La Passeggiata a Monterosso

The next day was the Cinque Terre trek with Michael and Angel. It was a little warmer that day but it was ok for the most part. We took the 10am ferry to Riomaggiore, the southernmost village, where we walked around a little bit. This village was a little flatter and larger. We did a bit of shopping and headed to the train station for Corniglia. 

Corniglia is the only village that doesn’t have a ferry stop, because it is so high I think. The train stop is right along the coast, where I was expecting the trip to be, but then there were something like 350 steps up to the actual village. The village still had a lot of tourists, but you could tell it was much less traveled. I did really like how it was much higher up, it felt like it was in the terraced vineyards rather than just surrounding a harbor. 

We had lunch at this cafe right by the town church, and prepared for our hike. The hike is through the Italian national park, and is €7.50 to hike from Corniglia through Vernezza to Monterosso.  The path is stone paved, super uneven, with lots of steps up and down, but tunnels of vines and stone walls to bring shade as you walk through the terraces and fields. There were more people on the trail than I expected, but it was really a beautiful walk. I had expected the hike to be more along the water but we went way up into the hills and then back down again. There were some small streams that we crossed that were refreshing and kept it relatively cool.

I did the hike in my converse, which was not the most ideal, but I survived. I felt like one of those people I chuckle at in Yosemite when I see them hiking up Yosemite falls in Vans. We made it to Vernazza in less than 2 hours, and took a little rest. We saw this tour guide who we had seen a couple times on the trail and asked him how the trail to Monterosso was. He was a little ominous in his response saying that the first 40 minutes were straight uphill. So Angel decided to head back on the ferry, and Michael and I went on to Monterosso.

Angels view of Vernazza from the ferry

The guide wasn’t kidding. The first half hour was literally straight up and had tons of steps and not very much breeze. Once we finally reached the top, it was better, with the ocean breeze and more shade. On this side there were lots and lots of vineyards and terraces. It’s hard to imagine actually having to farm them, or do any sort of construction of these areas, as you would be super fit and strong to do that every day!

Once we got back down to sea level, I was craving a gelato. We walked around trying to find one and were able to get the 5pm ferry back to Portovenere. The ride back was super pleasant with music provided by the last working iPod nano on the planet!  Dinner that night was early, at a restaurant by the hotel. We ran into Mom, Angel, and Nicole on the way back and had some focaccia sandwiches and vino. Wound up the night with some games on the patio, and bed time, ready to catch the train the next morning!