Hike from Corniglia to Vernazza - The last leg! (5/17/2007)

The last leg of the trail today from Corniglia to Vernazza is almost as difficult as the leg from Vernazza to Monterosso. Lots of steps, rocks, narrow trails, but GREAT views!

Along the trail (and in every city we visited in Italy for that matter) we came across little statues of Mary, like this one:



You see them everywhere!

We started seeing cats again in Corniglia:



Leaving Corniglia - a site that will haunt me for the rest of my life:



Yes, more steps! You learn to LOVE steps in Italy. On this part of the hike, they never seemed to end! I guess it's just a lesson that you have to work hard to get any rewards - and we were rewarded with views like this of Corniglia:



And here's an example of how narrow the trail can get - to Candice's right is a drop-off of about 200 feet!



After about 45 minutes of non-stop climbing, we came across this sign for a free beach. All you have to do is follow the trail down the side of mountain about 20 minutes. My thighs were so rocked at this point that as good as the beach may have been, all I could think of was, "if it takes 20 minutes to go down, how long would it take to get back up?" We didn't go.



Up a few more steps and the view gets even better:



You can see Manarola off in the distance.

Just after that, you come across a most welcome sign:



Yes, at the top of the trail is an air conditioned watering hole - serving wine by the glass, very large beers, water, sports drinks, etc.

We were getting close to Vernazza when we came across this - any guesses as to what it is?



I have no idea either.

Just over a hill, we get the first look at our destination - HOME!



In the middle of the picture, look at the two-store pink house. Just below that is a stone wall with three little windows and a second stone wall making a little porch. That was our apartment. Here's a closer look:



Just a few hundred steps down a windy path and we were done. This part of the hike took about 1.5 hours. My feet resigned after that.

On the way down, we stopped in at this restaurant called La Torre and made a reservation for that night to eat. This place was recommended to Candice by one of her coworkers who actually grew up in this town.



Before dinner, I went down to the harbor to take some quick pictures as the sun was setting and the light was amazing - here's a sample:









And I ran into this recipe for Limoncello - the drink we purchased from the hillbilly guy on the hike to Monterosso:



After a quick nap, we headed back up the several hundred stairs to the restaurant and were seated next to a stone wall overlooking Vernazza. On top of the wall and right next to our table was, of course, a black cat - sleeping next to his watering stone:



He didn't even move when we sat down. After a little while, he got up and took a drink:



And then jumped down off his spot and started begging the other customers for some scraps.

Of course, the view was spectacular:



Dinner was good too. The restaurant appeared to have two people running it - could have been a husband and wife, I'm not sure - as they didn't speak any English. We ordered Accuighe al limone (anchovies with lemon) again - we couldn't get enough of these things! The menu was limited, so we each ordered a slice of lasagna - which was prepared a little different than the lasagne you're used to - but it was awesome. We also ordered some muscles in a red sauce, but they forgot to bring them out, which was not a problem as the lasagna was so filling we were stuffed. Wine was just a half liter of house wine - but was still tasty!

During dinner, we decided to not attempt to bring back the bottle of mystery drink given to us by Achille - it had a strong licorice smell which made us think it might contain Absinthe - which although legal now in Europe, is not legal in the U.S. To celebrate the gift, we ended the night with a couple of shots on the porch.

Next day - up at 4AM to make our 5AM train to La Spezia and the 7AM train up to Turin so we could fly to Paris.

Here's Vernazza at 4:30 AM:



Time to catch the train!



Ugh!

Riomaggiore to Corniglia Hike (5/17/2007)

On our last day in the Cinque Terre, we decided to take the hike from Riomaggiore up to Vernazza - taking us through Manarola and Corniglia.

But first, we had to make a train ride down to La Spezia to find out why we couldn't purchase our train ticket to Turin the following day in order to catch our plane to Paris.

Turns out, there was going to be a train strike out of Florence on Friday. We had one option - catch the 7:01 AM train out of La Spezia. To catch this train, we had to be on the 4:56 AM train out of Vernazza. Our flight to Paris from Turin wasn't until 5:10 PM. It was going to be a long day!

With tickets purchased, we took the train up to Riomaggiore to have lunch at a Rick Steve's recommended site, La Lampara, before starting the trail up to Vernazza. The food was good - especially for lunch. I had a little Pizza al Mare - the seafood toppings were great, but the pizza crust was not so good - it was premade and heated. Candice had Spaghetti al Mare - which she enjoyed. The highlight was meeting the owner, Cesare, who was really very nice. He came over and asked where we were from and when he learned we were in Italy for our honeymoon, he seranaded Candice with "Ciao Bambina." It was great! Here's Candice and Cesare:



After lunch, we started the hike. Here's a view of the trail leaving Riomaggiore:



The trail linking Riomaggiore to Manarola is called the "Via dell'Amore" because it enabled young lovers between the two villages to meet more easily. They would leave messages on the walls and meet up later - However, the tradition has evolved over the years - and now it's really just grafitti:



Manarola is just a 15 minute walk along the trail. We quickly walked through the town and browsed at a couple of stores. There was a hand-painted pottery store that had a lot of really nice plates, platters, olive oil bottles, etc - and Candice wanted one of the platters. The problem was we had no room in our bags for any bulky items - and shipping a large platter would cost over 100 Euro! The platter was 140 Euro, meaning with the current exchange rate, it would have been about $325. It wasn't THAT nice! Oh well

Back on the trail - and on to Corniglia. Here's a quick look back on Manarola:



This section is pretty flat too, but it's not paved with concrete - it's more like small to medium sized stones - and many of them are pointy and make it so so you really have to pay attention to where you are stepping. The view though is great!



Corniglia is up on a hill - and strangely, the train station is at the bottom of that hill. Take a look at the next picture - in the distance, you can see people walking up a series of steps away from the station. The steps take you up the side of a cliff from the station at the bottom to the pink and yellow buildings above - and then there is a paved road taking you up to the main part of the town. (Click on the picture for more detail)



There is a little sign at the bottom of the steps - notice the "You are here" indicator at the bottom of the steps:



It's a good thing we didn't decide to stay in this town - as walking up all those steps was hard enough with just our small packs! I can't imagine how hard it would have been with 50 lb packs on our backs.

At the top of the steps, here's a look back at Manarola. Even though it was relatively flat, this part of the hike took about 1 hour.



Time to get on the plane back to Atlanta - Next up - Corniglia to Vernazza.