Chinque terre:
Vernazza
Chinque terre, another picturesque area. Again, like something out of a storybook. The name literally means “Five Lands.” It is comprised of 5 former fishing villages. From south moving north along the coast, they are: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and the biggest, Monterosso. After some research, we decided to stay in Vernazza. There are some really pretty hikes that originate and end in Vernazza. The other option I was looking into, Riomaggiore, also had some great hikes, but unfortunately the trails were already closed for
Birra
the season, so Vernazza it is! We arrived in the late afternoon, and after getting settled, we set out to find a bar to watch “El Clasico,” since our apartment didn’t have the right channel. Apparently, no one in town had the right channel, so we had to hop on the train to the nearest “big town” (La Spezia) to find a bar showing the game. After a significant amount of time, and almost giving up, we stumbled upon a small, local place where we ordered beer, and had a bit of an aperitivo. After the game we attempted to get back to our town. As I’ve explained in previous posts, the trains don’t usually give you all of the stops. It only gives you the final stop, so you know which direction you are traveling. We had a connection in the northern city of Genoa on our way to Vernazza, so when we saw Genoa as the destination, we figured…well, that has got to be it! As a side note, all of the trains going in our direction were
Vernazza
labeled “Genoa” and they ran about every 15 minutes. Well, we were using our rail pass that day, so we didn’t buy a ticket, and therefore, didn’t look up our town in particular to check which train to take. We saw that it was going in the right direction, so we jumped on. Bad move. The train indeed went in the right direction, but it was, more or less, a direct train to the stated destination. Our town was about 20 minutes away, and at some point, we realized that not only had more than 20 minutes passed, but that we hadn’t stopped once! Uh-oh! As we’re trying to figured out what to do, the train stops, we’re not sure where we are, or how to get back, so we decide to stay on and get off at the end. When we arrived at the next stop, Rapallo, Javier recognizes it from earlier, so we get off. At this point, it’s about 9:30pm. We check the train schedule and it says the next train to Vernazza is after 11. O-kay!
At the train station. trying to keep warm.
We were not prepared to wander around at night, and were therefore not dressed for the occasion. It was a little chilly out, so we decided to look for a restaurant or bar to stay warm. Just about everything was closed, and there weren’t many people out, so we walked a bit and settled on a tiny hole-in-the-wall, ordered some tea, and just waited it out. Looking back, we are lucky we stopped in a safe place that still had places open. We made our late train, which was the last running train of the night, and arrived back in Vernazza around 1am. So, much for an early night!
We came to Cinque terre to hike, so that’s exactly what we did the next morning. I had read online that some of the trails charge 3 euro for maintenance, no big deal. After grabbing a huge calzone for breakfast, we made our way through Vernazza and started on the trail to Monterosso.
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Monterroso
When we arrived to the checkpoint, the person told us that it was going to cost us 7.50 euro per person! In all fairness, it really isn’t a lot of money, but really?? We weren’t happy. As we’re standing to the side discussing this, a couple of girls walk in front of us, chat with the attendant and walk through. So, we approach her and ask her why the girls before didn’t pay. She looks a little embarrassed and says, “Well, that’s my best friend.” Aha! So, Javier says, “Can we be your best friend too?” and I say, “Best friend discount!” and we all laugh. Well, we didn’t get the best friend discount, but we got the next best thing, charged the children’s fee of 3.50…we’ll take it! The hike was fairly intense, and really beautiful. We hugged the mountainside, where we passed several small vineyards, and had views of the Mediterranean the whole way. The weather was perfect, the sun was shining, but it wasn’t too hot. When we arrived in Monterosso, we walked through the town and ate gelato. We were told by a couple American girls on a bus in Positano, to make sure and walk through the tunnel to the other side of the city, so naturally, we did. Our hike back was much easier for some reason, but just as beautiful. We ended the day with an aperitivo at a local bar, while a guy banged away on the piano, and then moved across the street, which is more like a large sidewalk, and had one of our better meals in Italy- so good in fact, we went back the next night.
Corniglia
We were awaken the next morning by someone pounding out “Für Elise” on the piano across the street. Gooooooood morning!!! Same agenda as the day before, calzone, and another hike. This time we went the opposite direction to Corniglia. When we reached checkpoint Charlie, guess who was there??? Our best friend! She didn’t recognize us at first, but we smiled and said, “Best friend discount!” and yes, we received the children’s discount again…we’re so cheap. This hike was prettier than the day before, but the destination was not so amazing.
Jackie really liked this board.
About half way through the hike, there is a local home. The owner has created this little billboard that shows you where you are, where the other cities are located, gives you the distances of the hikes, emergency numbers and the like. It was so cute! And he or she even offers water. There’s a note saying that when the gate is open, someone is home, and if you need water, they are happy to help. Isn’t that great!
That evening, we walked around our town,
Sunset in Vernazza
which is really just one street, and sat on the rocks to watch the sunset. We were tired from our hiking days, and we had a long day ahead of us, so it was early to bed. The following morning, we took a couple of trains and bus and made our way to Torino where we flew out of Italy and into Bucharest, Romania. Yowza!
To see more pictures of Chinque Terre, Click Here.