3 day trip to Cinque Terre

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Monday Oct 29th

Took the train to Cinque Terre. About 2.5 hours.
We debated this trip as the coastal trails are officially closed because there
have been some rock slides with the rain. Last year at this time there was a
mud slide caused by heavy rain that buryed two cities, Vernazza and Monterosso,
in up to 12 feet of mud. But 'offically' does not mean that you cannot hike the
trails and the cities have worked hard to clean up.
We found a room with a terrace overlooking the Med in Vernazza. We hiked a little
of the trail to Corniglia but the trail was washed out and they were working on
repairing it. So we went back to the room and watched a beautiful sunset with
some wine on the terrace.

Tuesday Oct 30th

Hiked the trail from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare. We started at 9:30 after
a quick breakfast and finished at noon. That was a bit slow but the trail was
steep with a lot of steps both up out of Vernazza and down into Monterosso and
also plenty of stops to take in the views.
We had a good sandwich and a beer down by the beach in Monterosso then walked
the flat part of town along the Med before boarding a ferry to Riomiggiore.
Walked around Riomiggiore where it started to rain a bit and had gelato. Then
we boarded a train for a the quick ride to Manarola where we had a good dinner.
We then finished day riding the train back to Vernazza.

Wednesday Oct 31st

We accually found a place serving eggs for breakfast in Vernazza and stopped by
the last of the 5 cities, Corniglia, on our way out of Cinque Terre. Corniglia
is the only one of the five cities built on a hill and not down by the coast.
There is a stairway from the train station with 377 steps up to the city. After
the previus days' hike we took the shuttle bus.
We also met a lady from San Francisco who told us about a Cornigila specality
which was a sandwich made from crepes made out of chickpea flour. So
Karen and I shared one while waiting for the train to La Spezia and back to
Florence.

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