We wake early this morning for our exciting day exploring ‘Cinque Terre’, (five towns). The Mediterranean is glistening as we walk easily from Riomaggiore to Manarola (1k). A marvellous paved walkway lulls us into a false sense of security thinking the path between all 5 towns will be like this. Manarola to Corniglia is 1hr 10min (3ks) and a rougher path, steep in places and ending with a stair climb to the village high on the cliff (300+ stairs!).
It is getting really hot now so we rationalise a cold beer when we arrive. After exploring this village for a while its lunchtime and we enjoy foccacia and bruschetta and probably the best coffee of the trip at amazingly good prices. (Bruschetta 3euro or $4.60) Our walk then takes us on to Vernazza, the 4th village a 4k and 1 ½ hr hike. This is the most challenging of all, a very rough path, incredibly steep both up and down, all steps and hardly ever flat going. When we finally stagger into the town square we are greeted by a Gelato shop, impossible to go past! We are so hot and we’ve earned it! Rationalising again!! There is a train between all the towns of Cique Terre so we chose this option rather than walking 2 hrs to Montorossa al Mare.
We have our swimmers with us so decide we’d rather spend the time in the cool, clear azure sea we’ve been looking at all day! As with the beach in Spain, it fine rock and sometimes just plain big rocks and getting into the water for some reason is not too hard and as it gets deep suddenly you can fall in anyway if need be. Getting out on the other hand is quite a different matter all together! It’s hilarious watching people hop, tiptoe, use flailing arms for balance, whatever it takes to get out. Then of course, the smile’s wiped completely off when it’s our turn to get out! We decide that Manarola is the prettiest and most photogenic of the towns as we plan to have dinner there as the sun sets and photograph this town at night. Lasagne and pasta dishes are on the menu, of course, so authentic and delicious!
Our lovely hostess brings a large glass of local liqueur with almond biscuits for dunking to finish our meal, all on the house! She seemed so stern as she managed her restaurant, staff and clients. Yet she seemed to like us and her generosity touched me. Perhaps it was that I caught her gaze after we’d said our prayer before our meals. We walk a little way back to Corniglia to take the photos looking back on Manarola. Our intention is to catch the train back to ‘our town’, Riomaggiore but it’s a ¾ hr wait and only a further 1k to walk, well why not??? It is along the good path. I have to say the steep climb up the hill to our accommodation was the slowest and hardest of the day and felt as though someone had jacked the road up while we were away and made it vertical. We walked 9 kilometres between the towns today plus all the stairs and exploring around the towns. It has been an incredible day thought, memorable in every way!
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