Absolutely incredible.
Definitely a must-see for anyone traveling to Italy. For anyone who isn’t part
mountain goat, I would advise waiting to travel here until they have re-opened
the coastal path that was partially destroyed during flash floods last fall. We
were a very unprepared group of students that’s for sure!
Cinque Terre became a UNESCO
protected national park in 1997 and has remained one of the most uncontaminated
places along the Mediterranean Sea. The “5 Lands” consist of the tiny villages
of Riomaggiore, Corniglia, Manarola, Vernazza and Monterosso.
 |
| Riomaggiore | |
Our tiny group of travellers
(6 of us) woke up at the crack of dawn to catch our train from Verona to La
Spezia which sits at the base of Cinque Terre south of Riomaggiore. After
exploring the colourful landscape of Riomaggiore, we wandered down Via dell’
Amore aka “Lover’s Walk”, the only coastal path that was open to the public.
The path takes you directly into the next village of Manarola. I’ll let the
pictures speak for themselves.
 |
| Via Dell'Amore |
|
Even though all of the
villages share the same colourful characteristics, each one is unique. We
couldn’t have asked for better weather on that day and decided to join all the
locals laying out on the rocks down by the water. After sharing our packed
lunches with a few seagulls, we decided to continue exploring Manarola until
our bus came to pick us up. We stayed in a cute little B&B at the top of
the mountain in a tiny tiny village called Volastra. We discovered this amazing
cliff where we could watch the sun go down. We were so high up that we could
see Manarola below and the next 2 villages along the coast. As we 6 unlikely
friends took pleasure in the stillness and silence of watching the sunset
together, we realized it was one of those rare moments in life of pure
appreciation. We are lucky to be here and we have our parents to thank for
that.
 |
| View from our lunch spot in Manarola |
 |
| Manarola |
 |
| On the rooftop of our B&B (that's all ocean behind us) |
Since trekking around with
heavy backpacks and philosophizing are arduous affairs, we scavenged the
village for any semblance of a restaurant. No such luck. We did happen to find
this little hole in the wall where they sell homemade focaccia and lasagna!!!!
So we took our little individual sized tin tray lasagnas (unreal) and ate them
on the rooftop patio of our B&B. The owners weren’t even there so we had
the whole place to ourselves until the morning. It was only by chance that Anna
had told me 2 weeks prior that the clocks were suppose to change that weekend….
we had 15 minutes for 4 girls and 2 guys to run around like chickens with their
heads cut off trying to get packed and ready for the scheduled breakfast. Not a
nice way to wake up!
Oh and if you’ve happened to see some pictures of us
doing strange poses called “Sexy Doggy”, we got the move from a dog in Volastra
who would stand on its hind legs and lean again the gate post with one front
leg curled in and the other stretched out. Ok focusing now. Since the coastal
paths were all shut down, our only option was to take the train (borringg) or
the mountain path. I’m not scared of heights by any means but walking along a
narrow uneven path filled with rocks and a dangerous slope on the other side is
kinda nerve-racking. Hahah if only we knew what was to come! Luckily a lot of
the path from Volastra to Corniglia was in the forest of the mountain and not
on the cliffs. Corniglia was definitely as beautiful as the rest! We bought
some gelato (ok just me) and bought THE best focaccia breaded pizza for our
lunch. Me being the only smart one, bought two :)
 |
| Sexy Doggy in Volastra |
|
 |
| Our morning view of Manarola from Volastra on our way to Corniglia |
Like the day before, the
weather was scorching and humid. From Corniglia to Vernazza was where the fun
really began. Not even on the treadmill at the gym have I ever walked such an
incline as we did from Corniglia to St. Bernardino (small town at the very top
of the mountains). Jordan if you’re reading this blog then I know you’re
laughing at me and saying to mom “does she even know what the inside of a gym
looks like?”…yes, I know you too well. Safe to say we made it to the top with
only a few asthma attacks on Emily’s part. I’m pretty sure we looked like the
strangest group of hikers to ever pass through St. Bernardino to Vernazza (and
we were told so by an old "experienced" hiker ). We had little Antonio
wearing his polo t-shirt and high top shoes; Fraser wearing Toms; Marion
wearing skateboarding shoes; and last but not least Emily wearing tights, a
dress, a cardigan, and boots. Anna and I were the only ones wearing mildly
appropriate attire with our running shoes.
 |
| Em doesn't like pants...ever |
It took us roughly 2 hours
for us to descend the mountain on none other than a freakin’ goat path. One
wrong step and you’d be rolling down the mountainside never to be seen again! I
couldn’t help but laugh at our situation. We came to enjoy the view and we were
too busy trying not to kill ourselves. Poor Antonio isn’t fond of heights and
thus slid down the mountain for an hour on his ass, while Emily was kindly being escorted by the old dude. Finally the old man realized that Emily was quite capable
on her own despite her attire and started ragging Antonio. Meanwhile, our
precarious trip down the goat path at an unsettling decline was further
hastened by ominous black thunderclouds right above us. Thankfully we made it
into to Vernazza just as the storm came rolling in. We took shelter in a small
restaurant and had some wine while we waited (how painful right?). Unfortunately most of Vernazza
was heavily destroyed by the flash floods since it sits lower than the other
towns. We thought it was best if we just took the train to the last town
instead. We didn’t have long until we had to catch our train back to Verona so
we decided to have a great dinner at this amazing restaurant that sits in the
cliffs and looks out over the ocean. If any of you ever find yourselves in
Monterosso al Mare, I highly recommend you go to the restaurant L’Ancora Della
Tortuga!!! It was a great meal and end to our trip!!
 |
| Our goat path down to Vernazza |
 |
| Happy to be alive in Vernazza |
 |
| The last town- Monterosso !!! |
