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Published: June 14th 2010
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After viewing the Cinque Terre coast on the contiki trip we decided it was a must to return and do the walk between the five villages. We spent a couple of nights in La Spezia from where you can get the train to the Cinque Terre. Unfortunately the weather was not good and we were told only the lovers walk (Via Dell’Amore) was open. Not letting the rain dampen our spirits we decided to go on the walk and then use the train between the other villages. Our first stop was Riomaggiore. We didn’t spend much time here as we launched right into the lovers walk before the heavens opened. The walk was paved all the way so walking was easy and the scenery was breathtaking . Not far after leaving Riomaggiore we reached the lovers chair. The tradition here is for couples to add a padlock and throw the key into the water so as to lock up their love forever! We couldn’t believe how many padlocks were beside and behind the chair. There wasn’t much fence space left so most of the padlocks were linked into another. We’re not sure what fate that might bring! We got a couple
of photos taken by some nice Italians who thought we were honeymooners but had to move on pretty quickly as there was a line up to get photos taken in the chair. On the way to Manarola we stopped at a beautiful bar on the walk and had a quick coffee as the rain really started thumping down. Luckily for us that seemed to be the worst of it over!
We would have to say that Manarola is the most picturesque of the villages. We wandered around the village and decided to do some window shopping. It only took 45 minutes to see the whole village. Most of the time came from walking uphill. We understand why everyone living here is tiny! We then tried to walk around the coast a bit further until we were stopped and told to head back to Manarola. We still got to see some nice parts of the track and take in the view though.
From there we took the train to Corniglia to have some lunch - spaghetti with mussels and lobster (and local wine of course), mmmmm delicious! Corniglia is even smaller than the other villages so it was just
a quick explore after lunch and then back on the train.
Next stop off the train was Vernazza where we had already had time to explore on the contiki trip. We decided to head for the hills to take some photos of the village. We bumped into some walkers who had just come from Montorosso al Mare (the final village) and said the higher walks up in the hills (rather than the one right on the coastline) were open and it took them 4 and half hours to get between the two villages. We thought this is our chance to get in some walking, but the time was already 4:30pm and we didn’t have much water left... We decided to start out and see how far we’d make it up the hill. Richie put on his best Bear Grylls accent and started talking survival tactics when we filled our water bottle with beautiful fresh water from a running stream. With a full bottle of water and enough monkeying around we decided to take the walk on! The first part of the walk (8a) wasn’t anything special mainly because we were walking up a hill and the trees were blocking
our view down to the coast however once we reached the top the view was breathtaking! We then took track 8b which took us around the top of the headland and gave us wonderful views of Vernazza and Montoross al Mare and the coastline in between. We didn’t get rained on but the track was pretty muddy. We were a bit worried about finishing the walk before dark so we pushed ourselves along! It felt so good to be in the fresh air and we only came across one more couple on the whole walk. We loved it!
We arrived in Montorosso al Mare after only walking/jogging up and down the hills for 2.5 hours. Then we found ourselves a bottle of wine, some delicious foccacia and gave our legs a rest. We had a lovely picnic dinner at the beachfront and all the other tourists had gone home so it was nice and peaceful! We ended up our visit to the Cinque Terre with coffee in Riomagiore as we didn’t get to spend too much time there. We were so happy we got to do a decent walk and next time we come back we will do some
more of the tracks! We are so glad this wonderful part of the world is a Unesco listed National Park (Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre) and it will be preserved for every lucky visitor!
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