Cinque Terre: Five villages

We boarded the direct train to La Spezia and enjoyed coastal views along the way. With only one short stop to change trains we made it into Riomaggiore, the most Southern of the five towns that make up Cinque Terre. Wow! Tourist time is over; let the nature worshipping begin! Cinque Terre is a national park that is a collection of five coastal towns with hiking trails between and stunning views at every cliff. We picked up our hiking pass to the park and then went in search of the hostel. We checked in at the main office then the man took us to our dorm room, which was up an impressive flight of stairs. This was one of many times we were very thankful to have packs as opposed to rolling suitcases. We clambered up the flights of stairs flanked by colourful houses, freshly hung washing, and the occasional neighbourhood cats scurrying past our feet. We quickly changed into our bathers, chatted with our new roommates before picking up some fresh foccacia and heading down to the water. As there is only one beach in Cinque Terre at it rests in Monterosso, the most northern town, we made ourselves comfortable on a private rock next to the ocean. We found entertainment with some crabs on neighbouring rocks (luckily not the one we were on!) and the usual people watching. When we couldn’t resist the water any longer we scrambled over to the pebble beach and went for the first swim of the trip. Pure bliss! We hung out in the waves until we decided to replace the salt-water taste in our mouths with gelato. Yes, gelato again. Janelle has had gelato every day (save for two) that we have been in Italy, and for good reason! This gelato was right up there with the best we’ve had. We had to “hike” to the next town over, Manarola, for the one shop. We say “hike” because it is listed as a 30min walk entitled “The Lover’s Walk,” but is a paved 1km coastal trail that really only took us 10 minutes to walk. Such an inviting trail to walk and worth paying for the hiking pass for the day in order to use it. You have to purchase a hiking pass so that they are able to preserve the national park, something we definitely hope they continue to do.

We treated ourselves to a fresh, authentic dinner and shared plates of an oven-roasted sea bass (head, scales, tail and all!) and tagliatelli with prawns, truffle sauce and zucchini. Delicious! Revelling in the afterglow of dinner (could have been the local olive oil, or wine) we headed down to the water and made some friends as we sat on the rocks to catch the sunset. Our Swiss Army knives were in high demand to help everyone open their wine and we spent the evening chatting to a group from Australia and South Africa. We met Amelia, native of Manly Beach in Sydney, AUS, and full of life. We invited her to join us on our hike between the villages the next day, and when she heard we were leaving at 5:30am to catch the sunrise, she was sold. We love it when we find people just as crazy as we are.

We met her at the start of the trail before sun-up and set out on our adventure at a quick pace. Riomaggiore to Manarole = piece of cake. The sun still had yet to show its face so we continued up into the mountains. There had been landslides on the easy coastal route between Manarola and Corniglia we were forced to take an alternate route with an estimated hike time of 2.5 hours. We couldn’t entirely find the path so we made our own. We mounted a mountain of stairs and scaled cliffs alongside grapevines. We had to backtrack a few times to find a successful route but we found a breathtaking spot to enjoy our breakfast. Great company, a physical challenge, and fresh air made this another highlight of our trip. We made it to Corniglia in just under 2 hours and set off to the next town, Vernazza. This time we stuck to the well-marked trail that was seaside and snapped even more stunning photos and memories. By the time we made it to Vernazza, around 8:45am, Amelia had to leave us to return back to Riomaggiore and check out of her hostel. We took our time in Vernazza, enjoyed more giant, juicy peaches and nectarines, some coffee and a break for our legs before starting the last hike of the series. The final hike was advertised as the hardest: 1.5 hours of walking with steep ascents and descents. Heidi and Caitlin had also warned us that we would get a good sweat going. We had been sweating since our first hike, and we did not stop. We are so thankful to be able to challenge ourselves and complete the demanding route without having to take too many breaks. We stopped to snap photos that don’t quite capture the vast beauty, and thoroughly enjoyed the hike in the fresh mountain air and growing company of other hikers. By the time we made it to Monterosso (10:30am, only an hour from leaving Vernazza) we were covered in sweat, dust and aching for a swim. We pulled a Superman and spun around quickly in a phonebooth to emerge in our spandex uniforms. We heard there was trouble on the beach, so we hustled over to take care of villains. Everything was in order when we arrived so we took a deep breath and decided we’d relax until they showed their faces again. Luckily for them they stayed away.

We read, soaked up some vitamin D, listened to music, and cooled off in the ocean. We didn’t want to turn into raisins so after we rinsed off the salt we sat down at a restaurant for a delicious lunch. Heather feasted on fresh mussels and Janelle ordered yet another pizza. Rather than hike off our lunch, we lingered a little while around the town before catching a train back to our hometown. We crafted a healthy home made salad for dinner and then walked along the lover’s walk to catch a stunning sunset. How romantic!