Hills of a Different Sort

Wednesday, June 20 – Day 23 (Cinque Terre)

With our travel day from hell behind us, we woke up to a beautiful sunny day in the Cinque Terre. Here Rich looks out our window onto a square in Riomaggiore that house a church originally dating from 1340 (rebuilt in 1870)…

First a few words about the Cinque Terre (which means five lands). This area of Italy, founded in the dark ages, was once only known to locals and the pirates who attacked the villages. However, the coming of the train made access easier. To preserve the land, the Italian government declared the Cinque Terre a national park. A wonderful trail weaves the five villages together through the hills, hamlets, and muri a secco terracing for vineyards and olive groves that is characteristic in the area. Here Rich looks up the hill and you can make out the terraced hillside behind him…

From Monterosso to Riomaggiore, the trail is 9 km and takes about five hours (counting time to gawk and take pictures). We read that the most difficult portions were between the first three villages (going north to south) and decided to get those out of the way early…

The trail from Monterosso to Vernazza is a 90 minute scenic up and down A LOT trek. The trail is rough and almost dangerously narrow in some portions, but always easy to follow. Here we paused and looked back on Monterosso before we rounded the corner on our way to Vernazza…

Here a nice older gentleman (who smoked us on the trail) offered to take our picture on the hillside above Vernazza…

The orange box is some kind of an emergency system for getting help on the trail. These were so space out that I’m pretty sure if some needed emergency help, they would be dead before reaching the box!

When the trail and the trees break and you come up on Vernazza, it is just breathtaking – perfect postcard material! Notice the fascinating tangle of pastel homes leaning on each other…

From Vernazza to Corniglia is also a 90 minute hike. This was probably the wildest and greenest of the four trails. That is the village of Corniglia over my shoulder…

The walk from Corniglia to Manarola is just 45 minutes and starts to lose the natural beauty of the previous two trails. Here Rich looks over the Manarola’s inlet…

The final stretch from Manarola to our village, Riomagiore, is a mere 20 minutes of mostly paved walkway called the Via dell’Amore or the Avenue of Love. Hot, sweaty, a bit sun burned, we called it a great day!