First, I’d like to thank everyone who has commented. We are reading all of them and it means a lot. Second, apparently my dislike of Facebook is mutual. I decided to try “advertising” the updates on Facebook and still hardly anyone has known about the blog. So please feel free to share this with as many people as you think might be interested in hearing about our holiday.

Day 2 in Cinque Terre we decided to take another stab at visiting Vernazza, since last time the train went straight through to Riomaggiore. There is a hiking trail which leads between our town over to Vernazza,then on to the next town and so on. The first two trails are said to be difficult hikes and the last two gentle level strolls. So, of course we started with the hard one.

 

 

There is a tunnel which leads between the beach section, where we are staying, and the next part of town. We walked though, found a local market to load up on water, then headed for the trail, just south of the railroad. The trail began to ascend immediately, and what was initially cobblestone and wide, became narrow and dirt, sometimes only 2 feet wide as it hugged the mountainside. The trail leads you from beautiful terraced orchards, quickly into the wilderness where the only sounds are babbling brooks, the ocean waves below, and the occasional lizard scurrying out of the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After about an hour we made it to the edge of Vernazza, there is an overlook of the town and a curious sight; a collection of locks strung across a cable, as we were commenting about how peculiar it was a fellow hiker passed by and told us it was a local custom, whenever people fall in love they secure a lock along the path as a symbol that there love is sure and secure.

We descended the last few hundred yards into the town. It looks hardest hit by the flooding and mudslides, this house was the first to greet us into town.

 

 

 

The town itself seems to have more historic buildings than most of the 5, an old church with clock tower, a castle (closed right now for some reason) overlooking the town and it’s signature harbor. We were all hot from the hike so after a quick bite to eat we decided to take the train back to Monterosso to rest up and spend a little more time in the Mediterranean.

Having waited for the sun to descend a ways in the sky, and a quick stop in for some gelato, we hatched a plan to visit the last two towns of the five. We were going to start in Corniglia then hike over to Manorola. We missed the needed train by mere minutes, so we changed our plan, hopped the train for Riomaggiore again and began the hike over to Manorola.

 

 

 

 

This “hike” was nothing like the first, a wide paved stone promenade gently flowed around the coastline with covered sections and more lock displays off affection.

The town of Manorola is smaller than most, and mostly residential, but it has a cleaner layout than Riomaggiore. We stopped for dinner in here, which by the many nets,poles, and boats, I would say is the main fishing town of the region. There was a match between Italy and Germany going on, so service was a little slow, and you could hear the entire town erupt in applause when Italy scored a goal.

It began to get dark as we set off for the last town, Corniglia. This path was like the last, with lights against the hillside, only a gentle slope and around a quarter mile in… A locked gate. Just on the other side of said gate, a recent rockslide, very recent as we had talked to a group earlier who had come through that way. We headed back to Manorola, but found the next train wouldn’t stop there for 2 hours at 11:30pm, so I suggested we hurry back toward Riomaggiore and maybe, just maybe, there might be another train that would stop there. We hiked back into Riomaggiore and a train arrives just two minutes after we get to the station.

This was our last day in Cinque Terre, apparently we didn’t miss much with Corniglia, the smallest of the towns, it’s only defining “feature” is a much begrudged nude beach which the locals in a make shift flotilla stormed in the 1970’s to try to take back, only to have die hard nudists (read wrinkly, tanned beyond recognition of a human, more like a fig or old cracked leather excuse person) from the big cities still filter in over the years.

From here we make for Rome, with a short stay in Tuscany, the city of Siena most likely.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 29th, 2012 at 7:00 am and is filed under Italy. You can follow responses to this entry through the Comments RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.