Cinque Terre

We caught the 9.15am boat to Cinque terre - stopping first at Porte Venere to change boats, then on along the coast. As there was a bit too much swell the boat didn't stop at any villages along the way until the last one, but that was fine with us - as we were coming back the next day to walk them anyway.

The view along the coast line was just fantastic. The trip took about 2 hours, then we explored around Monterosso for a while. It was pretty overrun with tourists, but we headed up out of town on a little foot track - which rewarded us with a delightful walk up through terraces of olives and vines and vegetables. It was both beautiful and sad. Already many of the terraces were full of weeds and the dry stone walls crumbling. I kept wondering what will happen once this current generation of farmers get too old to farm - the young ones just won't want to take on the back-breaking work of farming this steep and rocky terrain to eek out a subsistance income.

Back on the boat to Porte Venere, where we had a very interesting walk around this town with a beautiful old (dating back to Roman times) church built out on the point.

The Verweys arrived that evening and we re-visited the trattoria from last night and they experienced the full antipasta de mare - what a feast!

Day 2 Cinque Terre we caught the early train (8.12am) to the first village, Rommagio, and started walking from there. It was just perfect for walking. Overcast and cool, barely anyone around. At times we couldn't see another person, and it would stay that way for several minutes. The walk goes along the rocky hillside with fantastic views out to sea. This first section was pretty easy - flat and less than half an hour. We stopped at the next village, Manarola for some breakfast - coffee, pastry and orange juice.

From here the track got a bit more winding and undulating as we dipped in and out of gullies, but in an hour we were at the foot of the steps up to the third village, Corniglia. To get there you have to climb about 400 steps. Hard work, but not too bad. a pretty town perched on the rocky slopes. From there it was all up still! Up and up. through olive groves, vineyards, then just bare rocky cliffs. It had stayed overcast, and even had a few drops of rain. After about an hour, both the track and the rain came down - so we were negotiating slippery wet rocky steps in the rain. I kept thinking though that I'd prefer this to full baking sunshine and heat for this sort of strenuous walk. We finally made it to Vernazza after 2 and 1/2 hours of walking (with some rests and sheltering from the rain under trees at times). It was an absolutely fantastic walk - one of the highlights of the trip.

We treated ourselves to lunch at a cafe right on top of the hill with a fantastic view. Then a cooling bath of our feet off the rocks and back on the train and back to La Spezia. Dinner in a little old underground restaurant - good minestrone soup for dinner.