Cinque Terre
It’s a bright, sunny day, and we are on our way to Cinque Terre!
Last night we were not so sure. First of all, one of the hikes between towns that our tour leader had planned for us is now closed due to heavy rains a couple of days ago. (Tip: Some trails are still closed from a major landslide a few years ago, and things change all the time – always check current status on http://www.parconazionale5terre.it).
And if that wasn’t enough, railway workers gave notice of an impending strike. This could affect the trains we planned to take to the villages and in between them. Today only. But, they have guaranteed that the trains at the beginning and ending of the normal work hours would be running. They do not want to screw up the day of other workers. So, we now have ferry tickets to take us between villages, which is a better option because we can view them from the Ligurian Sea. Win/win!
We took the first morning train to the farthest of the towns, Monterosso. There we had time for breakfast along the coast before catching a ferry to the next town, Vernazza. We sat at a few random tables outside a tiny coffee shop, and had a view of the best beach of the area.
The ferry to Vernazza gave us a view of the village set high on the cliffs, with a harbour allowing us to enter. (Only the middle village, Corniglia, has no way down the cliffs so no harbour. You can climb up a few hundred steps from a train station to reach it).
From Vernazza we started the hike – around an hour and a half each way to Corniglia, then back to Vernazza. Others continued on a difficult high trail from Corniglia through to the other towns, taking a few more hours.
The “easy” hike was steep uneven stone steps up to the top of the townsite, then some flatter parts, but most of the trail was a steep uphill. But then the trail back to Vernazza was mostly downhill.
The views from the trail were fantastic of course, as advertised.
Back in Vernazza I had takeout lunch of misto fritto (lightly fried seafood and veggies) check out the anchovies on this thing! I loved it!
From there, we took the ferry to Manorola, where we wandered around until the other hikers showed up. Lots of people were frolicking in the harbour, suntanning and swimming, but we hadn’t been prepared for that.
We took another ferry to the last town, Riomaggiore. We found a spot in the sunset bar and had an aperol spritzer, which is the classy thing to do in northern Italy.
We had to catch the train back to La Spezia after sunset, but now we had a couple of trains cancelled. When we finally got back to the city, we had to go straight to our dinner reservation at a wonderful restaurant, Bolle in Pentola. https://www.facebook.com/BolleinPentolaDiRiccoTuoSimone/
I had hot and cold seafood appetizers – cold with amazing garnishes, then hot dishes including a dozen mussels and octopus. All washed down with Cinque Terre made white wine.
There was some prosecco left over from dinner, along with various bottles of wine picked up along the way, so we went back to our hotel courtyard with them until the lights were turned off.
I was happy to have a shower before crawling into bed. What a fantastic day!