We awoke this morning to absolutely gorgeous blue sky and warm temps, perfect for a day of hiking along the cliffs in Cinque Terre. CT is a series of 5 hill towns along the rugged coastline of the Italian Riviera. Access to the towns is via ferry, a train that stops in each town, and an 800 year old trail, Sentiero Azzurro. Our ship docked briefly in the industrial port of La Spezia, just south of CT. We walked en masse to the "stazione centrale" and received our tickets there, for the train and the national park hiking trail. Unfortunately, even though Jeri asked about the need for ticket validation, Robert (Bill's German helper) told us this "probably" wasn't necessary, when we got off the train, there was a huge kerfuffle with the train people and Robert. It was finally sorted out after about a 30min to do.
We disembarked (with new validated tickets in hand) at the northernmost village, Monte Rossa. We started on the Sentiero Azzurro from here, and quickly ascended to the cliffs high above the town. The views were amazing! We had forgotten just how strenuous a hike it was from town to town. Different muscles are certainly used for hiking. After about an hour and lots of sweat, the next town, Verranza, came into view. I think this is the most photogenic of the towns from the heights.
We wandered through Verranza and grabbed a couple of pieces of pizza and some gelato to refuel. Then, back on the trail to town #3, Corniglia. The trail was just a bit shorter, but no less steep. It wound its way through olive groves and vineyards perched on the cliffs. The farmers use a gas powered train cars to move olives from the grove (Erik seemed to be looking for a new job).
Corniglia was fun to walk around, and we sampled the lemon granite here. The day had warmed up quite a bit, and the iced lemon granite was really refreshing. The trail, which washed out in a mudslide in 2011, has still not been repaired and is closed the rest of the way, requiring rebounding the train. Corniglia is perched about 400 feet above the Mediterranean, and to get to the train station, we had to descend about 30 stories of steps.
We took the train to the last own, Riomaggiore, bypassing town #4, Manrola. Before we went on to the ferry dock for the trip back to the boat, we stopped in a small market to buy some lunch, bread (40 cents), pesto (had to try it, this is the birthplace of pesto-still to cheesy), roasted sun dried tomatoes, eggplant, olives, and anchovies. All very European!
The ferry ride back was very pleasant, following the coastline until we hit the entrance to the harbor at La Spezia. We were all pretty exhausted when we reboarded the ship. Tomorrow, back to riding.
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