Day 8 - Riomaggiore and Cinque Terre

What a day!  After coming all this way, what else would we do?  "Why, let's visit six towns in less

than 24hours!"  Challenge accepted!

If you count our visit to La Spezia last night, we would visit all of the towns of Cinque Terre in a single day.  We planned to start our day early and get a good head of steam going.  Since we had a good stock of fruits, breakfast foods and - most importantly - coffee, we were in good shape.  Just as in Venice, we had a nice moka pot, so strong coffee was easy to come by.  

Mona's yogurt and granola cup actually included a spoon in the lid.  Better yet, it

extended into a full-length spoon!  Manufacturers should really take note of this...

With breakfast done, we planned to take the train and check out the other towns of Cinque Terre.  Each of the five towns are a little bit different and provide their own atmosphere, so we wanted to experience them all.  Just outside our apartment, the street was already bustling with small trucks delivering goods to all the shops that had opened.  With the weather alert lifted, all of the restaurants that were closed yesterday were all open, and there were scores of people walking around.

At the train station, we soon learned of a 24-hour national rail strike.  No one was really sure how this would affect the local trains, so we planned to take whatever was available, whenever it was available  It was just too hard to know what this might entail.  To simplify things, Mona purchased a pair of Cinque Terra travel cards, which gave us passage for the day on the local trains, the local buses and gave free access  to other facilities in the area.  It was like having a hop-on, hop-off pass for the trains, which would certainly make travel very easy today.  The weather was a little warmer than yesterday, and today's high was expected to reach 72 degrees.  This was warm for October and pretty much at the upper-limit of my attire.  I had shorts and a thin shirt, but in the mild humidity and very strong sunlight, it felt like it was nearly 80.  Maybe I'll see a bit of tan in my pictures?

Mona and I boarded the train and took it to Monterosso, near the end of the Cinque Terre.  This way,

we could hike our way back, take the bus or take the train.  From the Monterosso station, we merged with a massive queue of people leaving the station, heading into the city.  From here, we could catch one of several trail heads to hike the many, many walking paths.  As we walked along the sea, we encountered maps of the trails and relative distances.  We soon saw some of the times: 1hr and 45 minutes just from one town to the next.  Mona was well-prepared for quite a bit of arduous hiking.  I was less-than enthused, but still willing to give it a go.  As the walking path turned upwards, we started to climb to one of the trail heads. From there, we wandered a bit into town, searching for souvenirs.  We wandered a bit through the small town, then ambled down to the seashore.  The water was surprisingly warm - it felt almost as warm as the lakes had been this summer. Perhaps my enterprising wife might take a dip in the sea???  As we worked our way back to the train station, we made a stop for gelato, as a sign beckoned "local lemon".  We had seen many citrus trees - oranges, lemons and limes - in different areas, so I was curious.  It turns out the local limone gelato has a much sharper flavor than the limone we'd tried in Venice.  Yum!

After lunch, we took the train (which seem to be running fine) to Vernazza, the next city to the east

from Monterosoo.  The city is known for it's small enchanting bay and castle with an ancient lookout fortress, where you can see the entire gulf of Cinque Terra.  As we climbed the path, however, an older Italian couple near the top warned us that the path was closed, due to the heavy rains. Due to the rain, the path to Corniglia was closed, so we opted to walk just a bit further and head back to the train.   We proceeded just a bit further and encountered a young American couple.  The young lady eagerly took a few pictures for us.

At the station, we took the train to the next city over, Corniglia.  This city is famous for its houses perched along the steep cliffs, and is visible from all of the other cities in Cinque Terre.  There is an apparent lookout from which you can see the other cities, but we were unable to find it. From the train station, we saw signs pointing to the town and started on our way.  Just under 1km from the station stop, we met a large set of stairs, leading to the center of town.  A small, handwritten sign had a noteworthy message.  We began climbing the stairs, thankful there were plenty of benches for weary climbers to stop and rest.  Along the way, we were greeted with a warm, seabreeze and the smell of ripening citrus fruits.  At the top of the climb, we reached a road leading to the central area of Corniglia.  We followed it down, snapping pictures as we went.  Satisfied with a few pictures, we turned ourselves back to the station, to head to Riomaggiore and lunch!

We reduced our load a bit, and headed to lunch just a few doors down from our apartment.  At a nearby restaurant, Mona got an order of gnocchi and I had a plate of fish and chips.  Ramona was very excited to try an Italian beverage called Galvanina Bio Fru.it, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

The weather had cooled slightly from the sweltering heat of the morning, but it was still hot enough for Mona to take a dip!  She donned her swimwear and we got back on the train to Monterosso.  Back on the beach, Mona strolled right up, dropper her things and dove right in!  It's official: my wife had now swam in the Ligurian Sea!

The Manarola marina did not disappoint.  The small marina was covered with a variety of fishing boats.  Cool, blue waters sparkled in the late afternoon soon.

From Monterosso, we opted to take the train line to the end and visit Levanto.  Like La Spezia on the

east end of Cinque Terre, Levanto was a larger city on the west end, with the smaller cities of Cinque Terre wedged between.  We walked just a few steps from the station and could suddenly hear much, much more vehicular traffic, as many more cars, motorcycles and delivery trucks roamed about.  We even saw tuk-tuks, small three-wheeled trucks, like the ones we'd seen in India years ago.

We continued through Levanto to the seashore.  We were greeted with a gorgeous view of a sprawling beach.  While not teeming with people, it was about as busy as the beach at Monterosso, but it had a different cilentele - surfers!  As the evening waves wafted in, a dozen or more surfers were spread across the shoreline, catching the occasional wave.  We were content to stand and watch for quite some time, watching a few of them get up on a wave and take a few turns.

We made our way back to our apartment and opted for a simple dinner of pasta.  Tomorrow would see us packing up from Cinque Terre and making our way towards Lugano, Switzerland.  As we had visited all the cities of Cinque Terre, our challenge was completed!