La Spezia
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2008
1
75
95
Trip End
Ongoing
La Spezia,
Italy
Monday, July 14, 2008
We woke up nice and early and caught an early train from La Spezia to the first of the 5 villages of 'Cinque Terre' (5 villages) This allowed us to beat both the heat of the sun for the majority of the 9km trek as well as the crowds.The first town is called Riomaggiore, it took us about 10 minutes to walk the
Via dell'Amore (Lovers' Path) to Manarola. From Manarola it took us about 40 minutes to walk to Corniglia, while we were there massive dark clouds passed over the town and it looked like it might rain - but that passed and it remained a nice day. From Corniglia it took us about an hour and a quarter to get to Vernazzza. By about half way the sun was out and very strong and the landscape had changed the way it looked due to the sunlight shining on it. We stopped in Vernazza for a drink and a wander around the town which was the first to have any life as we had been up so early. From Vernazza it took us about an hour and half to get to Monterosso, the last of the 5 villages. The final leg was the hardest as the hills were steeper and by this time we were walking in the midday sun.
Upon arrival at Monterosso we found a spot on the beach went for a quick dip before a picnic and then treated our selves to a gelato as a reward for all the hard work.
By the time we got back to La Spezia we were ready for a nap.
