Taking the Stairs - The Cinque Terre, Italy

Photo by Dallin Holding on Unsplash

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference..

Robert Frost

 “It’s this way” she said.  

“It’s the quick way” she said.

So we took the stairs.

The ferry had arrived in Monterosso, one of the hillside villages on the Cinque Terre
(Five Lands) on the Ligurian coast of Italy and instead of following the crowds who
turned left - we went right. 

Steph, my travel buddy had been here twice before and was a confident guide. We had successfully navigated the bus ride to Portovenere and bought the tickets for the hop-on-hop-off ferry that travels to four of the five villages along this spectacular coast.

She was wrong. 
The stairs were not quicker or easier.

They led us to the summit of the mountain where our ignorant hopes of a cappuccino in a church (Ok we should have read the sign better) were dashed. 
The stairs then wove their way around and took us back down to the main part of the village. 

It was an hours walk. 
It was July in Italy and steaming hot.
If we had turned left it would have been a 5 minute walk through a tunnel.
Instead we took an hour’s long detour.

In Italy stairs are the norm.  Whist in living Florence for a month, I had no choice but to haul myself up and down to our third story apartment. An elevator was not part of turn of century technology.

Stairs are hard work.
Stairs are tiring and hurt your knees.
Stairs take longer.

Sometimes we have no choice but to take the stairs.
There was no elevator in my Florence apartment nor an easier alternative.

Is this not life?
A series of choices and decisions.
Sometimes life turns out to be a “climbing the stairs rather than riding the elevator” experience.
So what does “doing life via the stairs” look like?
It’s a matter of perspective

Stairs can be harder, however offer benefits that an elevator cannot.
Stairs tend to be a friendlier place.
People are more inclined to acknowledge each other and make room for each other.

In Monterosso we could have turned left and followed the crowds. 
Yet by taking the stairs we encountered some charming locals, who in hindsight, were bemused that we were visiting the cemetery (yes that was the high point! We misread the signs). We chatted to some similarly lost French tourists in a hilarious muddle of French/English/Italian who were as equally confused. Most importantly we saw vistas of beauty not admired at any other vantage point. 

By taking the stairs we experienced a far richer encounter with Monterosso that eluded all the tourists who turned left. 

 Have you been at a crossroad of choice or decision making?
Hovered over the agonising vacillation and indecision of which is the better choice?

Has the “road less travelled” sounded romantic or exciting until you are forced to take that road?

We can view the stairs with frustration, exhaustion and dread….
or
Sometimes in life the most daring, creative and exciting thing you can do is to make a choice.  

Take a chance, do the alternative or the unorthodox ……… and take the stairs.