Cinque Terre

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We spent 2 days hiking in Cinque Terre. The trip did not start as we expected. 18th Sep happened to be a train strike. So we could not get the train to go from La Spieza. After waiting hours at the train station with lot of mixed information, we joined another couple and took a taxi to the first village. The day was looking cold and rain. We bought our tickets and headed out on the hike. The beginning was really nice. The hiking trail huggs the sea coast. The sea was really stormy this day and it made the hike lot more beautiful. As we headed out of Riomaggio, some slight rain started falling. We took a leasurely hike to next village Manarola. By now, it was a good drizzle. We were also very tired. So we decided to stay there.

Now began a very long trip through all the narrow up and down streets of village to find a cheap accomodation. Everything there was really expensive (as expected). Also because of the train strike, people wanted to leave got stuck in the village. Finally we settled on taking 2 beds in a hostel. It turned out to be really nice - as we got to meet quite a few people there. But the walking through all streets with backpacks, up and down made me really tired.

After settling into the hostel, we went out for small walk. We saw the vines, and uneasy sea. It was great. At night we had a simple dinner in the hostel and decided to just relax.

Next day we decided to take the bus up to a small village and hike down to the 3rd Terre from there. Hike down was steep, but had great views of the villages at edge of the sea. On the way we found some fruits to eat. Once in Corniglia, I was really tired. It was becoming almost impossible to hike with backpacks. Also we heard that rest of the hike is up and down, not as flat as the first part. It also does not hug the coast, so might not be that pretty. It was decided, we were going to ditch the hike and take the train back.

The last village, which is also the biggest has a beach. So after spending short time in Corniglia, we took the train out to Monterosso. The day had become much nicer by now. There we headed to the beach and got wet in the water. We had our last ice-cream of the trip, some food and were ready to head home.

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Photos

Manarola
and the vineyard on its slopes.

Cinque Terre
Houses literally on top of each other