Scenic walk and the beach

Today Jo has woken up feeling a little bit better, which is great news because we have a day hike planned! We were a little unsure where to buy the entry tickets to the national park but set off up the first hill anyway. Luckily we came to a little hut soon enough where a family in front of us were being turned away for wearing inappropriate footwear. “There are MANY steps” the man was trying to stress to them. Turns out there are a LOT of stairs! But what rewards when you turned another corner or found yourself walking past a vineyard built into the side of the cliff. The views up and down the coast were certainly striking and the sun was making the ocean sparkle!

The Cinque Terre region is so called because of the five (cinque) villages (terre) along this part of the coastline and from Monterosso (1) the first village we arrived at was Vernazza (2), with a beautiful harbour area absolutely buzzing with hundreds of others with the same idea as us!

So about eight months ago now I bought a new drink bottle as I had had enough of leaky, crappy things that really make no difference to saving the world as you just want to throw them out anyway! Crom was mortified at how much I spent on it, but I had done my research and consequently have been extraordinarily happy with my purchase. Just before we left, I managed to convince Crom that he needed one too! And the best thing is that Spain and Italy have free fountains with drinking water all round the cities, normally with unique and individual designs too. So our first stop in Vernazza was to find

the village drinking fountain. After locating the fountain and a quick tour around Vernazza with the rest of the crowds, we headed back to the track and onto the next village.

After making our way onto Corniglia (3), the only one not on the water, we found out that the next part of the trail, from Corniglia to Manarola (4) and onwards to Riomaggiore (5), was shut. There were huge floods in 2011 and then more landslides in 2016 which have damaged or washed away these tracks. Due to the terrain they are obviously very difficult to repair so remain shut for the foreseeable future, also the Italians work a little slower than the rrest of the world! To our credit we had already completed the hardest walks so stopped for a well deserved lunch and a cold drink looking out over the Mediterranean. As the day was fast disappearing and we had not yet had a swim we decided to catch the train on to Riomaggiore, the fifth village. After getting lost in the village despite there only being three main streets, we found our way down to the train station. Unfortunately there was a 25 minute delay for our train which meant we got to share our four minute journey with hundreds of other people squished around us like sardines, not unlike being on the tube in London!

In Riomaggiore we headed straight to the harbour area (amazing!) and around the cliff to the ‘beach’. After growing up in New Zealand we have become accustomed to nice sandy beaches that you can spread out and lie down on. In this part of the world, they seem to have an abundance of rocky beaches that the tourists awkwardly perch on while the locals manage to look very comfortable! Riomaggiore is of the later. After hopping our way over to a free spot and constructing somewhere to lie down, it was into the water for a much needed swim and then a snooze on our rock bed in the evening sun.

As the sun disappeared behind the cliffs, we took the scenic route up the main street and around the hill instead of through the tunnel back to the train station to head home to Monterosso. After a light dinner and packing up it was time for bed. We are really sad not to have longer in this amazing place, if you are planning a trip to Italy then Cinque Terre is a must!