This morning we woke up about 8:00 and got ready and were out the door about 9:00. We walked the 365 steps down to the train station to pick up a one-day trail pass. The Cinque Terre are connected by a trail system which I wanted to hike (today was my day to be in charge). To help maintain the trail system, the towns charge for a pass which you need if you want to hike the main trail (it seems as if the less-traveled trails are free). The passes can only be obtained at the rail station, so we walked down there. As we were walking, it started to rain, but Mer had an umbrella, so she was fine (I don’t mind getting wet). We got to the station and got our pass, but then it turned out the trailhead was up in the town. The shuttle bus was empty, even of the driver, so we hiked up the 365 steps to get back to the town. Just as we got to the top of the steps, the bus went by. It seems it runs based on the train arriving, which makes sense.
It was warmer out than we’d thought, so we dropped some clothes off at the hotel. By now, it was 10:00, so we decided to get some breakfast. We walked over to a focaccia store to buy some fresh rosemary focaccia. It was delicious. I then wanted a hot chocolate, so we wandered up the street to a cafe where the hot chocolate was so thick and rich-looking that Mer even decided to get some (which is very rare). It was hazelnut flavored, which was a little unfortunate because I like my chocolate plain; but it did make Mer happy.
We stopped back by the hotel, and Mer asked about the trail, but the man at the desk warned us off the trail, saying it was somewhat dangerous when wet because of all of the exposed rock and mud. So, I decided to see if the rain would stop later, and we made plans to take the train to the first town, Riomaggiore. We rode the bus back down to the station and got on the trail for the ten-minute ride to Riomaggiore. Along the way, we were amused by a funny Italian man who was speaking excellent English to several Taiwanese tourists, and he was quite witty.
We piled out of the train at Riomaggiore and headed into the main part of the town. We took the main street up to a church, where we poked our heads inside. It was simple, but pretty, with a wooden statue of Mary dating back to around 1500. After the church, I saw a narrow set of stairs that went steeply up the hill to one side, so up we went. By the time we got to the top, we were eye-level with the bell tower of the main town church, and quite a ways above the train station. The views were spectacular, especially of the heavily-terraced hills around the town. We walked over toward the ocean, where we discovered a small castle. We went in and up, and were enjoying the views when a gust of wind turned Mer’s umbrella inside out. That broke one of the supporting struts, and while the umbrella still worked some, a slight wind would cause it to collapse. Here, Mer made a very rare (for her) sports joke. Since the umbrella was a Cleveland Indians umbrella, she said she should have guessed it – the umbrella started out strong and then folded. I was quite proud of her.
We headed back into the town a different way, which took us by the main church. It was pretty, and we went inside that one as well. We came out a side entrance and knew we were not in the United States when we came out to a six-foot stairway with no railings and no warning. We made it down fine.
We went back to the station and took another road up to the Via dell’Amore, which is a walking path to the next town. Sadly, it was closed because of rock falls. As we walked back to the station, our train was pulling out, and the next one was not due in until 1:20, about ninety minutes away. So, we walked up a new street and were delighted to find the source of the under-roadway stream at one end – a very pretty little stream. We kept going up the road, which bent back toward the sea, and we stopped to look at the view when our dinner companion from the night before, Caitlin, walked up. She had gotten up early and walked from Corniglia (Town 3) to Vernazza (Town 4), and when she got to the town it started to rain. So, after she grabbed some food, she took the train to Riomaggiore, and she was planning on catching the next train to Manarola. Since that aligned with our plans, we decided to travel together. Caitlin also pulled out a trail map and showed how there was a back trail that connected Manarola to Corniglia, and that sounded fun to me. So we headed back to the station and went to Manarola.
Once there, we headed away from the crowded part of the town by heading up. I stopped off quickly to buy Mer a new umbrella, and then we headed up to the high parts of the town. Along the way, we saw a high path that climbed up and up, over the town and into the terraces of grapes and other crops. That was a great-looking trail, and we wanted to take it, but Mer thought we should find a bathroom first. So, we kept going up and found a small square with another pretty church, and past the church we found the open stream that ran under the road in this town. The rain more or less stopped along the way, which was a happy development. We did not find a bathroom, so we headed back to the main part of town, toward the harbor, where we found a gelato store with a bathroom. We got ice cream and used the bathroom. Before tackling the hilly trail, I wanted to check out the sea, so we headed down to the edge of the ocean. There was a small path along one side, which we took, which led to a very cool isolated dock that was surrounded on three sides by rock. The ocean was rough today, and the waves were very cool. It was a happy find.
We tromped back up through the town and jumped on the trail. It was amazing. I’ll sum up, since the whole hike took about four hours. The first part was seriously steep, and along the way we passed a huge light-up crucifixion scene that was tastefully done (simple and abstract). Much of the first part of the trail was up steps made of rocks, and we were all sweating pretty well by the time we got to the top. The views along the way were amazing. The town below was beautiful. The trail wrapped around the hill, so we lost sight of Manarola, but the terraced hills were pretty to look at, and the sea kept coming into view.
The trail eventually wound through the hill town of Volastra, where we made a quick detour into a church that was built around 1240. The trail in this area was more or less flat and wound through many terraces. Along the way, Caitlin kept identifying plants and insects, since she was a science major in college and loves plants and bugs. It was very cool to see the world through someone else’s eyes, since Mer and I usually do not notice bugs, and many times miss plants.
The trail wound along terraces and the ocean, and at times both Manarola and Corniglia were in view. The landscape kept changing – often it was farmers’ “fields,” but the path also took us into a wooded area that was a lot like the woods of Vancouver or, as Caitlin told us, Seattle. Eventually the path started going down again, and we made our way, triumphant but tired, into Corniglia. The hike was a classic example of good coming from a group – it is unlikely Mer and I would have tried the hike on our own (there was an easier, lower trail we could have tried), and Caitlin also expressed doubts as to if she would have tried it on her own. Yay, us!
We all went back to the hotel to get ready for supper (wash up and drop off my backpack). We all went to supper together back to the same restaurant as yesterday, where we had a leisurely meal that we felt was well deserved. We had great seats outside that overlooked the ocean.
After supper, we tried the second gelato shop of the town. The dark chocolate was so good, I went back for a second one while Mer and Caitlin were still finishing up theirs. We went back to the hotel, where Caitlin said goodnight. I had hoped to take the train to Vernazza (Town 4), but it was 8:00, and I was afraid it would be 9:00 before we could get there, depending on the train. So, I decided we should explore Corniglia more. We walked down the main “road” between buildings, and discovered a beautiful scenic overlook that was over the ocean, and we could see Manarola clearly on one side, and some of Vernazza on the other. We got there as the sun was starting to set over the mountains over Vernazza, and it was beautiful.
After the terrace, I wanted to check out the miniscule harbor, so we hiked all the way down to the water. The hike was pretty, and we saw three or four cats along the way. The actual harbor was very small, with one large dock. We stayed away from the dock because the seas were rough, and often the waves were crashing over the cement on the dock. The exposed rock of the harbor hills was stark and beautiful, and made the walk down and back worthwhile. We hiked back up, and made our way back to the hotel around 9:30 or 9:45. What had started out as a rainy day with plans in flux turned out to be a magnificent day.