The Cinque Terre are a collection of five small coastal towns in between Genoa and Pisa. We drove two hours to La Spezia, parked the car and rode a train twenty minutes to reach them.
We took the train to the northernmost town of Monterosso with a fuzzy notion of hiking between a few of the towns.
After getting off the train we headed towards the beach.
Looking south towards the other quattro terre.
We fueled up with a pasta lunch, this was the view looking north from our table.
After digesting we looked for path number 2 which winds up and along the high cliffs to the neighboring town of Vernazza.
Parts of the path were washed away by a nasty flood in 2011 and were only recently re-opened.
The trek to Vernazza was three miles and included a healthy dose of stairs.
I think we're so used to being out of breath it doesn't even bother us much any more. Ok, we may have differing opinions on this.
An hour of uphill hiking brought us some dazzling views.
Looking south we caught a glimpse of some sailboats near Vernazza and further away some of the other towns of the Cinque Terre.
Whereas Monterosso was chock full of tourists, the trail was less so.
The Cinque Terre is unique because there are no cars. The only way to get in close is by train or on foot. There are houses built into the mountainside despite this fact.
Looking back at Monterosso.
Vernazza comes into view.
It's a colorful town with great gelato, which we felt we earned from two and a half hours of hiking.
We then jumped on the train for 9 minutes to Corniglia, the only town of the five not close to the water. It sits on a cliff top so we caught the bus up. This fellow had the right idea - I felt like joining him.
We began to hike to Manarola when we ran into some fellow hikers who were going the other way. They told us that the path was closed.
We were on a quiet section of path overlooking a rocky beach, fifty feet below. "Let's go swimming" said Dodo in a brainstorm. We had our bathing suits with us so we ducked into the bushes to change and walked down a metal staircase that didn't quite reach the beach.
Some enterprising folks fashioned the rest of the staircase from driftwood and rope.
The rocks were burning hot. A few people were swimming but most were lying in the sun.
I wasted no time getting in. Dodo followed. The water was a perfect temperature, cool enough to be refreshing. We didn't bring any towels so we made do by wiping off with our extra clothes.
Four more minutes on the train and we were in Manarola, the prettiest of the bunch. The town sits inside a deep bowl of terraced hills, every inch of which are filled with grape vines and crops.
We spent an hour at a cafe resting our legs and then began our journey back to Benabbio.
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