Sat. 09-15-07 -- Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore, Italy
This morning we got up around 8:30 am to get ready for "the big hike!" The five towns of Cinque Terre are connected by a rough footpath that winds along the sea cliff edge. The hike is about 7 miles from Monterosso to Riomaggiore, so our plan was to spend all day hiking the trail, stopping at each town to look around, and finally take a boat back to our starting place. And that's exactly what we did!
The path between Monterosso and Vernazza was very rough! There were tons of steep stone steps that seemed to go up forever! This first leg of the trip passed through terraced vineyards and we got great views of the coastline. It took us about 1.5 hours to arrive in Vernazza.
Vernazza was more bowl shaped than Monterosso (which sprawled along the coast). We got a piece of very cheesy focaccia bread and shared it while sitting down at the harbor. Then we climbed a bunch of stairs to the old castle tower and walked around while looking down at the city. There was a spire that had a tight spiral staircase that we climbed to the top. We wandered around the city a little more, then we got back on the trail for our next 1.5 hour hike to Corniglia.
The tour book said that this leg was easier than the last, but that was wrong. There were just as many (or more) stone steps on this section as there were on the last. We were pretty worn out and running out of water by the time we hit Corniglia.
Corniglia is a hill town that doesn't really have shoreline access. The buildings are all smooshed together on this little hill and the streets are narrow and tight. We found a free water spigot and filled our water bottle back up. To leave Corniglia we had to climb down the hill to the train station on a staircase that went on forever. As we were going down, we passed exhausted people coming up from the station with all of their luggage. That didn't look fun...
The third leg of our trip was much easier than the fist two. It was only 45 minutes long, pretty flat and even partially paved! Because of this, there were way more people on this path. Instead of being high in the hills, this one hugged the coast, so there were lots of pretty views.
We arrived in Manarola ready for lunch! We found a focaccia/pizza place and ordered a couple of slices. Mine was really good, it had black olives, mushrooms, prosciutto, and herbs on a focaccia crust. After lunch, we walked around Manarola a bit and we really liked this town. It had close rock hill walls, so the town was built up along the walls, a town in a stone bowl. The open side of the bowl spilled the town down into the tiny harbor.
We left Manarola and walked the last 20 minutes along the very easy Via dell'Amore. We arrived in the last town, Riomaggiore, and took the elevator to the top of town. We wandered around a bit and then headed down the main drag toward the water. We found a gelato place right next to a bar, so Kara got gelato and I got a beer and we sat outside and enjoyed our reward.
We were both pretty wiped out from the hike, so we walked down to the harbor and bought tickets for the boat. We had about 20 minutes to wait, so we went to the beach, took our shoes off and stood in the surf. The cool water felt so good on our tired feet! The boat ride back was nice, we got one last view of each town, as well as the rough hike we did.
The boat dropped us off in Monterosso and we walked back to our apartment. We dropped off the backpack, then went to find some dinner. There was a place nearby (Bar Davi) that gave appetizers if you ordered a drink, so we got drinks and ate the food. We were still hungry, so we ordered some bruschetta with tomatoes & anchovies on it! Anchovies are caught in this region and are very popular here, so I figured we ought to try them! Kara ate it without the fish, so there was double fish on my pieces. It was very fishy and salty, but it was pretty good. After dinner, we walked to the train station and bought tickets for tomorrow morning to Pisa. Then we walked back to our place, took showers, and climbed into bed to rest our tired and achy muscles.
