October 14 Hiking the Cinque Terre

A colleague of mine often spoke of the beauty of the Cinque Terre and her desire to hike the trails. Although I had seen and admired pictuers of this Unesco World Heritage site, nothing compares to being here. These five villages, Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore are each perched on cliffs looking over the sea and appear to have been carved out of the mountains. They are colourful, quaint and best of all, part of a national park and therefore, protected.

The trail we hiked covered about 12 k beginning with a path that was more like a sidewalk than a hiking trail. However, that soon changed when we passed the second village. The tour groups and those out for a stroll disappeared and we were glad to be wearing our hiking boots. It was no Inca Trail but it was a good hike. On our right we passed numerous olive groves, lemon trees and terraced vineyards. On our left, below tall, steep cliffs was the sea...the beautiful, clear, clean sea.

There were some fishermen out but most boats were hauled up...mos in the middle of the street. (we took pictures)

At one point on the trail we came across a woman doing watercolours. We chatted with her about what it is like to live here (too small she said...mostly just the old people stay). We then bought one of her paintings. We also stopped at Manarola for a gelato, and of course we stopped on numerous occassions to admire the view and take pictures.

By the time we finished the trail, it was time for dinner. We dined at a seaside ristorante and ate local stuffed mussels and pasta.

The train ride back to the campsite was easy, due to the help of an American couple we met at the stazione...Italian trains are unpedictable and they were able to sort out the timetable for us.

Tomorrow we will go back to the five villages of the Cinque Terre without our hiking sticks and boots. We will explore each of the little villages and maybe even go for a swim.