#45 Cinque Terre
I woke up Saturday morning to board my train to Levanto. I invited Matt to come with me to the hike, but he had a paper to write, so I headed off on my own. My headphones to my iPod are now broken to the point that I have to fidget with the wiring to get sound as if I was adjusting a radio antenna. As a result every bump on the train ride disrupted my listening to podcasts and music on the way the way there.
When I arrived in Levanto, I found out I had to wait another hour before I can catch the train to any of the towns the Cinque Terre. Instead of waiting around, I decided to explore Levanto. There was not much to see there. One block was particularly crowded because a funeral mass just ended as I was walking by, but other than that it was empty like a ghost town. The only things there old houses, a soccer field, and rows of deciduous trees. When I took a picture of a house, an old woman with metal teeth told me not to take pictures of houses.
Destination #18 Cinque Terre National Park, Italy
I then returned to the station and caught a train to Riomaggiore, the southernmost town of the Cinque Terre. The Cinque Terre (Italian for the Five Lands) is a series of five small towns and the surrounding national park that is famous for being one of the most scenic hikes in the world with the five towns connected by hiking trails that follow the Mediterranean coastal cliff side. In my opinion Cinque Terre lived up to its hype. The rustic Mediterranean flora along with the scenic cliffs against the sea is an incredible scene and a relaxing vibe. The weather was excellent as well with it being sunny all day and temperatures between 65-75 degrees. The town resemble old Genoese fishing villages and bring a time capsule of pre-industrial Italy. November was actually a better time to come here compared to the summer as I avoided humidity and crowds. After having my pass validated, I began my hike.
The first step of the hike was the Via d’Amore between Riomaggiore and Manarola. It was a really easy 10 minute (estimated time on sign 20 minutes) and it provided some nice views.
By now I was starving. Since it was off-season, almost all of the restaurants were closed. I was left to choose between two pizza stands where the pizza looked really crummy and a nice seafood restaurant. I chose the seafood place and my lunch was delicious. I had a freshly caught Italian lobster and linguine with tomato sauce for around $20. It was delicious and one of the better meals I had eaten in a while (good deal as well). After eating, I was off to the next town of Corniglia.
The hike to Corniglia was a little longer and tougher, but was still not rigorous. It provided a lot of great photography options (including the picture above) and took me about 40 minutes to get to Corniglia. At the edge of the town there stood a large staircase that led up the cliff to the village. I climbed it and reached Corniglia. Since I wanted to maximize my hiking time before my train headed back to Milano, I only stayed in Corniglia briefly and went on to the next leg of the hike to Verranza.
This was the toughest leg of the hike. It provided both steep inclines up and down along with some tricky fork in the roads. There were a small amount hikers going the opposite direction that assured me I was not lost, but not enough of them to bother me. This hike took a little less than an hour and a half and ended up being somewhat strenouous.
When I arrived in Verranzo, I realized I did not have enough time to reach the last town of Monterosso, so I spent the rest of the day in Verranzo. I walked around the town, visited a church and a shoreside castle, and sat on the rocky edge of the shore for a little while. Then it was time to go and I headed on a train back to Levanto and then to Milan. Overall, the hike was great. The combination of the scenery and the fact that it was not to strenuous of a hike (not longer than 6 hours or too steep) made it one of my favorite hikes of the many trails I have blazed across the world.
I returned to my dorm to find out where I will be living when I go back to UCSB, so I don’t have to worry about that anymore. I also learned about some good political news that hurt the credibility of climate change. After that, I talked to my dad on skype and chilled the rest of the night.
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