The Cinque Terre

We really enjoyed Venice and hated to leave, but it was time to board the Bullet Train to Milan and make our next connection. We were going to The Cinque Terre, or "five lands". I read about this beautiful mountainous section of the Italian Riviera and it sounded like a good place to hike.

I decided that we should stay in Manarola because it was a small town and off the beaten track. We took the local train which stopped at many cities, and when we got off the train I was shocked. It was like a walking sea of humanity! We each had a suitcase and a backpack so we grabbed our stuff and were swallowed up by the crowd. I thought I chose an out of the way place to stay!!! The crowd turned and went into a tunnel and we had no choice, into the tunnel we went. When we got out of the tunnel the crowd turned left and went down the hill and we turned right and headed up the hill to our B&B and left the crowd behind. The pictures above are views from our balcony, no crowds at all.

Because I planned on a few days of hiking, I had been watching the weather forecast for The Cinque Terre and it was supposed to rain every day we were there. We quickly unpacked our trekking poles, changed into our hiking boots, and headed out on The Vineyard Trail, a flat trail through the vineyards above town. We wanted to go for at least one hike before the rain started.

This was a nice trail that wound through the vineyards with beautiful views of Manarola before ending near the sea. By the way, it's NOT the Mediterranean Sea on Italy's West Coast. It's the Ligurian Sea. I knew the Adriatic Sea was between Italy and Slovenia and assumed the Mediterranean was on Italy's West Coast. I was wrong. If we want to see the Mediterranean, we'll have to travel much farther south!

We woke up early the next day and checked the forecast which was for rain starting at noon, so we got ready and hit the trail by 7:30. Our host told us the trail from Manarola to Corniglia is a nice trail, with a stopping point in Volastra. She said there were two trails, the National Park Trail, and the Panoramic Trail that the locals made, which was steeper.

Bob chose the steep trail, of course, and we could see across the town to another hiking trail which went high above town on the other side.

While we were hiking up this STEEP trail we noticed the railing you can see on the left. It wasn't always on the left, but it was always somewhere close by and we couldn't figure out what it was for. I forget to ask our host, but when we got home I Googled it and found out that it's the track for a small monorail used during the grape harvest. I'm so glad they don't have to carry those grapes up and down this trail!

We made it to the top and could finally see Corniglia. If you look closely you can see the train tracks and station below the town nestled along the coast.

They had some markers along the trail with information about the special wine they produce in The Cinque Terre, and after finishing our four mile hike we decided to give ourselves a little reward. Sciacchetrà wine is very, very sweet, but so delicious!

The weather forecast the next day was almost the same: rain, but it wasn't supposed to start raining until after four, so we were off again with an early start. Remember the picture of the trail on the other side of town that looked very, very steep? Well, it's steep alright, and started off with stone steps. It was so steep and so high that I actually crawled up some of it. I'm not joking!

So, we made it. We hiked from Manarola up the steep trail and down the steeper trail and we finally reached Riomaggiore. While we waited to buy our train tickets back to Manarola, we talked to some people who said they hiked from Corniglia to Vernazza and it was a nice hike. So, instead of heading back to our B&B we hopped on the train to Corniglia. After all, the rain wasn't supposed to start until after 5 o'clock!

The trail from Corniglia to Vernazza was much different than our other hikes here in The Cinque Terre. This hike started out in the vineyards but was further away from the coast, of course it had its steep hills to go up and down.

About halfway to Vernazza we passed a bar, right on the trail! Their sign made me laugh - to order send the strongest person down the path to the bar! Neither Bob or I were feeling particularly strong at that point so we skipped it.

We were so happy to see Vernazza ahead, and it looked so beautiful.

There were signs posted on every trail warning that they're hiking trails "and so is strictly forbidden the entrance with flip flops, sandals or other shoes not suitable for mountain paths." Those hikes weren't easy so we needed some liquid refreshments. I had been seeing these orange colored drinks in every town we visited and they looked so good to me. I asked and I thought they said it was an apple spritzer, so we both tried one, but I really didn't like it. I guess I don't like aperol, which isn't apple at all!

I noticed this sign in our B&B and it made me laugh. I sent the picture to both Jaime and Beth and neither one commented!

Before we left our host, Donatella, gave us a sample of her homemade limoncello, and is it good! We've had limoncello before, but it can't compare to Donatella's!

We really enjoyed our time in The Cinque Terre, and we ate a lot of seafood, drank our fair share of wine, and ate too much gelato. The Cinque Terre is definitely a place we'd like to visit again, but now it's time to board to train to Rome.