in Milan. I booked the accommodation, and Booking was my friend here.
- I need to get to the Cinque Terre from Milan. I decided to take the train. The city’s large train station is not far from my accommodation in Milan. The train takes 3-3.5 hours to reach the starting point of the tour, and the return takes the same amount of time. I bought the train tickets in advance, especially since this was the narrowest section of the entire trip. A month and a half before the tour, only a limited number of tickets were available.
- Finding a hiking route. I like to have a planned hiking route in advance. I found the Alltrails website. There is also a three-dimensional video here, where I can virtually walk the route. The website was so convincing that I bought the annual membership. I also downloaded the tour route to my phone.
- I still have to get to and from the airport, but I will work this out with ChatGPT during the week of the tour.
- I will be driving to Budapest to the airport. I will have to leave the car there for three days, so I have also booked my parking ticket in advance.
- The penultimate session of the Autogenic Relaxation course will be held in Budapest on the Thursday before departure. It ends at 8:30 PM. I will have to be at the airport around 4:00 AM. So I will not be coming home from Budapest for that night. I will either ask a friend for accommodation in Budapest or sleep in the car. Either solution will be good for me.
That pretty much ended the preparations. From the beginning of March, I just had to wait for April twenty-fifth to arrive.
I set off
Then Friday came quickly. Actually, Thursday. The penultimate session of the autogenic relaxation training presented in my article “My 3+1 helper in the next period” was the day before departure. So I arrived in Budapest on Thursday. After the course, I went to a friendly couple to spend the night with them and leave for Milan at dawn. My original idea was to sleep in the car, but then I discarded this: if it wasn’t important, I wouldn’t strengthen my commitment to a minimalist life with this. It turned out to be the right decision to spend the evening with my friend. I got a delicious dinner, plus my usual bed at their place. Although this bed wasn’t very successful that night, because unfortunately I couldn’t fall asleep at all. This usually happens to me before major trips and events. I’m probably excited at such times, but I always feel that it’s only subconsciously, because I’m definitely not consciously.
My friend’s were the second ones in recent days who suggested that I not miss Bergamo, even if I was landing there. I hadn’t made the decision yet whether I would do it or not, I thought I would sleep in. As I indicated, this didn’t work out, since I hadn’t slept. So, I woke up not refreshed or rested, and headed to the airport. It started to rain, but I can’t write the general formula that “it only made my situation more difficult”, because it wasn’t a problem for me at all. It only mattered because I left in bad weather, and arrived a few hours later in good weather.
Of course, I slept on the plane. I always sleep during flights. My record is that I once slept through takeoff. On the plane, I usually alternate between reading and sleeping. I should note that I started writing the part of my post with the subtitle “I’m off” on the plane, and I’m writing these lines here too. This is the first time this has happened to me, I’ve never opened my laptop on a plane before. It’s a completely mind-boggling feeling that when I look out the window, I see an indefinable point in Europe, and in front of me, the ever-growing writing. It feels a bit like watching a movie. The movie of my life… At this moment, I’m nothing but a writer. I love this moment!
Bergamo
I was able to sleep on the plane so that the right decision could be made. So, when the plane landed, I already knew that I wouldn’t be spending the morning in Milan, but in Bergamo. After landing, I looked for something to eat. I was guided by chance, and Colin Farrell. I chose a restaurant where a man who looked a lot like the actor was serving the guests. I also chose the food spontaneously. I ate arancini. I looked it up first to see what it was. Arancini are stuffed rice balls rolled in breadcrumbs and then fried in oil. The name means “little orange” because their shape and color resemble oranges. Arancini are believed to have originated in Sicily in the 10th century, when the island was under Arab rule. I didn’t regret it, it’s a very delicious dish. I had one filled with ragu.
ChatGPT was also my help these days. I quickly found out how to get to Bergamo. I installed the appropriate application on my phone, used it to buy my bus ticket. By the time I was done, the bus had just arrived and I was on my way.
Bergamo is a city in Lombardy, Italy, 40 km northeast of Milan. The city lies under the southern slopes of the Alps. The mountainous area north of the city is called the Bergamo Alps, into which the Serio and Brembo rivers have carved deep valleys. The city consists of two main parts: the Città alta (upper city) and the Città bassa (lower city). The old core of Bergamo is the Upper City, which is still surrounded by walls and has preserved its medieval character almost intact. It can be reached on foot, by bus or, most quickly, by cogwheel train. Its fortification system was built between 1561 and 1598 during the Venetian rule. The wall and the four gates are still almost completely intact.
More important to me than these facts is that when I saw the city from the bus, my first thought was that the city was very beautiful. I took the bus to the Upper Town called Cittá alta, where I then took a random excursion. I sat down in a café on the main square, where I decided on a whim that I would not drink beer, but a cocktail. The drinks menu was full of such good photos that it was difficult to decide, but in the end I ordered a Bloody Mary. This was a very good decision, because I had one of the most delicious tomato cocktails of my life here. The waiter offered two types of vodka to go with it. I said that I had no idea what to choose, please let him choose. And he already told me with a smile what he would make it with. Along with the drink, I received a small bowl of green olives, a small flower pot of hazelnuts and a small paper bag of chips. I will just say that the green olives are very delicious chewed together with the hazelnuts and mixed with a small sip of Bloody Mary. I just sat in the sun, enjoying the warmth of the Sun, the swirling of flavors and watching the people around me. I even missed smiling here, I also wondered why people were so gloomy. We are in a beautiful place, we have every reason to enjoy life and the moment. (I had the opportunity to write on the plane so far, because we started landing.)
Before the cocktail, I looked at a church and the view from one of the city’s big towers. I sent a picture of the church to a friend, who wrote the message shortly after: “Please say a prayer of thanks, even if it’s just one sentence!” I did it at the very top of the tower, under the bell, because there was a reason! Not long after, I went down to the museum, and a violinist was playing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah at the door. Many moments of my three-day trip were made magical by experiences like this and similar ones.
I started down from the Upper Town on foot, since I already knew the route from the bus. I just felt like I was going to Milan when I arrived at a bus stop. I quickly bought my ticket, and at that moment the bus arrived.
Milan
I returned to the airport, where I wanted to see what kind of bus was leaving for the city. A message on my phone indicating payment had just started, and we were already leaving.
My accommodation was a few kilometers from the bus terminal. Although I already knew how to get there by public transport, I still walked. That way, at least I started to get to know the city.
On the way, we clarified with the landlord how I could occupy the apartment. He asked if it would be a problem if I had a roommate. It was Aníta. She was named after Garibaldi’s wife. She was sexually excited by me all weekend, I felt like she was constantly ready for sex. And she kept asking for food when I got home, so unfortunately I could sense her dissatisfaction. Aníta was a good person, so I’m putting her picture here, although I didn’t ask her permission for this.
After a good chat with Aníta, I rested a bit. I tried the coffee maker, lay down to rest a bit. I looked at the furnishings of the apartment. It was very tastefully decorated with all sorts of retro little things. Every little thing was placed in the right place in a non-intrusive way. I was too lazy to take pictures of the apartment, so I’m using the pictures available on the Booking page for this post.
After resting, I headed into town. The Degrano Metro stop was 400 meters from the apartment. I wandered aimlessly and freely in this part of town. There really wasn’t anything to see, or I couldn’t find anything. My plan was to visit a gym and do one of my weekly workouts there. According to my preliminary information, there were three gyms within a 5-10 minute walk of my accommodation. However, when I got to the street, I realized that I didn’t have the right clothes. At home, I train barefoot in the carpeted gym, meaning I only need shorts and a T-shirt to train. I imagined this here too, but fortunately I realized in time that this might not be looked upon favorably here. Or – considering the condition of the streets – I wouldn’t be able to stand it.
So, the workout was great. It wasn’t just that I was hungry that drove me to the gym. My next post will be about food, and I am writing the following as a little prelude to that.
Walking the streets, all kinds of restaurants invited me. Well, not the way we expect when imagining Italy. Here, there were no well-dressed waiters standing outside, inviting me in with a cheerful Buongiorno and 40 Italian melodious words. In this area, I mainly saw black and yellow-skinned people, who didn’t even invite me with their eyes, let alone with melodious sentences. But I came to this city to push my limits (also), so I stopped by a run-down kebab shop. I could tell from the door that I was in the right place. I don’t think the floor had been cleaned since the paving slabs were laid. The trash can wasn’t visible under the pile of trash. I think the tables were supposed to be wiped down quarterly, and it was the end of the quarter. I’m not saying I would have lived well off what was on the table, but I could have easily deciphered the weekly menu from the signs.
I ordered a chicken with fries and a Coke. That was one of the menus. It cost 6 EUR. After I placed my order, the owner, chef, and waiter all went into the darkness of the kitchen to heat up the chicken and fry the fries. He didn’t bother me with his questions or his attempts to decipher any other requests I might have. The chicken was delicious, I didn’t want to ask how long it had been sitting in the glass counter. The fries, on the other hand, were filthy, but that didn’t mean I didn’t eat them. The food was served on a tray covered in aluminum foil. Two kinds of sauces, one white and one red, were poured into one corner of the foil. I don’t know what either of them were. The white had a taste I had never tasted before, and the red tasted more like jam than ketchup. It was a delicious lunch, I swear, I lived well.
I made a seemingly hopeless attempt to pay by card. There was a terminal, but I think the waiter/owner/chef doesn’t like it. I left home with 38 EUR. I gave eight of them for the food instead of six. The gentleman showed his gratitude with a smile and a greeting of “Have a nice day, my friend.”
Near the train station
Since there wasn’t much to see in this area – or I hadn’t been there enough – I decided to prepare myself a little for tomorrow. I went to the central train station. I wanted to find the Metro, see where to go, how to buy tickets, find the station and the tracks within it, so that I wouldn’t have to get to know these things tomorrow morning. This turned out to be a good idea. The Milan train station is a bit like a labyrinth, especially if I approach it from the Metro side. You can get to the tracks through security, only with a valid ticket. When I got there, based on the information I had, I wasn’t even sure if I was in the right place. So I asked the person at the information desk if I was in the right place. For this, I used – as a test – not my English skills, but my Vasco translation machine. The man at the counter liked the technology, he smiled when I put the speaker to his ear.
Then I decided to take a walk around the area. There was no direction, no goal, I just went where I thought. In an inviting-looking pastry shop, I ate three randomly selected small cookies and drank an unknown brand of beer. The cookies tasted incredible, they turned out to be a good choice. As I walked further, I suddenly remembered that one of my friends and I went for a massage last year while wandering around Athens. The thought occurred to me that I would not start looking for massage options online, but if I came across a salon during my random walk, I would go in. Maybe 15 minutes had passed when I was standing in front of the Bangkok massage salon. It was around 6:15 PM, and the very nice young lady – of Brazilian origin – was able to give me an appointment for 7:00 PM. I felt that spending 45 minutes would not be a problem, especially on a day like this.
I continued my walk, and in the meantime I sat down in a street café. Here I met an Italian-born gypsy guy. He politely asked if he could sit on the other side of my double table. Then, when he came back with his coffee, he said that he would rather sit at the other table that had become vacant in the meantime so as not to disturb me. Then he politely asked for the ashtray on my table. After such an introduction, he went into the café once more and returned with a bowl of chips, which, to my greatest surprise, he offered to me and asked if he could offer me some. Well, these are exactly the experiences that I miss in Hungary. I have only experienced this directness 80% of the time in my life outside my home country… We talked for a few minutes, and during that time the anonymous boy warned me to be very careful, because there are a lot of foreigners in this city and they are the only ones who cause trouble. How interesting, isn’t it?
A masszázs
The massage
I went back to the salon at seven. They very politely led me into the room where I had to change into the prepared paper thong. I’ve been through this a few times, but it’s always a strange experience. The masseuse came in after I was already lying on the bed and after a polite greeting, she started to relax my tortured body with pleasant loads. While I was lying on my stomach, neither of us said a word.
However, we talked for half of the hour of the massage. This is an anonymous blog, which means that I’ve probably called the only person on the blog by name so far. So I’ll just call the lady “lady” in this article.
So, talking to the lady was a great experience. I felt that from the first sentences there was an interesting harmony between us. The lady came to live in Italy from Thailand, she has been living in this country for six years, and in Milan for a couple of years. It was a great experience talking to her because she had very good questions, she was very attentive to what I had to say. We discussed aspects of our lives in one sentence, which in many cases I have difficulty explaining to others in a comprehensible way.
The last minute was approaching, but I felt that I would like to continue the conversation outside the room. It turned out that we were probably both thinking about it. The lady noted that I was her last guest today, from which I immediately understood that she was also open to talking to us again, so I told her that I was just thinking that… she finished the sentence, we should have a drink. I was grateful to the lady – and I told her this during the massage – that she gave me some of her energy and strength during the massage. And at that moment I also felt grateful that she gave me some of her free time.
We talked like this for another two hours, each with a Coroníta. The lady was a brilliant phenomenon. I’m not kidding when I say that meeting her was like Dulcinea speaking to me, the one I addressed in my posts titled “Am I looking for you!?” or “I missed you, Dulcinea!” She told me exactly the life I imagine and am living these days.
It was a great time spent with her, I hope we meet again!
The Cinque Terre, Saturday
I started the day with a quick tour of the route I learned yesterday on the Metro and at the train station. Of course, after feeding Aníta. I traveled 3 hours by train to get to the first of the 5 towns, Monterosso.
I had a faint hope for what I had read online, namely that the tour was popular in the summer, so there wouldn’t be many people. When I got off the train, this hope immediately disappeared. The beautiful weather must have played a role, but I think half of Italy was in the area. Getting from the train to the train station wasn’t easy either. I felt like I needed a morning drink, so I had a banana smoothie in a cafe and enjoyed the people. I enjoyed my life!
Then I set off. It was quite slow at first, when the uphill part started. We climbed up narrow, single-person stairs and alleys, which meant we had to stand, wait, and walk in lines to make progress. I knew right away that this pace would not be suitable for me to carry out my original plan. That is, I would not have the opportunity to walk to the end and back.
We walked through beautiful scenery with my 2,686 companions. By the way, no one was impatient, at least not as many as they would have been at home. A group of American boys was nervous behind me once, but then they also realized that it was impossible to overtake and go faster here.
It soon became clear that this was not an easy hike. I have had many hikes where I had to climb great heights in one day. Last year, when I finished the Hungarian Blue Tour, I walked 250 kilometers in 6 days, climbing 6,000 meters uphill and 6,000 meters downhill. In vain, the Mátra is just like that… But what I experienced here in Italy will also make the list of difficult tours old. I don’t think I’ve ever had the luck to do so many stairs in one day, which I had to climb here.
I stopped where I liked. When I arrived in Vernazza, I continued the tradition of drinking cocktails that I started yesterday morning and had a Bloody Mary. Since it was also very delicious here, I had another one. Then I ate some fish and chips, it was divine. I met an Austrian hiking group, where 3 men were hiking with 33 older ladies. What lucky people!
Apart from them, I was lucky enough to have quite a few micro-meetings. It was really nice to sit in a small place on a terrace on the mountainside. Just enjoy the view and the beauty.
Corniglia is the third village. I was about halfway there. But because of the slow progress and the difficulty of the hike, I reconsidered my plans here. I wasn’t at all sure that based on my performance so far, I would make it to the fifth town in time. And that would have been a pretty big deal, considering that I would have been stuck about 250 kilometers from Milan. It wasn’t that hard for me to come to the decision that this would be enough for now and I didn’t have to be disappointed if I didn’t make it to the end of the hike. I’ve proven countless times that I’m capable of such a feat, I’ve made it to the end point countless times. This time I was in Italy to let things happen to me as they are.
So I bought a train ticket for the next Cinque Terre train and went straight back to Monterosso. I had another smoothie, this time pineapple, where I had it in the morning. I loved it when the waiter greeted me with a “Hello sir, welcome back!” shout. These are the experiences I love the most.
Since the train ride back was three hours, I arrived at the train station at ten in the evening, from there I had to take the metro home, so it was already late enough to say goodbye to today and prepare for the last day.
Milan, Sunday
I decided on Friday that I would visit the Duomo on Sunday, so I bought my ticket then. So on Sunday morning I just had to pack it into my one small backpack. I said goodbye to Aníta, threw the key in the umbrella holder next to the door and left my accommodation.
With two days of routine, like a native Milanese, I took the Metro to the Duomo. As I stepped out of the Metro, the word “monumental” hit me in the face. I looked for the place where my ticket was for. We don’t just walk into a building like that! I had time to walk around the building more than once. It struck me that there seemed to be a bit too many statues on the outside. I asked ChatGPT:
– How many statues are on the outer walls of the Duomo in Milan?
– There are approximately 2245 statues on the outer walls and towers of the Duomo in Milan (Duomo di Milano). This number is one of the reasons why the Duomo is considered one of the most sculptured buildings in the world. In total, if you count the interior, the roof and all the decorative elements, there are more than 3,400 statues throughout the cathedral. The statues in the Duomo of Milan are remarkable not only for their quantity, but also for their detail and historical and religious significance.
I was very proud of myself for having made the identification of so many statues on my own!
My ticket included a visit to the roof terrace and admission to the museum. So, since I was the first one there that day at the proper entrance, I was taken up to the top of the Duomo in an elevator. There is so much to see that I think I spent an hour there.
Then came the cathedral itself. Stepping inside, the words majestic and impressive, in addition to the word monumental, also entered my mind. It was a truly impressive experience to enter there. Moreover, I was very lucky, because they were celebrating mass. I have a pretty close relationship with music, so the polyphonic church songs sung in Italian immediately touched my heart. I rarely hear such beautiful music.
So I seized the idea of the moment and sat down on one of the prayer chairs. I closed my eyes and meditated on the sounds of the singing for 15 minutes. While meditating, I realized that I was listening to live singing, not a recorded mass. I was able to really experience these moments.
After visiting the cathedral, I had breakfast in a small restaurant nearby. I ate avocado salmon toast so that I could have a healthy and delicious gastronomic experience. I wandered around the area for another hour, following the well-proven chance technique.
Then came the prosaic part of the trip. Getting to the airport. Not to Bergamo, but to Malpensa, getting on the plane and arriving in Budapest.
I left on Friday in bad weather, but I arrived in good weather.
Full of many experiences. In the evening I wondered how such a trip could multiply the feeling of happiness I had felt for months? I really enjoyed this solo trip. Don’t get me wrong! I love all my tours, excursions, and vacations that I have spent with other people. I really love traveling with others. But this kind of trip opened up other dimensions. The imaginative meals, the directionless walks, and the activities chosen based on my mood also reinforce the word freedom in me.
I really loved being free this weekend!