Cinque Terre

We arrived at Riomaggiore without issue, stepped out of our train station and met Pall, who, to my surprise, was not a youngish Italian guy, but an older American guy.  Cool, no communication issues.  He walked us around Riomaggiore, where he has lived for fifteen years (and know EVERYONE, though he says there are only 500 permanent residents, so that's not impossible) and gave us an orientation to the so-called five villages.

We got coffee and hot chocolate (American style, bleh) and then set off.  

Along the way we got to know a lot about the politics between the national park that is responsible for the trails, and the villages that actually have to live on them.  We were also disappointed to hear that the issues around conservation and good trail behavior are at least as problematic here as they are at home.  One of the biggest problems is that the trails run right through the small privately owned vineyards, and hikers think that it's okay to just pick and eat fruit, or wander off the trail to picnic (and leave their trash), or dig catholes, or whatever.  Reprehensible, and certainly clear why residents are not happy to see increasing numbers of hikers, despite the tourism dollars they bring in.

The "easy" trail out of Riomaggiore is closed, because some years ago there was a rock fall that injured four hikers and which has yet to be repaired.  This is why we had Pall, who knew the alternative trails and took us up and out on trails that were originally used to bring grapes down.  Men carried 90 pounds on their backs, women carried 60 pounds on their heads, and they made these trips up and down all day during the six week or so harvest season.  At home, we'd call this a "billy goat trail" and it is not particularly well maintained, but we had no difficulty, and oh the view back from the top.

Here's us as we begin the hike down into the second village, Manarola.

Manarola has two "beaches".  They're both concrete, and had I not been told otherwise, I would describe them as boat ramps.  However, they don't use boat ramps, they have a winch for that.  Once out of the water, all the boats are on wheels so they can be moved around.  Okay, check out this amazing view.

From Manatola we climbed back up and walked on, taking a quick look at their cemetary before continuing.  Italians only stay in tombs for twenty five years or so, and then, there being nothing left, the space is cleaned out and freed up for another occupant.

We climbed along, enjoying great views of terraced vineyards until we reached Volastra.  Volastra is not one of the five villages, because it's not quite on the coast, but because the "blue" trail that runs right along the coast is closed, our route took us that way.

In Volastra is a church that was built in 1310 and still has services.

From Volastra we climbed back up.  Here's us looking back toward Manarola (the penisula there on the right in the background).

The next of the official villages was Corniglia.  If you don't want to sound like a tourist, it's pronounced "Cornelia".  And here's us looking ahead to Corniglia.

This was also the part of the trail where we picked our second home.  It's a bit of a fixer upper, but with great views and a lot of potential.  Who wants to come help with restoration?

In Corniglia, we topped off water bottles and had lunch, amazing pizza that was extremely welcome.  It was nice to have a break, but after lunch we were hiking again, climbing back out and up.  Here's a look back.

Here's Corniglia again from farther on.

Then we headed into Vernazza, famous for its tower, but relevant to us for gelato that was good enough Jimmy would have approved.

We really only stopped long enough for gelato.  It was crowded with people that had gotten bused in, and we had little sympathy for them considering they hadn't done the work.  So on we went.  Here's a look back.

At this point there was only one village left, and the hiking was comparitively easy.  Check out these steps up to a vineyard.

And yes, we visited a cathouse on our honeymoon.

But really, we just cruised along toward Monterosso.

We passed a guy selling homemade limoncello, and walked into town.  We'd hoped to make the boat that goes around, but the 4:30 bus left at 4:25 (and that's the last one) so we had to take the train.  Pall says total distance today was 24 miles (and I asked, he meant miles, not km), but based on time and how we feel, we're saying more like 14-18.  However, he does this for a living, so who are we to secondguess him??

We said goodbye to Pall in Riomaggiore and went one more stop to return to our hotel in La Spezia.  The order of the day was a long soak in the tub, and now, sufficiently recovered, we may go look for food.

Lyle says it was his second favorite day (after kayaking in Venice), despite the fact that I'd promised him it wouldn't be more than 15 miles.  I have a harder time ranking such disparate days, but this was a pretty darn good one.  We'd come back here.

Marty and Lyle