Cinque Terre

Today we did a small group day trip to the Cinque Terre national park, another beautiful bit of Italian coastline, and the 5 little villages perched there. Our driver was Jonathan, who in spite of his given name was a local. There was an Australian couple, an Asian couple, Eric from New York, Roberta from Boston, and Aidan and I. The weather was dreary and overcast when we left, but it never rained on us, and occasionally the sun even shone.

The trip begins with a two hour drive to the coast, and the first town of the Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore. From there we walked along the coastal walking path to Manarola. That portion of the path is called Via dell'Amore - the custom is for couples in love to walk along it, and someplace put a padlock, to symbolize locking their hearts together, and then throw the key down the cliff to the ocean - the following photo shows the parth and the cliffs.

.This was a well maintained path and easy 1/2 hr walk, with stunning scenery. The original plan was to take a boat from Manarola to the next town, Corniglia, but the ocean was too rough today to dock at Manarola.

We had a quick look around the town of Manarola, where they parked boats in the street, far away from the ocean. They lower them down to the ocean with a hoist.

Next we caught the train 2 stops to Vernazza. This meant about a 10 minute train ride. At Vernazza we had lunch in a restaurant on the shore with Eric and Roberta - more good pizza and pasta. After a little photo op on the rocks,  we looked through the town. Vernazza had been greatly damaged by a flood this spring, and is only now starting to open up again. There were 4 restaurants open, but all the little shops down the street had been damaged. The little river didn't look big enough to ever cause such extensive damage.

Now it was time to take the train back one station to Corniglia to once again meet our driver/guide, who had abandoned us at Manarola (to walk back to pick up the van). We were pleased when the train came early, and Eric and Aidan and I hopped on. Eric checked with people on the train and they said it went to Corniglia. As there was no other track for it to take we stayed on when the doors shut, leaving the rest of our group behind in the train station. It did go to Corneglia, but it didn't stop there, nor did it stop in Manarola, but carried on to Riomaggiore (remember, still only a 10 min ride). We hopped off, discovered a train in the other direction was coming in one minute, ran up the stairs to cross the tracks, discovered you had to go under, not over, so ran down and down and up, and got there just in time to board the train back to Corniglia. We got off at the station in Corniglia (5 min) and went up to Jonathan, who wondered where the rest of the group was - and where our train was. We had just began to regale him with our story when the correct train that the rest of the group had taken pulled in.

Here we are with our new partner in adventure, Eric. As one of our new mates said, an adventure is when something bad happens, but later it all turns out to be OK. Corneglia was a lovely little village, had good gelato, and wonderful little twisty streets, and a lot of cats.

From here we got another view of the Cinque Terre as our driver took us along the coastal road, which was high up on the cliffs. If I had been with Dave I would have absolutely refused to drive over the part that was under repair, but would have insisted on getting out and walking. Instead I shut my eyes and prayed. It is not a road I ever wish to drive on again, but some of the views were lovely. Mostly we could not stop because the road was much too narrow, and yet was officially 2 way. I passed my camera across the van to Nina (from Australia) who snapped away for me when there was an opportunity to do so.

This is a lovely part of Italy and well worth the day - it would be a great walk (when they have repaired the parts of the path that are currently washed out). We didn't have time in a day trip to visit the fifth village. It was a great day with another nice group of people. Aidan has decided she really likes these small group tours, because you all end up friends, unlike the big impersonal bus tours.

Time now to discover where one does laundry in Florence. We're in need of fresh clothing.