Day 37 Monday 23rd June 2008

After breakfast on the balcony again, we walked to the train station and caught a train for Riomaggiore (the furthest of the Cinque Terre). We explored a bit of Riomaggiore and took some photos. We then bought a 2-day ticket for the Lovers’ Lane panoramic footpath and all the other paths through the National Park and started walking. As we walked we could understand why they charged for the paths, as the upkeep must be very expensive. The cliff paths wander round the edges of cliffs, under overhangs with views of the various small villages perched halfway up and minute harbours. These villages are still difficult to reach by road and the train is the best option. The National Park has many footpaths up in the hills and woods and some people come for the walking alone.

The path from Riomaggiore to Manarola was a good path and it only took us about half an hour. We had a look round and had lunch in Manarola before we continued along the path to Corniglia. This was a much rougher path with work being done in places and took us rather longer to walk the same distance. We even crossed a rope bridge which reminded us of Indiana Jones. The path took us to Corniglia station and there a free bus (free with our park ticket that is) took us up a very steep hill to the village. We saw the path we should have walked and were very glad that we didn’t, as it was flight after flight of steps. We had a look round the village and found the necessary gelateria before returning by bus to the station where we caught the train to Moneglia. Here we had a cold drink in a café before doing some shopping and wearily climbing the steep hill to the apartment for the rest of the day, cooling off and recovering.

No car miles travelled.

Day 38 Tuesday 24th June 2008

We took the train to Vernazza for our second day in the Cinque Terre. Vernazza is slightly bigger than the first three towns we had been to in that it had a bigger harbour. Nevertheless the station is so small that they have extended the platform into the tunnel to enable an average train’s passengers to alight. It was very pleasant and after discovering that the free bus into the hills did not coincide with our plans we decided to have a picnic lunch by the harbour. This we did managing to find a place in the shade. The church clock went mad at noon and after striking 12, went on with discordant clangs for 5 minutes.

After this we started on our cliff walk to Monterosso, the fifth town in the group. This was one of the longer walks and very interesting. Firstly we climbed steps after steps up the side of a steep cliff and then wound round and round, going up and down until we came down at Monterosso. Parts were in shade, others in full sun. We often walked on what seemed like shelves on the cliffside, only one person wide with a drop varying fro three feet to thirty feet on one side. It was surprisingly busy but we often stopped to look at the views which were amazing. On both sides of the hills, we saw what looked like a Stannah stair lift going up the hills for quite a distance but we realised that a small truck and trailer were attached in order to take empty boxes up and bring full ones down from the vines and fruit and olive trees.

We had a drink in Monterosso before catching the train back to Moneglia, where we had an icecream and did some shopping before going back up the hill to the apartment again. This made us feel hotter than the long walk earlier but we rested and cooled down again.
No car miles travelled