Exploring Cinque Terre

Trip Start Nov 04, 2008
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Trip End Dec 15, 2008


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Flag of Italy  , Italian Riviera,
Saturday, November 22, 2008

It was a good nights sleep and it's a cold morning.  Alaina bundles up and goes down to the grocery for eggs, cheese, yogurt, granola and milk then makes us a wonderful breakfast.  She's such a good cook!  After breakfast we jump the train north to the next village, Monterosso.  This is the main beach village and does have some cars.  We grab some coffee, hot chocolate and tea and sit out by the sea.  Although it was cold the sun was out full blast and kept us semi-warm.  We walked through the town and on the beach and then jumped on another train south to the southernmost village, Riomaggiore.   We grab some lunch here.  John and Wil get pizza and beer (of course), Alaina gets fried seafood and I got spaghetti and we both got wine.  We sat ourselves on a piazza overlooking the local houses and sea and had a nice lunch.
 
We decide rather then taking the train we'll hike from Riomaggiore to the next village up, Manarolo. It's an easy 20 minute hike with little incline, mostly just views of the sea and grape vineyards.  Beautiful! 
 
Once in Manarolo we walk around for a bit then catch the next train up one stop to Corniglia.  Corniglia is the smallest of the villages with no beach, but a main hiking trail up to Vernazza.  According to Alaina's book, Rick Steve's says this trail is rugged but worth it for the views.  It's estimated as a 90 minute hike - I'm thinking, we climbed the Great Wall of China we can do this.  The walk starts with 382 stairs up to the top of the hill.  The after a little detour on the paved road we start down the trail.  This part goes through olives groves on the sides of the hills.  Olive trees are beautiful, but not good to eat.  Round and round the hillside we trek.  It gets pretty rugged, not my idea of a vacation, but they say the views are coming.  Finally when we get to the top of the hill the views of Cinque Terre are spectacular!  You can see all the villages from the top, two in the South, two in the North and Corniglia under us.  The climb was worth this!

Now it's 1600 and the sun is starting to set.  We're all trying to make it back to our village for sunset, especially since the trails aren't lit.  Just as we round the last hillside we see our apartment balcony and the sun sets.  We get back to our apartment chill, then freshen up and gather our dirty laundry and head to the laundry mat!  Laundry is fun with four people, but it seemed like the clothes were never going to dry.  By this time it's 2100 and the restaurants in Vernazza are about to close.  Alaina and I head down to the restaurant we had reservations at and save seats for Wil and John to finish waiting for the laundry.  Wil comes down and orders some food then goes back to sit with John.  Alaina and I eat more sardines, bread and soup and finally the guys come to eat their main courses.  What a great, exhausting day!

After dinner we took turns taking photos of the stars from our balcony.  The sky is so dark here and the stars and planets are spotlights in the sky!  What an amazing place!
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