Cinque Terre trip

Cinque Terre was beautiful. Ann-Marie and I hiked from Riomaggore to Manarola to Corneglia to Vernazza (4 of the "5 Lands"). We started at Riomaggore (pictured here). At the beginning while at Riamaggore when we first got off the train there were big waves hitting the HUGE rocks at the coastline. The air smelled of morning salt and was cool. As we started out on the trail, before we made it to Manarola we walked the famous "Via Dell'Amore" which translates loosely, I'm sure into something like "Walk of Love" whereby thousands of visitors scrawled there love notes to their lovers on the walls of a tunnel promanade type thing (which was lit by windows open toward the sea). Inside while we walked there was a man playing "Strangers in the Night" by Frank Sinatra, I think. He was playing it on an accordian. I remember there was one older couple dancing cheek to cheek. At the 'end' of the Via Dell'amore was a special seat in which lovers were lined up to sit on while getting their photos taken together.

Ann-Marie and I kept walking along this very easy stretch of the 'hike'. We had put on our bathing suits under our clothing because we were not sure of how we would change if we should find the perfect beach. Our backpacks contained our own snacks, water and lunch, plus some sandals to change into after our swim. We had some tissue and some sunblock, the camera and shades.

We saw some very large lemon trees with literally thousands of lemons on them. We saw some olive trees (no bloom that I could see). We saw many cactus that

were as large as a car. There were a lot of flowers in bloom and the cactus even seemed to have some sort of fruit on them. We weren't bothered by too many bugs (actually I really don't remember any). The trail starts getting more challenging past Manarolla, right before Corneglia. In fact it gets very steep. There are portions of the trail that are very thin to walk on, meaning you have to step aside so people going the opposite direction can pass. Some areas have steep drop-offs and some have a fenced area so you can't fall. Over all the trail was probably the best I had ever been on considering the view and the various challenging parts of it. Of course it may have seemed more challenging to me due to the 5 year old.

The hike between Corneglia and Vernazza was the most difficult, but our guide had warned us earlier in the day to go in the direction that we went in rather than start from the other side. We swam in the Gulf of Genova in Vernazza when we arrived- boy was that refreshing! I bought some Cinque Terre wines and Ann-Marie picked out a pirate t-shirt and a stuffed animal before we got on the train to meet back up with our guide and group for the day. It was the perfect day trip- but next time I want a few extra days.