20060502 - Cinque Terre, Italy

Cinque Terre is a remote chunk of the Italian Riviera. It is made up of 5 villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore located in ravines on the Ligurian Sea. The 5 Villages can be accessed by train, bus, boat and walking trails. It is an Italian national park to preserve the natural and cultural wonders of the land, the sea, and the villages themselves. We arrived in Vernazza by train in the afternoon of May 1st. We did not have a hotel reservation, so while I stood guard with the luggage, Rich went to find a phone. While I was standing an older gentleman came up to me saying that he had his grandfather’s house to rent. Rich came back and we decided to go with the man to at least see the place. It was nice, the price was good so we decided to stay there. Vernazza is perched on a ravine going up from the sea. Our house was fairly high up the hill, (lots of stairs). After he left, and we unpacked, we went down to see the town. We decided to take a train to see Monterosso al Mare. We were going to spend the next day walking the trail to the other villages but did not want to walk between Monterosso al Mare to Vernazza. We spent the afternoon walking around Monterosso al Mare and Vernazza. That evening we had dinner at a restaurant perched at the top of Vernazza. Our house had a washing machine so I did laundry, but it did not have a dryer so I hung our clothes on the clothesline out the window. According to our guide the Cinque Terre trails were: Monterosso al Mare to Vernazza - 90 difficult minutes, Vernazza to Corniglia - 90 medium minutes, Corniglia to Manarola - 45 medium minutes, Manarola to Riomaggiore - 20 easy minutes. The next day we started at Vernazza and left for Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. It took us almost twice as long as planned. There was quite a climb from Vernazza to Corniglia, but the views were amazing. In fact the entire trail was gorgeous. In Corniglia we had some gelato (I’ve become addicted since Florence). In Manarola we had lunch. We did not really go into Riomaggiore as the trail came into the railroad station and town was way down (and then up) near the sea. We took the next train back to Vernazza. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) that train did not stop in Vernazza so we got off the train in Monterosso al Mare, and took the boat back to Vernazza. The next morning we got up early and took the train to Lake Como.