Cinque Terre: Vernazza to Monterosso, Riomaggiore to Manarolo

Vernazza is what you imagine a quaint village on the Italian Riviera might and should be. I love it. We really couldn’t see it when we arrived last night bc it was dark. I had a great first impression, however, bc Ivo the camere/room owner met us at the train station to help us with our bags and give us our keys. He wasn’t even positive which train we were coming in on but he was there, in the dark, waiting for us outside the train station. Very, very sweet. It is a good thing he was there to help us with our bags bc we are staying on the 6th/ top floor of a hotel with tiny and very steep steps. That is evidently the way everything is in Cinque Terre. The Ivo Camere is a 2 bedroom place to stay. The 2 rooms each have a bathroom and double bed but share an entrance with a door that closes to the stairwell, so we were able to keep that door locked and feel like we were all there together.

We woke up and went to have breakfast at the Il Pirata delle Cinque Terre restaurant, a little place up the hill from the city center. The 2 “pirates” are twins who are extremely charming, and their breakfast was fantastic. We also saw multiple Rick Steves’ family postcards, including a Christmas letter from Rick Steves. I enjoyed an orange crème filled pastry with fruit on top and Mom and I split the ricotta cheese, sugar, and cinnamon pastry. Their blood red orange juice was also good; I think they must have these hybrid oranges here bc they look like a mixture between an orange and a red grapefruit. The brothers live half of the year here and winter in Sicily. During the winter when they are not in Sicily they travel. A very good life.

After breakfast we immediately hopped onto the trail. The trail is now a national park and so one must purchase a pass (I think it was 9 or 10 Euro for a 3 day hiking pass). The signs introducing hikers to the trails have a no high heels sign on them. Hilarious. I’m surprised that in our uber-litigous society in America someone hasn’t deemed it mandatory for us to have these at national parks and other hiking grounds.

The no high heels sign is in the bottom left.

And we're off!!

We bought a 3 day pass and hiked from Vernazza to Monterosso. This section of the trail is known to be the most challenging. The steps are often steep and the trail becomes very narrow at times. Passing another person on certain stretches is very difficult. On one side of the narrow trail is the cliff rising above, and below is the cliff dropping into the Mediterranean. This part of the trail is 3km and is supposed to take about 90 minutes-2 hours to hike.

Here is our village, Vernazza:

Mom was a champ!

The views were so beautiful!

The vistas were spectacular on this most beautiful of days. Thank goodness Mom brought some clothes for me to wear bc I can assure you I had nothing like this in my closet from winter in Ukraine. I was very proud of her on these hikes. She charged up most of the hills like a champ, and when we passed a small waterfall, she hopped down onto the rocks, cupped the water into her hands, and drank from it like a seasoned hiker! She is one of the most versatile people have ever known, and I appreciate that a great deal about her.

We reached Monterosso after about 2.5 hours and stopped for lunch at Centrale Bar. This area is known for presto sauce, a sweet desert wine known as sciacchetra, and anchovies. We all split some bruschetta with anochovies (another local specialty), and I enjoyed a Tonno salad with lettuce, tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella cheese, and tuna. I don’t usually care for anchovies but the anchovies I had today were good.

Here is Monterosso's statue of Italian patriot Guiseppe Garibaldi. I used to discuss his role in the movement for Italian unity in the Modern World class.

We dined al fresco and enjoyed this view.

Then we walked around the town of Monterosso, and I found 2 churches there I enjoyed seeing. The first was small and had several signs asking for assistance bc the church was in need of repair and preservation. The 2nd church I went into was larger and had some interesting stripes on the exterior. I enjoyed some of the icons inside, including the Pieta with a blue background.

Here is the second church:

Monterosso is the largest of the 5 villages.I liked the colorful buildings.

This dog was really cute.

 Lemons, pesto, and anchovies are the big things here.

I found these wine bottles very interesting: Bob Marley, Che Guavara, Francisco Franco, Truman, and a Pope. Odd combination.

We enjoyed some gelato (mango, lemon, and Genovese, and orange flavored gelato) and took the 4PM ferry to Riomaggiore. I was glad we took the ferry from the northernmost village (Monterosso) to the southernmost village (Riomaggiore) bc we were able to see each of them from the water. It worked out nicely.

Monterosso:

The rocky coast:

Vernazza, where we are staying (fortunately, bc this is my favorite village!):

Corniglia:

Manarolo:

Riomaggiore:

I LOVED being on the ferry. I really, really love being on a boat. I even dozed off for about 3 minutes on the ferry today. Being on a boat is so relaxing to me. At home, there are lots of lakes around Gville. I love that feeling of being in a wet bathing suit, having the sun beating down on me but being slightly chilly bc of the wind and the damp towel I have wrapped around me. I love it so much I would sacrifice a lot of things in life to have regular access to a boat. We had one growing up and frequently spent Saturdays at the lake with my aunt and uncle and cousins until ballet rehearsals and other activities became more frequent. I have very fond memories of that family time.

We walked around Riomaggiore and I noticed they have a lot of boats there. I would have LOVED to kayak the still waters around these villages but it is still too cold and I didn’t see anyone out in a kayak. The weather here has been perfect for hiking, however. I wouldn’t want it to be any warmer or any colder, and the sunshine has been a treat given the winter I experienced.

Before we got back on the trail we noticed a small, self-service restaurant on the cliff overlooking the sea. We decided to stop, have some white wine, cheese, tomatoes, and strawberries. It was really nice to sit there and enjoy the sunshine and water for about 45 minutes.

We engaged in the easiest, flattest part of the trail, which really isn’t much of a trail bc it is paved and people just stroll. It is known as Via dell’amour. About halfway from Riomaggiore to Manarola (only 1km), as I watched the sun begin to set over the water, I thought about how good it would be to jog this stretch of the trail. I haven’t been jogging outside since December, bc it has been too cold, and bc  "we don’t jog" in Ukraine. That is a direct quote from a young woman in Kharkiv, spoken to me with a total deadpan expression. There are too many cars and the sidewalks aren’t smooth for running.

When we arrived at the Manarola train station I decided it was a good time to go back and jog the trail, and that I would meet the rest of the crew at the hotel in Vernazza. Mom was a little concerned, as usual, with me going off alone but this area is extremely safe. So I jogged back to Riomaggiore, and then back to Manarola. I LOVED it. The views I had were amazing, and it felt great to run outside, given that I haven’t been able to do it and that I’ve been eating entirely too much Italian food and drinking entirely too much Italian wine. It has been delicious, however.

These were the views I had on my run.

Walking so much in Ukraine has vastly improve my cardiovascular and pulmonary health, something I’m very happy about. Last August, I hiked to the top of the Bunker Hill monument in Boston. By the time we got to the top, my face was red and I was sucking in air. I hated feeling that way and vowed to get in better shape. I’ve done a better job since, and walking hills and steps everyday in Ukraine, coupled with the fact that I set the treadmill on an incline setting, has definitely improved my fitness level. I’d like to try to stay this way, even though I know I will be walking much less and will have to be more deliberate about pushing myself in the US. All this is to say that I have really enjoyed the hikes here in part bc they haven’t been that strenuous for me. I think they would have been one year ago, but I’m more prepared now, and that is a great feeling. I now love to sprint in short stretches, whereas before I never enjoyed sprints of any distance at all.

The train from Manarola to Vernazza was delayed so by the time I returned the crew was still at the train station. We took the train back (about 10 minutes) and walked round to seek a dinner location and to inquire about closing times.

Back in Vernazza:

 We bought some cannoli at a shop across the street from the hotel for after dinner. We realized it was already after 8 PM (it stays light later here) and thus we probably needed to go ahead and just eat even though I don’t think anyone was hungry. Once again, the meal at the Belforte was great, and the views over the sea, with the sun setting, were so beautiful. Sandy tried the pesto, which was very good, and I had a fruits de mar type dish of spaghetti with clams, prawns, and mussels, with a side of grilled local Vernazza vegetables. The vegetables included fennel, which I’m a bit ambivalent about. I’d rather more zucchini. I’ve noticed the Italians like their zucchini…fine with me bc I love it, too. Mom had the local desert wine, sciacchetra, which she enjoyed.

We came back to the hotel, and the internet café next door is closed once again. Jeff and I are having great difficulties keeping in touch bc the credits on our Ukrainian cell phones run down very quickly out of the country. Evidently he dropped his visa materials off at the Ukrainian consulate today in London and they told him to come back in one week, so hopefully that means he will have a visa in one week.

Tomorrow the plan is to have breakfast, walk around Vernazza, have lunch at the twins’ pirate place, and then take the train from Vernazza to Manarola, and hike to Corniglia (1km) and then to Vernazza (4km).

Before heading to bed, I engaged in the Cinque Terre nightly ritual of having your laundry outside on the line. I didn't grow up doing that, as most people of my generation didn't, I imagine, and so I really enjoy it!