Heaven on a coastline....
Trip Start
Unknown
1
6
7
Trip End
Ongoing
Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre, Italy
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
So I head off on the first section of the walk which from Riomaggiore to Manarola, known as Lovers Walk. At every piece of wire and fencing the young (and sometimes old) lovers attach padlocks to symbolize the vastness of their love awww! There's thousands of them! The walk is beautiful tucked in along the side of the coastline quite a few hundred metres up from the sea. Manarola is gorgeous with a boat ramp down to the sea overlooked by the Piazza but there has been a landslide from Manarola to Corniglia so a few minutes on the local train makes the easiest connection (otherwise it's a major 2pm hike...pass). From Corniglia stazione it is 300plus steps to the top. There are bunch of school kids all loud and laughing at the start, their teacher and I are head down and tackle it, by the end of it we are doing ok and the kids are extremely quiet haha!
Now is a more difficult stretch to Vernazza but my god it is absolutely stunning and worth every uneven rocky step for nearly 2pm ip and down the mountainside, through terraced vegetable gardens, olive groves and vineyards. Stunning. Mind blowing. The tenacity of this peole is incredible. They now use (courtesy of help fro the government) mechanical flying foxes, almost elevators to get the produce from the terraces to the villages or nearest road. If they don't terrace and work the land it and the culture around it will be lost through landslides and general erosion. There is nothing else like it in the world hence the UNESCO recognition.
I am glad I am walking down into Vernazza as the people coming up past me have been walking up fr over 30mins and are wrecked. Then you see the tower and then the village and it is s spectacular. A stunning little marina with those teak and blue boats that you see I postcards. I feel like I am in one. Every where I look is just a mind-blowing landscape that deserves to be painted into masterpieces......all I can do is breathe.
This is the region that focaccia was invented so i grab a focaccia and a beer, sit in the piazza overlooking the crystal blue water and soak it all in.
By now my knees and ankles are stuffed. It is not far but it has been hard going and apprently the next section is harder so I decide to catch the train back and do the next stage tomorrow.....
the ulterr motive of course means that I can have a shower and head down to the marina and headland of Riomoaggiore to watch the sunset with a glass of prosecco....only sunset isn't till 8pm....so that means two glasses and chatting with other patrons which of course I hate to have to do but.....as you can imagine I am hating every minute!!!!
Finally head off to La Lanterna again for dinner Tre Pesci Ravioli and their world famous anchovies...
