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Published: December 12th 2013
After navigating our way via bus and train to the city of La Spezia, we continued on to the first town of the Cinque Terre - Riomaggiori. Checking into the tourist info centre we quickly found out the seaside walk between the first and second towns (Via dell'Amore, or Lover's Lane) was closed due to landslips, and that the only option was to train on to the second town - Manarola.
Arriving in Manarola, we were then told the same thing, in that the track all the way to the fourth town was also closed due to track deterioration. However, we didn't come to the Cinque Terre to train through it, and after studying a map we decided there was an alternate route directly up the side of the mountains. Hey - if it worked for Vesuvius earlier in Pompei, we could surely navigate our own path again here.
What followed was a solid slog directly up the hill, past vineyards, small houses and some very surprised hikers after seeking the backpack-to-Kim ratio. We reached the apex and wandered through the small local village of Volastra, before making our way back down to the third coastal town - Corniglia.
As we were running a bit late on time, we decided to train to the next town, Vernazza, where we had a room booked for the night.
Arriving in the fourth town of Vernazza we checked in and explored the beautiful seaside community (the only one actually on the water, and for that reason was decimated by the floods last year - is still under reconstruction). We even ventured a dip in the chilly waters, before our enjoying an amazing last meal at a restaurant which gave a great view out to the harbour.
With yesterday's walk being cut short, we decided to re-do the track between the third and fourth towns. We were told it was closed to public but had heard people were still chancing it, so decided the quickest way to this was to leave our bags in Vernazza and with just a small backpack in tow, run it in one go.
All was going well until we came across a couple of frightened walkers going the opposite direction, who said they had passed a few armed men further up the track, and upon passing them heard gunshots and even a scream.
We gave the local authorities a quick call on the spot to check if hunting would be happening in the area (unlikely given it was a tourist track), but after a frustratingly slow attempt at speaking italian we left it with them and chanced the walk. Sure enough, 3/4 of the way down we found the "armed men" - three hunters in full orange reflective gear shooting the wild boar.
Only a short while further we reached Corniglia, and repeated our train journey back to Vernazza for a second time, picked up our bags and walked the last stretch to the fifth and final town - Monterosso. This part was the only section officially open to public, so as expected was hugely busy but fairly short-lived. Reaching the train station, we bought tickets, sat down for a well earned beer, and trained on to Nice, sadly waiving goodbye to the italian leg of our trip but excited for what South France would hold for us in the next two weeks.
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Philippa MacMillan
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Cinque Terre
The paths were closed when we were there over a year ago, one of them because an Aussie tourist was killed. Still an amazing place to visit, though. We stayed in Manarola but liked Vernazza the best - they have done a great job of reconstruction, haven't they? Looks like it's pretty hot for this time of the year?! I don't envy you the backpacks! Look forward to hearing about France - on my wish list :-)