Hiking the Cinque Terre

May 1, 2012

Today is a holiday in Italy.  It is like Labor Day in the states.  This means that lots of people are off work, and therefore lots of people are in Cinque Terre.  The boats are not running today due to high seas, but that is okay with us as we are hiking. We figured it would be best to get the hike going the first day while the kids were fresh.

Unfortunately, in October of 2011, the region was battered with rain storms and suffered serious flooding and mudslide damage.   Several of the hiking trails are completely closed due to the landslides.  So, we have to take the train part of the time.

We began our day by taking the first train from Riomaggiore (we call it the first of the five towns in Cinque Terre) to Monterosso (the fifth town).  The trains mostly goes through tunnels in the rocks, but there is the occasional view, and the kids love riding them, always a bonus.

Monterosso has two sections, the old historical center, and the new modern section.  They are separated by a rocky point.   The train takes you to the new section.  So we stopped for a few pics…

The old section is around that rocky point ahead…

On the point looking back at the newer part Monterosso…

Around the point looking at the Historical Center…

It was still quite early, so we were the only ones around… it was nice having the place to ourselves, very peaceful.  We began the hike to Vernazza (the fourth town)… 

We told Danika and Jason if they didn’t complain they could have a hot chocolate when we reached Vernazza.  Surprisingly, they didn’t complain even with all of the climbing J

The terrain changes quite a bit.  There are really nice areas with handrails and you feel your kids are safe.  But then, there are completely washed out areas where the trail is narrower than your body, no railing, and straight drops down the side.  I didn’t have my camera out for those as I was hanging on for dear life.  Did I mention that I am afraid of heights???

There are lots of lovely things along the way…

Everything is so lush this time of year…

We climbed a good way up.  This is looking back at modern Monterosso…

Take a look at the trail behind David… no railing and very narrow, in the middle of a mud slide…

When we reached the high point of the climb, we decided to stop for a drink and a snack.  There was a nice view of Monterosso in the background and you can see how far we have come.  It was the perfect time to stop because we had started hearing lots of loud voices and yelling.  It happened to be a group of college aged, German Speaking Belgians.  There were about sixty of them and they were barreling through the trail, missing all of the beauty around them.  It was nice to let them pass as once we started again, the trail was back to the peaceful quiet  we had been used to.

This is looking towards Vernazza…

Jason loved the waterfalls…

Some ups and downs…

We were seriously on the edge…

And then Vernazza comes into view…

Nice downhill hike in…

When we got to Vernazza there was not much open.  This town had really been devastated in the floods.  Since there wasn’t a place open with pastries and hot chocolate, we decided to wait until we reached Cornelia (the third town).  We knew we would have time to explore Vernazza tomorrow.  Also, the group of Belgian College students were here in Vernazza, and we wanted to get ahead of them.  Both trails, the regular trail to Cornelia  (like the one we came on from Monterosso) and the high ridge trail (much longer and more arduous) were  closed due to the mudslides, so we had to take the train to Cornelia.

Once there, we took the 400 steps up into town.  On the way we saw this yellow house…

Looking down on the steps from above…

And finally a treat for the kids J

Then we walked around the outskirts of town to see the views.  The kids had fun messing around,,,

Looking down…

Then we began the hike from Cornelia to Manarola (the second town).  The regular low path was closed by a landslide, and when open takes only about 45 minutes.  Instead, we took the high ridge path which takes about 2 ½ hours.  This time we promised gelato if there was no complaining J  So we began our ascent from Cornelia…

It was really quite a hike up the hills, so we stopped for a rest… Danika and Jason look a bit tired…

We are actually pretty far up from where we began at the water’s edge…

Just as we finished the climb and leveled out, it started to rain, so we donned our raincoats…

We can see Manarola, yes J

By now it is pouring…

It poured the entire way down and there were well over 2000 stairs down on the way into town.  I was soaking wet, so didn’t pull out the camera for pictures.  We got into town and decided we needed some warm, dry clothes.  We also had already done all of the local hikes around Manarola when we were here with the Jensons.  We had even done the hike along the Via Dell’Amore back to Riomaggiore (the first town, and where we are staying).  So, rather than walk it in the rain, we decided to take the train back to Riomaggiore. 

After changing into dry things, (my tennies were soaked through, so flip-flops were in order) it was reward time. J You didn’t think I would pass on an excuse for another gelato, did you???

We spent the rest of the rainy day reading in the apartment with the windows open so that we could hear the rain...  It was actually very relaxing J

~Mary