The Cinque Terre
Time stopped for us on the Cinque Terre, figuratively and literally. In the hassle of the train station Paul's watch band broke, so he had to put his watch in his pack and depend on mine. Then my watch battery died. It was a sign to leave schedules and connection times behind and enjoy the beautiful country of the Ligurian coast. It was a good plan, but could be executed only after we got to the Cinque Terre! We had the connection schedule through Pisa planned, but apparently the bigglietario didn't think we would manage so sold us a direct ticket instead. Oddly, that was going to take more time and be less expensive. The train was a milk run, stopping at almost every station, so we didn't catch the coastal train in La Spezia until much later than planned. Leaving schedules behind is one thing, but this cut seriously into our afternoon beach time!
The CinqueTerre (Five Lands) is a national park containing five beautiful coastal towns connected by trains, boats, and many hiking trails. The trails ascend and descend by stone steps, extremely steep and narrow, and hang on the edge of the cliffs at points. There was a lot of hauling of rocks over the cenuries to build those things. Some people hike the entire length in a day; it would take about 5 to 6 hours if you didn't stop much and hiked at a strong pace. But how could anyone hike this coast and not stop to take pictures and just soak in the views?? It would be a waste.
We got off the train in Vernazza, the fourth of the five towns (south to north), walked into town, had a slice of pizza for late lunch, then headed up the steps between two buildings toward Monterroso. I think this section of the trail is the steepest; it goes up at an angle to the crest, then down to Monterroso. The trail builders apparently had not yet discovered the beauty of switchbacks. We gave a saxophone player a euro and swing danced gingerly up and down the steps. Never miss an opportunity to be generous OR to dance! We got into town in time to check into our very nice B & B, then get to the beach as the sun was setting over the cliff. We thought the water too cold to swim, although others didn't seem to mind. We expected Monterroso to be crowded and touristy, but it wasn't at all. We dined at a wonderful little restaurant and were practically alone.
Vernazza to Monterosso:
The next morning we hopped the train all the way south to the first town, Riomaggiore. The trail between Riomaggiore and Manorola is a paved handicapped-accessible path that takes about 10 minutes to walk. IF you don't have to thread your way through packs of tour groups every 5 feet. We were happy to learn that the lower trail between Manorola and Corniglia was still closed because of a landslide, so hikers have to use the higher trails there. There we dropped “i touristi e le nonne” (the tourists and the grandmothers) behind.
Riomaggiore to Manarola:
The high trail afforded incredible views at every turn; we stopped continually for photo ops. After climbing for awhile (and staying ahead of the large wheezing German gentleman whom I was certain was going to expire and topple over) the trail flattens and runs through vineyards and olive groves before descending into Corniglia. What a beautiful sight – Corniglia sits atop a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. After a brief stop in town we hiked on to Vernazza where we had started the previous day. I was especially thrilled to end the hike there, as I have been looking at that scene many times a day for a year – my Macbook wallpaper is a great photo taken from the trail overlooking Vernazza from the south. Paul recreated the photo, this time with me in it, we finished our wine (don't all Italians hike with a bottle of vino rosso?), then went into town and grabbed the train back to La Spezia.
Riomaggiore to Manarola:
Corniglia to Vernazza:
There the big train adventure began. We had bought a roundtrip direct ticket from Florence, but the shorter connecting train was leaving earlier. At the information counter a young American couple were asking about the same connection so we befriended them and ran for the train, which was leaving immediately. We were in such a rush that none of us remembered to validate the tickets before boarding (a must, or you will incur a minimum 50 euro fine each). We realized it as the train was pulling out. So Paul and Brad hung out in the doorway at every station hoping for a validation machine nearby; no luck, and the train only stops for about 30 seconds. We could see them jumping off, running for the machine, and the train pulling out with them on the platform and us on the train with no tickets at all. We were sweating it out – we were in the last car, would the conductor get to us before we got off in Pisa? Um, yes, three stops away. But Paul did great! He started with “Mi dispiace, ho due probleme” (I'm sorry, I have two problems). He theorizes that Italians hate for you to be sorry. Not only had we forgotten to validate our return ticket, but Paul had already validated the return ticket the day before by mistake. So we were wrong both directions. I think in attempting to explain in Italian the conductor took pity on all four of us and just told us to validate in Pisa when we changed trains. We made it back late to our apartment, and without paying 100 euro extra for the privelege.
