Added 18 November 2008. Pictures and stories from our trip to Italy, from November 1 to 14.
Our little “hotel” didn't offer breakfast, so the next morning we went to the restaurant across the street for the one breakfast menu item on offer: croissant and coffee. Both good, though. Then, having observed the penchant for sunny days (which this was) turning cloudy and rainy lateron, we decided to start hiking toward town #5, Monterrosso al Mare, that morning. I hadn't read much about the hikes in advance, which was probably just as well, as this one turned out to be the most difficult of them all. Though only about 3 km, there was a lot of climbing, and the trail itself was very rugged, with a lot of narrow parts, and having to walk on the edges of precipices. I'm surprised I didn't freak out about the heights more than I did. Maybe I was too busy catching my breath from the climbs.
Not nearly the most rugged part of this trail, but gives you an idea
I had mentioned cats earlier. On one part of this trail, we came across two cats, one of which was very chatty. Most area cats were fairly aloof, so this was notable. It took a little while to figure out why all the cat talk, though; the cat was rubbing against a plastic container. Beside it was a sign: “Please use the food in this container to feed these unloved and homeless cats.” Aaw! So, of course, we did, much to their appreciation. We also noticed the cats had little shelters there.
We also met a few people on the trail. Fortunately, given how narrow it is in parts, not that many. And, notably, many French (from France) people. I guess, for them, it's just a short drive—a nice weekend getaway.
Anyway, the trail was worth it. It was a beautiful. You could look back and see beautiful views of Vernazza, then later on, look ahead to Monterrosso. There was also interesting vegetation along the way, like olive trees and what I think were big aloe vera plants. It took us about 90 minutes to complete.
View of Vernazza from the trail
Approaching Monterossa (the little cluster of buildings) from the trail
Monterrosso was the most “resort-y” of all the Cinque Terra towns, looking much like a beach town anywhere, really. It had more cars, and bigger hotels, and more touristy shops. So not as charming in itself. But while here, we were able to purchase train tickets from Vernazza to Rome, and find out that there would indeed be a train strike the following day (really, from 9:00 that night to 9:00 the next night).
Over lunch, we discussed what to do next. We had previously figured, if Cinque Terra towns got too rainy for hiking, we could take the train to Genoa, a bigger nearby city that sounded worth a visit. Now, of course, that option wasn't available for tomorrow, so wondered about doing that today (though it wasn't raining). We finally decided to go for it, and went back to the train station, where we were informed the Genoa train would be arriving in two minutes! We were handed our tickets as the train pulled up, but had to validate them. I struggled with the machine, but it made a punching sound, and we both jumped on the train. All seemed fine until I looked at my ticket, which didn't appear to be stamped at all. Didn't look validated.
So at the next stop, we decided we should probably get out and do that. (On earlier trains we had taken, they had definitely been checking for validation stamps.) But by the time we found the machine and used it, the train had left again.
Checking the posted train schedule, we then realized that:
a) The next train to Genoa wouldn't be for another 45 minutes.
b) It took a fair amount of time to get there.
c) Genoa had about six different stops, and we weren't sure which one we wanted.
All in all, it started to seem less sensible to head to Genoa now and try to get back before the strike started.
So... We used our ticket to instead go to Riomaggiore, Town #1 of Cinque Terra. This town was also a bit more developed than Vernazza, but not quite to Monterrosso extents. It featured a lot of murals.
While there, we tried to do an in-town hike there up to a WWII bunker, but that trail was closed.
So instead, we hiked to town #2, Manarola. This hike was completely different from the morning one, being literally a wide paved sidewalk with very little incline to deal with. So it only took about 15 minutes, I think.
Manarola was quite small. Jean enjoyed checking out its neat boat-launching system at the marina.
Manarola boat launch area
We also did an in-town hike there, up to a vineyard. Now we were back to narrow paths and climbing, though not as rugged as the first trail. But the views at the top were pretty neat.
On the Manarola vineyard trail
Apart from the vineyards, there were a lot of citrus trees and roses, and up on one hillside, little wooden stands of people and animals!
Jean then wanted to hike to town #3, but I was feeling it was a little late in the day for that, given the darkness starting at 5:00. So we instead trained back to Vernazza, enjoying the sunset view while we waited.
My concerns about visiting Cinque Terra in rainy-ish November were these: If it rained, what were we going to do with ourselves all day? Sit inside and read?
So it wasn't comforting when we woke up to rain. Plus a train strike that meant we couldn't go anywhere without walking.
Trying not to panic, we started with some errands. The rain was actually pretty light. We got some groceries for our Rome train day, paid for our room now as we were checking out early the next morning, and had breakfast at the Blue Marlin, the main pub in town (with some cool art on the walls). We also ran into the American couple from our first day and shared experiences; they had also walked to Monterrossa, but hadn't visited any other towns.
And wouldn't you know, the day cleared up and rain didn't trouble us again in Cinque Terra.
So, we were off to hike to town #3, Corniglia. This was the second most challenging trail we did—out of Vernazza, there is nothing but tough trails! Again, there was a heck of a lot of climbing to start with. The trail wasn't as rough as the first, but it was definitely wild—no paving stones here, though some steps had been fashioned from rocks. But it also offered beautiful views and many opportunities for picture taking. This also took about 90 minutes.
Corniglia, town #3
Corniglia was tiny; 240 residents. But it did have some restaurants, and we ate at one of those. We considered going to the marina, but stopped when we realized how many steps were involved. Around 2:30 pm, we decided to hike back to Vernazza. (The trail from Corniglia to Manorola was closed, so we couldn't hike any further in that direction.) It's amazing how much easier the trail was going in that direction, as it was much more downhill than up.
For our final meal in Vernazza, we went back to the first day's restaurant, and had another fine meal. As my main dish, I had white fish, which turned out to be the entire fish, grilled. Yet somehow I ate it all. Maybe it was all that hiking.
Our train to Rome was fairly uneventful. Jean handled all ticket validation duties, so we avoided any problems there. We had one change, in La Spezia, but no issues there. The train for Rome was slightly delayed leaving, then got more delayed waiting for another train in one of the towns, so in the end we arrived about an hour later than we should have.
We took a cab to our hotel. We were a little confused when he pulled into a church. Did we have to walk from there or something? But it turned out, the hotel was in the church. Or beside a church. It was a converted monestary. In fact, half the building was still a monestary; the hotel half, I supposed, was fund-raising.
It was kind of cool, really.
