A walk through the Cinque Terre

Well folks, I think it's time to talk about the Cinque Terre. This amazing area on the Mediterranean Sea in the northwest part of Italy is actually a collection of five cities strung together by an easy-to-use train or a 9 km in total length walk that varies from a wide and gentle sidewalk to literally rock climbing in difficulty.  If you read my last post about Venice, you may recall our trouble in getting out of town. We left about two hours later then we'd planned, so we arrived in La Spezia in the evening and ended our train journey in Riomaggiore(of the the Cinque Terre) at dusk. Well, what ACTUALLY happened was, the train doors wouldn't open at our stop... so after 60 seconds of struggle, we watched our destination slip by. Luckily, Manarolo, the next town, was about 3 minutes ahead so we jumped out there. My Rick Steves' guidebook said the walk back to Riomaggiore was about 15 minutes long but it was getting dark and I was nervous about trekking on a path right next to cliffs by the ocean at night with multiple backpacks apiece. So we waited about 15 minutes for the next train headed back to Riomaggiore. Here is a photo I took while we waited. Yet again, I wished for a tripod but I think it turned out OK leaning on a bench. How bout that sun flare?

Next, we went looking for our lodging. I would say this part of the trip was probably the least fun for me. I was starting to succumb to germs and travel stress on the trip, feeling pretty under the weather. Our rick steves book had a sketchy at best map. I highly recommend the book, but get some maps in addition, or you might be wandering around a hilly town at 10 PM asking "Dove Edi's rooms?" pointing at a drawn map and receiving apologetic but unhelpful looks from locals. What was most frustrating is that the town is *tiny* with like, 3 main streets and we still couldn't find our place for a while. Eventually, we found the hotel front office and hiked back up a steep hill to our rooms. I think I wanted to cry when we finally settled in! We had two rented rooms a couple hundred feet apart nestled on the main street several sets of stairs up. The whole town is full of steep hills. We saw how beautiful it was the next day. :-)

Next on the priority list was getting some FOOD. We had wolfed down some unspectacular slices of pizza in Venice before noon and hadn't eaten since. We were starving! We walked on down to a sidewalk cafe and gelateria that served all kinds of food. Score! We dubbed Gianni's Shack our favorite restaurant in Riomaggiore and ate there like three more times the two days we were in the Cinque Terre. :-) In this photo, Zach is getting ready to eat his tomato, cheese, bacon and EGGS pizza. You would think it wouldn't taste good but it was the best pizza we had the entire trip.

David and I had Genovese pizza. That's right--Genovese. If you know my family, you might know that my mom's maiden name is Genovese. Her dad--my grandpa Jerry--is Italian. I found out just last week that his family is from Genoa.... which is a town just north of the Cinque Terre! If we had known that was where our family is from, we would have taken the train into Genoa instead of La Spezia because they are the same distance away from Venice. Oh well. But Genovese is a sauce native to the area with a LOT of pesto... almost too much. Pesto sauce is also native to this area. Anyway, here I am eating my family's pizza! Pretty cool huh? I was excited, even if I look tired. :-)

David was completely overjoyed to find Genovese pizza.

After our late-night dinner, we hiked back up to the rooms and fell dead asleep. The next day, we walked down to good ol' Gianni's for some deeelicious breakfast, got some sunscreen at a nearby shop and headed over to the entrance to the hiking trails. But first, let me show you the one thing I wish I had bought. This little ceramic wall decoration. How cute is that?Romance alert: if you feel nauseous when you see cheesy romantical photos, you might want to prepare yourself. From Riomaggiore to Manorolo is a walkway called Via Dell'Amore. The Walk of Love. Not too may years ago, these five towns were isolated from each other and the rest of Italy because of their location. Young people from Riomaggiore and Manorolo were stuck with the kids in their own town when it came to finding love. Until--a walkway was created between the two towns. Suddenly, young lovers could easily travel the 15 minute walk to see each other. Many chose to rendezvous halfway between the two towns. Everyone was happy. :-) Zach was such a good sport and put up with all my photo stops on the first trail of the day. My brothers also obliged and took our photos. :-) Here we are at the entrance of via dell'amore.
They made a little gate with HEARTS above! We had to take a romantical photo too. :-)

This is a bit down the walkway. Riomaggiore is behind us. Quite hilly wouldn't you say?

Here's all of us. It was pretty sunny. :-)

One of the traditions on via dell'amore is marking your name with your lover. You could call it graffiti, but in the setting it's sweet. Zach immortalized our love for all to see on a rock just past the entrance. If you get to walk the Cinque Terre, check it out!This amazing plant was right next to our rock. The path was about 3-5 feet wide, paved with a rail and easy to walk. This is the view looking straight down from the path. Now you can see why I was a lil' nervous walking it at night! We would have been fine because the path was wide... oh well. :-)On the path, there's a tunnel-- of LOVE. :-) The two cities built this little chair at the midway point where you can sit. This is the "symbol" of Via Dell'Amore. You might be wondering about all those locks. Zach and I forgot to buy one. But the tradition in Italy these days is to close a lock with your lover on this walk(we also saw some later on in Florence) to pledge your eternal love. :-) I thought it was fascinating. David and Jonathan were troopers, putting up with me. :-)

ahh, tru love. :-) Jonathan took this photo. David was busy sketching out a masterpiece somewhere in the tunnel. 

Zach said these giant yellow plants are a type of cactus. I thought they were pretty against a blue-green Mediterranean sea!

Once we reached Manorolo, we took a quick water break and pushed on toward the next town. I woke up not feeling well at all, so we had to take it a little easy. Don't ask me why I decided to take a hike like this when I was sick... But you only live once, and there's no way I would stay at the hotel when there were 4 other towns to explore!

Looking back from Manorolo, you can see the train stop. This is where we got off the night before, and you can see Riomaggiore just beyond.

The walk from Manorolo to Corniglia was a bit more hilly and 45 minutes long. It was still paved though. Thank goodness for small things! This is the view during the entire walk.

At the end of this trail right before the town, you have to walk up a ton of stairs. I took a photo, but it didn't really do the stairs justice. It was a lot... 382 stairs to be exact. You know it's some kind of accomplishment when you see a sign like this at the top.

The sign is in Italian, English and German. Maybe this is because most of the tourists we saw were the mountain goat type italians, americans and germans. It was a really nice change from Venice and we liked to count all the lederhosen we came across. I'm not joking!

We stopped in Corniglia for just a few minutes and pushed on to what was the most arduous part of our hike. Say goodbye to beautiful Corniglia! The next town was Vernazza.

I apologize for the lack of photos during this part of the hike. First, I was sick so it was taking all my energy to walk. I wasn't thinking creatively. The beauty around us was constant, so I kind of lost track of what was new and different. The view looked kind of the same in a beautiful way. I should have taken photos of the path, but it was rocky most of the time--like stepping from one rock to the other like stairs, hanging on to the rail so you didn't fall over the side, and I didn't want to drop my camera where it would be smashed on the rocks. It was a fun trek and it took about 90 minutes to walk 4 kilometers. That tells you how steep and windey it was! I asked Zach what we'd do if I was from Corniglia and he was from Vernazza. He said he would walk this path every day to see me and he would get in great shape. What a sweet boyfriend I have!

Here's a photo of Vernazza. Originally, the Cinque Terre were ruled by castles in each town. Here's one of them!

Zach took this photo. More pretty cactus plants!

Vernazza had a cute little beach and lots of fun stuff to do. We could have stopped there, but we'd vowed to hike all the way through. All I could think about was swimming in Monterossa al Mare and that kept me going. The trip to Monterossa from Vernazza took 90 minutes and was only 3 kilometers. I would categorize it as mostly rock stairs. The previous hike was more dangerous cause the path was really narrow and steep, so this one was easier to me. All you had to do was hike literally hundreds of rock stairs! Easy-peasy. :-) It was beautiful and luckily the day was not hot at all! It was a really pleasant day and it was nice to be exercising instead of sitting on some kind of public transportation. I really enjoyed it, even though I didn't feel good.

Ta Da!! We made it! This is near the end of the path before we got to Monterossa. We're so happy!

We got some lunch right away in Monterossa. Our whole trip took about 4 hours. Not too bad huh? After we ate we headed down to the beautiful beach where we rented beach chairs and umbrellas. We splashed around in the water for a while and then all of us crashed out for like 2 hours. I was totally worn out! It was a blissful way to spend the afternoon. What a reward for our hiking journey! We played in the water awhile longer... David grabbed a sea urchin, then we decided to eat some dinner. We changed and planned to head back to the train station, but we got distracted by the tantalizing dinner menu at this restaurant so we stopped here. 

We all had delicious food! And gelato OF COURSE.

We jumped back on the train and headed back to Riomaggiore. We played cards for a couple hours before going to bed for some much needed sleep. The next day we did some laundry at Edi's Laundry(so convenient because it was right next door!) shopped a bit and took the train back to La Spezia to go to Pisa, then Florence.

So ends this entry. I hoped you enjoyed it! I feel like I just took another hike! Almost...