Cinque Terre — Sunday Escapades

We were woken to the store owners in the street below us unloading their goods for the days customers. It was 7am and we were planning on getting up early to move the car from La Spezia to Riomaggiore anyway. After breakfast on the balcony and a call to both my parents and Lewis's dad we walked to the train station to catch the train to La Spezia. It was a 7 minute journey back to where the car was parked and luckily it only cost us €18.50 ($30.60 NZD) total. The half an hour drive over to Riomaggiore was nothing we havn't already experienced on the French roads being windy and small with lots of switch backs. One of our hosts met us at the top of the town and showed us where the carparking was in a building off the street. Man were we kicking ourselves that we hadn't done this yesterday instead of having so much trouble in La Spezia Centrale, but we had managed to save ourselves €31.50 ($51.70) by making this move. Plus tomorrow we can just load everything up and go to the next destination. Packing up our bags full of snacks we got ready for our long day of hiking around all 5 of the terres. We took the train to Monterosso in which we didn't really bother looking around the town as it was large and the more popular tourist destinations. It was about 11am when we finally found the trail since it was hidden around the side of a town and an old man waved us in the correct destination. I mean we stuck out like sore thumbs in our hiking gear so he clearly knew what we were looking for. This was one of the blue trails (the main tourist trails between cities) which is one you have to pay for unless you have brought the Cinque Terre pass. There used to be a series of blue trails that wound around the coast from Monterrossa to Riomaggiore but in 2011 there was a massive flood that ruined some of the tracks including one of the more famous ones called "lovers lane" between Riomaggiore and Manrola. They are still waiting for funding to fix these so they can be open to the public again but despite people paying for the Cinque Terre pass and oodles of money going into this they still don't do anything about it. But fear not if you want to walk between villages there are other free options that just take a bit longer. We were able to walk the blue trails from Monterosso until Corniglia but the rest of the way they are closed. I had read that this section of the track from Monterosso to Vernazza was one of the better ones anyways as it provided the bet views and it was only a 3.5km track labeled as "easy". Honestly we agree that it was pretty at times but due to it being a blue route and considered easier than the red routes (the less direct hikes between cities, steeper and longer) there were far more people on it. People that really wern't dressed to do this hike which meant they slowed us down big time. We got stuck in this huge group of young people that we think were German but they were wearing jeans and slip on shoes that really wernt much good for the trails. They crowded the path and walked very slow so every time the path was more than two people wide we over took them. The worse thing was they held people up in the opposite direction and we were embarrassed that we fitted right in to their group since we were probably all about the same age. Lew snuck past a couple of guys by walking up off the path into the bushes and he gave them such a fright, they still didn't move out of the way for us though. Finally getting past them all the track was more peaceful and we were easily able to double the pace. The blog we had read said that it usually takes 2 hours to complete but the girl who wrote it completed it in an hour. We of course figured we could do the same but no such luck due to the amount of people on the track. We can't even imagine what this is like in the heart of summer as we have heard the place is just teaming with tourists, it's bad enough as it is in the low season. We would say this place certainly isn't overrated, it's stunning and worth the visit but it is overrun with tourists forcing the local people out which makes it a lot less traditional.

Finally Vernazza came into view with its beautiful coloured buildings with the port below. We could see from the track that there were ferries just spilling our people from their decks into the town square. Vernazza was where we were going to initially stay but after seeing the amount of people we were pleased not to be. Arriving into the town square we planned to find some lunch up the main street and we elbowed our way through the street choosing between the many places that sold fresh focaccia. I got a plain one for €2 ($3.30 NZD) and Lew got the version with some tomato and cheese for €2.40 ($4 NZD). We sat down on the rocks at the waterfront really wanting to swim but it was more of a port as opposed to a beach so decided to wait until we went back to Riomaggiore. We accompanied lunch with some fruit and other snacks I had brought with us and planned to get some gelato in the next town over Corniglia. This 3.5 km blue track between Vernazza and Corniglia was also open but it didn't seem as busy as the last one. I think most people stayed in Vernazza for an extended lunch break nursing their sore feet! This track was certainly more scenic but once again there were an uncountable number of rock steps to climb up. Post lunch we were feeling energised but even more keen to get back to Riomaggiore for a swim early afternoon. We zoomed past these people using poles to help them up the steps and the women said "show offs" obviously not imagining we spoke English. I turned around laughing telling her I promised it wasn't as easy as we were making it look and the thought of a swim soon was making us go faster. She was American and we have noticed there seems to be a large number of American tourists travelling at this time of year, I even started saying hello to people instead of Ciao since most people replied hello back. When we started getting some views of Corniglia which is the only one if the 5 terres that sits up on a hill it looked unreal. I don't think our photographs can do it justice the way it just perched on the hilltop whilst the rest of them are situated around a small port on the ocean front.

Screen Shot 2017-10-18 at 9.34.47 AM.png

On our way down to Corniglia we ran into an Australian family from Sydney and we compared where we had all been so far. They were able to give us some good advice for our up coming Venice trip and the lady was interested in where we had been so far with out car since she is a travel agent. They were staying in Monterosso and were finishing up their hike in Corniglia whilst we were continuing onwards. We realised we would be in Rome at the same time and promised to look out for each other. Despite being Australians we did enjoy speaking to some like minded people and their 14 going on 20 year old daughter was just so jealous that we had moved to London. We had promised ourselves some gelato when we arrive here and walking the streets we found Alberto's Gelateria which I had read good things about in other blogs. Lew and I both got a couple of flavours to try and also a lemon granita since it was hot and we were feeling a bit parched. It was certainly lemon overload as we positioned ourselves on a wall overlooking the walk yet to come. Feeling a little sick from all the sugar we struggled to find the next walk since it wasn't a blue trail. I found some signage in which I thought was the right way and involved walking down 250 steps to the train station. We were almost down when we asked some of the locals selling things on the side of the footpath if this was the right way to this other track. Of course it wasn't and we had to walk back up all these steps to find the actual entrance. We asked some other people in front of a different track entrance and they pointed up the right way. They said it was a very steep walk but plateaued a bit through the orchards before heading down taking about 2 hours. By this stage it was 3pm and I can tell you that my body was feeling a little weary and slightlyt nauseated from all the lemon flavoured stuff I just ate! Lew however was rearing to go and just powered up these steep steps that seemed never ending, I think I need to put some rocks in his backpack as clearly the amount of camera equipment he's carrying isn't heavy enough! So the initial track we took from Corniglia was the 587 red trail from Corniglia to Cigoletta and when we reached a fork in the road we switched to the 586 track which was Volastra to Case Pianca. Once we got to Volastra we then took the 506 track called the Manarola - Fork #1 but make sure you take the route called the "Panoramic route" which you see on your right hand side walking down a road. This was hands down out favourite hike and I wish we had just walked from Vernazza to Manarola and missed out the initial stage.

Before we got to Volastra we walked on a small cliffside dirt track with vineyards either side of us. They had clearly just been harvested and the leaves were deep yellows with the changing season. A monorail line weaved in and out of the vines but we couldn't imagine how hard it must be to harvest these vines since they are holding on for dear life to the steep slope below. In the distance you could still see Corniglia perched on the mountain top and Manarola in the distance on the other side of you. As we neared Volastra we started to walk through groves of olive trees with big juicy olives attached to the branches. I decided to try one and figured they would taste like the ones that have been on our pizzas recently, but infact it was green inside and tasted nasty! So I don't know if I picked one that wasn't ripe or they do something special to them to make them taste like we know olives do haha!

From Volastra to Manarola the track was mainly down many many many rock steps. The panoramic route took us out to the cliff overlooking Manarola which provided us the best view of the picturesque town, a photographers dream. There was a small lemonade stall outside someones gate that just read "Help yourself, pay what you like!" Lew and I had a couple of glasses each of the sweet liquid but I didn't have much change on me so we could only give them 80 cents! By the time we arrived in Manarola we were disappointed that it was infact just before 5pm and we didn't do it much faster than what we were told it could be done it. It's always a challenge for us you see! We briefly hobbled around the town before heading to the train station to get back to Riomaggiore. It was a shame that lovers lane between the two cities isn't open as it could have meant we walked between all 5 terres! But the track to get you there instead was another 2 hours when its a 2 minute train ride. Lew did suggest that if we timed it right we could run down the train tracks but neither of us were in a state for running and I don't think our insurance would cover us for that sort of thing if one of us got the timing wrong! As it was we walked a total of 13.1km from Monterosso to Manarola. But it was probably more like 14-15k total if you take into account the wrong turns and walking around the cities. We forced our legs to walk up another couple of flights of stairs to our apartment where we left our stuff and headed down for a well deserved swim. The sun was a bit lower than yesterday so it wasn't as warm but we stayed lying on a large tree branch to watch the sun set, only leaving enough light to make our way back home. Dinner was something we had to sort out but none of the shops here really sell any good meat and it is all very overpriced. If you want to cook your own meals here I would recommend bringing in some meat from La Spezia or the last large city you went to.

Manarola was the destination we choose despite having to get back on a train that were now an hour apart. If we were lucky we could catch the 7.30 train to Manrola, eat and be back to Riomaggiore on the 8.30pm train but we thought it was probably unlikely. The place we chose for dinner Trattoria dal Billy was hard to find and we walked up and down the streets looking for it getting more tired and hungry as we went. We finally asked a couple and they happened to eat their the night before but it is actually about an hours walk away up th hill and they had to take the shuttle....fail! Plus it is closed today. We went back to the main part of town and chose a place called La Scogliera Trattoria. The older waitress actually spoke reasonable English and I was able to get across that I wanted something without dairy products. Lew ended up getting the house made lasagne and I got a pasta with meat sauce. They charge you €2.50 ($4 NZD) cover fee which includes a basket of bread they give you the you first arrive and have half devoured before you see that it cost you, not that it's something you can get out of. We were starving and enjoyed mixing the bread with the supplied olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We had decided we would just have to catch the 9.30pm train back so we had a bit of time to kill. We ordered a entree in which the presentation was certainly lacking but came with another basket of the same bread plus some different meats, cheeses and a cooked courgette. It was tasty but I was concerned I wasn't going to be able to eat all my dinner with a second basket of bread. The rest of the food came our quickly and lews lasagne was just smothered in cheese yet he added more mozzarella onto it! Mine was a pretty basic version of spag bowel and I was pleased I had eaten all that bread! Lews dad Paul had told me that pasta was just a started for Italians so don't expect too much food on a plate. Since we still had 45 minutes to kill after we finished dinner and we hadn't seen any open gelato stores on the street outside we looked at their dessert menu. Lew got a mousse but to my disappointment they didn't have anything without dairy. Over all dinner wasn't cheap at €48.60 ($80 NZD) but I guessing if you minus what we would have spent on parking if we left our car in La Spezia it wasn't so bad. We left 10 minutes before our train arrived but as we were getting close to the station we heard a train pulling up and we had no idea if our train was early or if it was going in another direction. We rain like made down the tunnels and through the underpass and we were about to leap on before the doors were closing until we realised we had caught the train back to Riomaggorie on the other side of the track. This one was going the complete wrong way and we ran with full stomaches for no reason! We made it back to Riomaggiore at 9.35pm with no energy what so ever to plan for tomorrow. We knew we were leaving Riomaggiore and heading south toward Rome with a stop off in Grosetto for the night but that was it!