28 September '05, Wednesday.
After finishing an American breakfast of sausage and eggs, we headed out to catch the train. For $2.75 we bought train tickets that would take both of us to visit the 5 Cinque Terre villages and return, as long as it would take less than 6 hours...for today, it did. We will have to go back to the last village tomorrow, as we just wore ourselves out doing the first 4. Levanto sits north of the Cinque Terre, so we decided to catch the train and ride it to the furthest village of Riomaggiore and make our way back. Most of the train ride was inside a tunnel, so it wasn't the view that you ride this train for. Arriving in Riomaggiore, we immediately climbed the hill to reach the center of the village and then work our way down to the sea. I'm glad we are making this trip to the Cinque Terre in the off season. There is enough tourist traffic as it is, once you get into the village. These villages really don't offer the tourist anything but a chance to kick back and do nothing but relax, pester the fishermen, walk the hills that surround the towns, or walk between the villages through the trail system that the state has put together. We did a little bit of it all in Riomaggiore and then headed out on the hike around the hill to the next village, Manarola...about 30-40 minutes walking the trail above the crashing waves of the Mediterranean. It was like walking down the sidewalk of any street in any town in America, except for the view and the fresh air. Arriving at Manaroloa was again like before, very picturesque and a joy to walk the streets. A little people watching, having lunch at one of the outdoor waterfront restaurants, and testing our leg musles by walking the stairs that are at every corner (why is they all go up higher than they go down???). Having settled our minds that we had taken in just about every little nook and cranny, we found the next leg of our hike and headed out to Corniglia. This trail wasn't quite as "polished" as the last one, but besides being 15 to 20 minutes longer, it was a wonderful walk...that was until we got to the end of the trail and then we had 400 stairs waiting for us to walk up to see Corniglia...OUCH !!! We did have another option beside walking the stairs, like taking a shuttle bus to the top..."Who Us???" That wasn't a picnic in the park, but we took it like the "Champions We Are"... Once we got to the top, we felt we had earned a treat, so we found the gelloto shop and had a double scoop on a cone...well, we are deserving once in a while... Besides, we had to walk a lot more stairs once we got into Corniglia...these people must be stair climbing champions at an early age. These staircases that they have to travel day in and day out are not only very steep, but extremely narrow. Impressed as we were with the locals, and ourselves, we headed back down the 400 steps that we climbed in the beginning and went to meet the train for the next leg of our village tour...Vernazza. We had read that Vernazza was the most picturesque of the villages, and it really is. Located right at the waters edge, and then climbing directly up the side of the mountain, it just seemed to have all the photo opts a person might want...It was very nice. A beautiful little harbor, a nitch formed between the mountains coming down to the sea, the village built to follow the slight twist upward, a small castle on the top of one of the crags coming right out of the sea, multi colored buildings with laundry hanging from the lines or from their windows, the hidden steps going here and sometimes no-where, a little door left open a jar lets us peek and see the grapes that have been cut from the vine and hung from the ceiling of these rooms to dry for another 2 more months...they are for a special desert wine called Sciacchetra. 10 kelos of the grapes only make up 1 liter of Sciacchetra where the same 10 kelos of fresh grapes will make up 7 liters of local wine. We found a place that sold Sciacchetra, and it sold between $38 and $85 Euros a bottle...but no tastings... Disheartend, we left...we left for the train to take us home ("Bumble Bee"). We still have another day to be here, so maybe, possibly, we will find a tasting somewhere. Back home, we still have one more Cinque Terre village to see...Monterossa al Mare, and that will be our first stop on the train tomorrow...
After finishing an American breakfast of sausage and eggs, we headed out to catch the train. For $2.75 we bought train tickets that would take both of us to visit the 5 Cinque Terre villages and return, as long as it would take less than 6 hours...for today, it did. We will have to go back to the last village tomorrow, as we just wore ourselves out doing the first 4. Levanto sits north of the Cinque Terre, so we decided to catch the train and ride it to the furthest village of Riomaggiore and make our way back. Most of the train ride was inside a tunnel, so it wasn't the view that you ride this train for. Arriving in Riomaggiore, we immediately climbed the hill to reach the center of the village and then work our way down to the sea. I'm glad we are making this trip to the Cinque Terre in the off season. There is enough tourist traffic as it is, once you get into the village. These villages really don't offer the tourist anything but a chance to kick back and do nothing but relax, pester the fishermen, walk the hills that surround the towns, or walk between the villages through the trail system that the state has put together. We did a little bit of it all in Riomaggiore and then headed out on the hike around the hill to the next village, Manarola...about 30-40 minutes walking the trail above the crashing waves of the Mediterranean. It was like walking down the sidewalk of any street in any town in America, except for the view and the fresh air. Arriving at Manaroloa was again like before, very picturesque and a joy to walk the streets. A little people watching, having lunch at one of the outdoor waterfront restaurants, and testing our leg musles by walking the stairs that are at every corner (why is they all go up higher than they go down???). Having settled our minds that we had taken in just about every little nook and cranny, we found the next leg of our hike and headed out to Corniglia. This trail wasn't quite as "polished" as the last one, but besides being 15 to 20 minutes longer, it was a wonderful walk...that was until we got to the end of the trail and then we had 400 stairs waiting for us to walk up to see Corniglia...OUCH !!! We did have another option beside walking the stairs, like taking a shuttle bus to the top..."Who Us???" That wasn't a picnic in the park, but we took it like the "Champions We Are"... Once we got to the top, we felt we had earned a treat, so we found the gelloto shop and had a double scoop on a cone...well, we are deserving once in a while... Besides, we had to walk a lot more stairs once we got into Corniglia...these people must be stair climbing champions at an early age. These staircases that they have to travel day in and day out are not only very steep, but extremely narrow. Impressed as we were with the locals, and ourselves, we headed back down the 400 steps that we climbed in the beginning and went to meet the train for the next leg of our village tour...Vernazza. We had read that Vernazza was the most picturesque of the villages, and it really is. Located right at the waters edge, and then climbing directly up the side of the mountain, it just seemed to have all the photo opts a person might want...It was very nice. A beautiful little harbor, a nitch formed between the mountains coming down to the sea, the village built to follow the slight twist upward, a small castle on the top of one of the crags coming right out of the sea, multi colored buildings with laundry hanging from the lines or from their windows, the hidden steps going here and sometimes no-where, a little door left open a jar lets us peek and see the grapes that have been cut from the vine and hung from the ceiling of these rooms to dry for another 2 more months...they are for a special desert wine called Sciacchetra. 10 kelos of the grapes only make up 1 liter of Sciacchetra where the same 10 kelos of fresh grapes will make up 7 liters of local wine. We found a place that sold Sciacchetra, and it sold between $38 and $85 Euros a bottle...but no tastings... Disheartend, we left...we left for the train to take us home ("Bumble Bee"). We still have another day to be here, so maybe, possibly, we will find a tasting somewhere. Back home, we still have one more Cinque Terre village to see...Monterossa al Mare, and that will be our first stop on the train tomorrow...
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