Cinque Terre walk - Day 2

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Once again we had our breakfast on the rooftop terrace. We left the hotel a bit later than we wanted but we got some washing and stuff done. We caught the train back to Corniglio. We knew from yesterday that there is a massive zigzag staircase from the top of the town to the bottom, where the train station is. Knowing we were going to facing an even more, potentially, challenging day today we opted into getting the shuttle bus to the top!

Once in the town we grabbed a lemon granita (me) and orange granita (Janine) before taking some time to look around. We were just too exhausted yesterday to climb anymore stairs so it was nice to have some time today to enjoy the place. Time always seems to get away from us when we're on holiday's and before we knew it, it was midday! Time to get moving - but not before we take a couple of photos of the church that we had to start the walk from!!

Unfortunately the seaside walk is closed due to a landslide that happened back in 2012 so we knew we couldn't do that walk which was a shame as it is not only picturesque but much shorter and flatter! Anyway, our other option was to do another trail that went through the vineyards and was also very picturesque. We were told by Stefano at our hotel that it was only about 20 minutes up steps and then it would be a love,y stroll through the vineyards. After walking up ........ and up for almost an hour, we started to question whether Stefano has ever actually done this walk!!!

We asked a few people along the way how much more going up we had - the first few said "quite a while" and then after a while people said "not much further" but it never seemed to stop we met a lovely couple from New Zealand that had done this walk before. First thing they told us was we were doing it the wrong way around and most of the hike is uphill (waaaahhhhhh) and then they gave us some good advice on other tracks. We had planned to walk all the way to Riomaggiore which is the last town but They told us that not only was the seaside track closed (which we knew about - another landslide) but the alternative track was also closed. So, based on what they advised, we changed out plans and decided to head to Manarola (town 4).

Thank goodness we changed our plans as it took us over two hours to get to Velastra, which is the town above Manarola. By this time we were very hot (starting our walk at midday - not a good idea!) and exhausted so we chose the shuttle bus option into town. it was about 3pm by the time we arrived so we found a restaurant we liked the look of and had some lunch. Today we had calamari with salad which we both really enjoyed. After lunch we checked out the town before heading to the beach for a swim. The beaches (which are all rock) were packed with people! It was too much hassle for me to swim but Janine managed a nice dip.

We then caught the ferry at 5pm back to Monterosso as we wanted to soak in the view of all the 5 towns on our way back to Town #1 (Monterosso). We sat on top of the ferry and by now a nice breeze was starting to come through so it was very nice on the boat. The views were spectacular - what an amazing coastline!

When we arrived at Monterosso we walked to our favourite (public) beach and both jumped in for a swim. This was the best part of the day as it was so lovely just floating and chatting. The buoyancy seems so much more than back home and it is really easy to just float.

As much as we didn't want to leave the water we eventually headed back to the hotel to have showers and freshen up. We then walked along the waterfront checking out the different eating establishments and finally settled on one. Janine had the basil pesto lasagna and I had a basil pesto pasta with potatoes. My dish was nice but a bit rich whereas Janine really struggled with hers. She thought it would be lasagna as we know it but with basil pesto on top but it was a very creamy lasagna and just all a bit too much.

We went for a good walk after dinner and then called it a night!

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