Yesterday, we woke up very early in the morning to drive over to Ventimiglia (an Italian border town) to hop on a local train to the Cinque Terre! The train stopped at every single little station - it took 5 hours to get to Vernazza (the second town of Cinque Terre). It was definitely worth the trouble though.
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| The view from our room! |
After dropping our bags off, we headed southbound. We met a nice, young couple who was staying next door - they had warned us about what we were getting ourselves into and told us what to expect. The first portion of the hike (Vernazza to Corniglia) was difficult, but manageable. It took us about an hour to get there, including the time we took to admire the panoramic view of the Mediterranean before us.
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| Vernazza from the trail |
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| Corniglia from the trail |
In Corniglia, we stopped for a small snack (we hadn't had lunch) and explore the town a bit. It's bigger than Vernazza and we ended up losing our way. We had to back track twice before we found the next part of the trail toward Manorola. The first hour or so after we left Corniglia was hell. The sun shone right on our backs and we were just climbing step after step after step. I could hear my heart beating in my ears! It was so exhausting. Finally, the trail flattened out and we were amazed by 1) how high up we were and 2) how many grapes were growing up on this side of the cliff! There were rows and rows of grapevines on these steep hillsides facing the sea, it was like nothing I had ever seen before.
The descent from the top of the mountain was not as easy as we had hoped. The pathways were very steep, making it hard on our feet and knees. Finally, after two hours, we could see Manorola. It seemed like it took forever to climb down and by the time we made it into town, our legs were wobbly from exhaustion.
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| Manorola: a welcomed sight, indeed... |
After some gelato, we took the train back to Vernazza where we cleaned up and went out to eat. Following dinner, we took a walk around the main piazza and enjoyed the beautiful night out by the sea.
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| Vernazza at sunset |
This morning, we woke up early and set out for a half-hour walk toward Monterosso to get a better view of Vernazza. Afterward, we bought a few pastries at the local bakery and two cappuccinos from the local bar for breakfast and ate on a bench facing the sea.
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| Breakfast-by-the-Sea |
When we finished, we headed back to our room, packed our things, and hopped on to a train to Monterosso. There, we thought we could get on to a faster train for Ventimiglia. That didn't work out so instead we had lunch in town and waited for the local train to arrive. We got to Ventimiglia around 6pm and had happy hour at a nearby restaurant - 5 euros for a drink and an all-you-can-eat buffet of Italian "tapas".
Such a great couple of days in Italy!
