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Published: July 12th 2013
Journey to Cinque Terre
Made it to the first stopInteresting start to our last morning in Nice. Left the apartment to find some breakfast. Went the opposite direction of the last couple of days thinking we would explore some new territory. Bad move…..no shops, restaurants or boulangeries! Turn around go back to our old stomping ground and took a new street. Oops….cafe au lait only - best and strongest we've had on this trip and then across the street to the boulangerie. Pain au Chocolat for me, sausage rolls for Trev. Got back to the apartment to eat them and Trev realized that "sausage" was actually "hot dog wiener" HE HATES HOT DOGS!! Wrapped up in pastry though he said they were pretty decent. Spent some time confirming our plan of attack for the trains to Corniglia and found a place to actually book them…tried and it said I had to log in but just happened to glance at the time and YIKES we needed to leave to catch the bus to the train station. Shut down, last check and lock up and move it. Walked to the bus stop we had staked out yesterday and the bus came in about 5 minutes. All was calm for the first few
stops and then the "Bus Securite" came on board. The buses have 3 doors that open for people to get on and off and you validate your pass at these scanner boxes throughout the bus. Your man asked us for our tickets and then checked a few more. He looked to the back, caught his partners attention who gave the thumbs up and indicated to the driver all was good. He left the bus and the driver moved out only to hear a loud shout from the BACK of the bus. The 3rd Securite guy was still on the bus!! We all had a great chuckle. The rest of the trip was uneventful.
Today was a bit unsettling as I hadn't booked tickets on any trains in advance. (Control Freak in me having an anxiety attack of sorts). We sort of knew how we "thought" we could go but wouldn't know for sure until we tried it. Got to the train station a bit early so I took advantage of the time and ran across the street to the post office to mail back the key to our Paris apartment.
On another note, it is time someone designed
Journey to Cinque Terre
On the second train that takes us to Genova (Genoa) head rest for those of us that put our hair up! I prefer a pony tail when it is hot to get it off my neck. I don't want it low because that doesn't keep the hair off and it gets way to hot. Some have it in a bun or french roll. Same problem for all of us, you look slightly disheveled when you try and sleep with our hair do mashed against the head rest. In order to find a comfortable spot with a pony tail you have to tip your head up just so and rest on the top back portion above the pony tail. Getting the picture??? This puts your nose in the air and when you fall into that wonderful sleep your jaw goes slack you look absolutely terrible and the sounds emanating from your nose and mouth are not so great either. Just saying….someone could make some serious coin if they could make a head rest that worked and women didn't get their hair all mussed up while trying to get some shut eye. This problem exists on buses, trains, planes & automobiles!!!
Time to board to Ventimiglia and our trip was uneventful.
Journey to Cinque Terre
Yup we are happy so far...headed in the right direction The steward did come into our car and ask for our tickets, punched them and left. Once we arrived we went straight to the ticket counter. Such a lovely lady with a warm greeting. She agreed that what I thought we could do was doable so we bought out tickets. We had to change trains twice so this was new for us. Arrived in Genoa and felt a bit panicked as we only had about 15 minutes to find our platform and board the train. We were looking at a screen and Trev noticed an employee so I said excuse me and he turned with a smile on his face and said Welcome to Genoa, how can I help!! Such a big deal to a traveller that needs help when the helper actually wants and is happy to help. He said to follow him and he would show us. We found our connection platform so train 2 was a go. Next stop was Sestri Levante, a smaller station and we found the platform okay but I wanted to be sure so went to the conductor of the train and asked. We were in the right place! 3rd train was a
Journey to Cinque Terre
Some gorgeous blue sky and water along the way GO 😊
Arrived in Corniglia, asked the ticket man about the 5 Terre Card and by the time he said to wait until tomorrow the LAST bus was gone. NO TAXI..only option was to walk to town. He told us to go the road, probably because of the suitcases, but we just followed people on the walking path. WELL, LET ME TELL YOU we walked and walked straight up stairs zig zag zig zag. Stopped several times to take pictures and catch my breath..Sicky was making me look bad as he trucked up no problem. Wasn't even breathing hard. Once again I was so glad of my time on the treadmill before we started this trip. We walked into town and asked directions and wouldn't you know it, had we turn right instead of left we would have walked past the apartment. Found the keys hanging on the gate and fell in love with the open design. Walked back to town for dinner and then did a bit of wandering around which just piqued the interest to explore tomorrow.
Awoke to a beautiful sunny day and walked in to town for breakfast. Very friendly waiter who got us
Journey to Cinque Terre
Slightly under the weather dude I'm traveling with trying to get some sleep a map to help us get a feel for where we were. Awesome omlette and toast with fresh squeezed blood orange juice. Delish!! topped of with an Americano for Trev and Cappuccino for me. Time to go to the square and wait for the bus down to the train station. First stop Riomaggiore. Wow, what a mad zone compared to our village. Much bigger, more shops and restaurants and more tourists. Lovely town though with lots of interesting sites. We then took the water taxi to Manarola the next village north. A little less busy and a bit more upscale feel. Wandered the streets, found lots of flowers and pots to photograph and we decided to lunch here. Beautiful setting overlooking the ocean. Tasty lunch of short pasta pesto, Insalata mista, and panna cotta with chocolate for dessert. Interesting thing in the countries we have visited so far, you must ASK for your bill. They will let you sit there for hours as it is rude to rush you. We are getting the hang of it. Back on the train to Corniglia with a stop at the grocer to pick up some fruit and water. Lovely man who speaks a
bit of English. AHhhhhh a cold shower to bring the body temp down and now a quiet afternoon before the evening foray into our little town. I'll let the pictures tell the story.
Corniglia is definitely the town for romance or people that just like calm and quiet. When we got here it was like riding in a car that was doing 100+ mph and suddenly came to a screeching halt. No noise, few people…such a change from London, Paris & Barcelona. You can hear the birds chirping constantly. This is a pretty amazing area with a history of tough hardworking people that carved out a life and a living from the rock hillside.
Set the alarm for 7:30 and managed to get up dressed and breakfasted by 8:30 and hit the trail. We are walking to the next village Vernazza which is about 4 km and takes 1.5 hours. The trail is amazing. They have done a marvelous job of making it safe albeit uneven. Lots of steps up and down with smooth sloping areas too. Heart pumping at steep inclines but then an incredible view is the reward at the top. Hard to believe how strong
the human spirit is. They obviously had a plan and stuck to it. All through the walk you can see crops planted and tending to them is no small feat! Everyone was sweating and hot but had a smile on our face as we greeted each other. Bon Journo, Good morning, Bonjour, Ciao, etc. Some were seasoned path walkers and were going at a fair clip, others like me, we taking it easy and concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. Trev was a great help on the steep down slopes keeping me stabilized. It was such a peaceful walk to take in the morning and most of it was still in the shade so it wasn't too hot. We could see the village of Monterosso in the distance first and then Vernazza once we were closer. It looked like some enterprising person was building a bar/restaurant at a point between Corniglia and Vernazza!! We passed the men who look after the trail. What a tough job.
The pictures for both Vernazza and Monterosso will tell the story of our day better than I can with words so will leave them to it. We did manage
Journey to Cinque Terre
I remember these very long "bridges" that spanned over valleys. The road stayed level instead of following the terrain. to take a dip in the ocean. It was colder than I expected. Just as salty as the ocean on our side of the world. Dried off in the sun for awhile but it didn't take long to seep through our clothes. It will be a bit of a damp trip back to Corniglia!!
Time to head home so had a quick Gelato………….oh so good on this hot sunny day and then hopped the train to Corniglia. Well we thought it was the train to Corniglia. It stopped at the Corniglia train station but wouldn't let us off!!! Finally we were told that the train was going to Riomaggiore and was just waiting here for 2 other high speed trains to pass. Well, we had nothing pressing to do so I guess we are off to Riomaggiore 😊 Got there about 2:30 and there is a train to Corniglia at 3:18…Trev checked with the office!! We waited on our platform and chatted with 2 - 18 year old Australia gals who were traveling on to Paris. Got on the train back to Corniglia and made it. EUREKA, THE SHUTTLE BUS WAS THERE AGAIN!! Didn't have to walk up the
365 stairs in the heat….not saying we couldn't have done it, but happy to take the bus. Tried the local Pizza joint for dinner....so so but such a lovely setting and view that we didn't mind. Chatting with a mother and daughter from Coquitlam/Port Moody area.
Breakfast and a few last pictures of Corniglia.
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Raymond
non-member comment
Ee-tal-ee
Gorgeous! Your pics have brought back fond memories of Italy and I have to say that, of all places I've been, Italy is the most likely to drag me out of my easy chair!