Next, we caught a train out of Termini headed for the Ligurian coast in the Apennine mountains for hiking adventures to Cinque Terre, a national park and UNESCO World Heritage site. We stayed in a tiny, charming room, high on a cliff overlooking the village and sea. Our host, Cristiana, owned a little bodega and served us delicious cappuccino and croissants every morning and a divine flight of local wines with cheeses and olives every evening.
We stayed in the tiny village of Corniglio (pop. 103) for a few nights. The hiking was treacherous and glorious. I found muscles I never knew I had. We hiked all five villages in one day! One of the best days of our lives! We barely missed darkness and a thunderstorm coming down the treacherous mountainside between Manorola and Corniglio on our final leg. As the rain came down and darkness swelled up, we saw a sign about wild boars. We headed to the village and caught a train then a bus back to our charming room where a hot shower and cozy bed awaited us. We opened the curtains to watch a magnificent electrical storm discharge miles-long lightning streaks into the sea. It was the most fantastic display of nature we've ever seen!
Balcony off our tiny room
Something like 900 steps from the train station up to the trail.
Fresh oranges and cafe!
Blood oranges and chocolate torte
Beautiful view from bed!
A wild and rocky coastline with improbably steep, terraced
vineyards seeming to rise directly from the sea joins the dots of the Cinque
Terre, five tiny villages that have remained practically unchanged since
medieval times.
The dry-stone walls supporting the narrow terraces are the
result of centuries of gruelling work and have led to UNESCO recognition as an
extraordinary cultural landscape resulting from man’s harmonious interaction
with nature. That harmony is reinforced by a refreshing lack of traffic; the
sheer slopes leave no room for cars and the roads that do exist are long and
winding, if panoramic, so transport is dependent on the railway, a dense
network of footpaths, and ferries in high season. Olives, agaves and prickly
pears add to the spectacular scenery and, as both a national park and marine
reserve, the environment is carefully protected.
Our little town as seen from a mountain peak a few miles away.
Morning after the storm. Air scrubbed clean of humidity and fog!
Train from Rome to La Spezia, with a change or two in between.
First glimpse of Ligurian Sea from the train!
Little outdoor bar and restaurant
Christiana, our hostess.
I like this photo of my handsome man on Via Freschi one night in October
Christiana brought a nice flight of whites along with some bread, cheese, olives, and charcuterie.
Seafood stew. We were the only patrons in this restaurant. The staff seemed to be a husband, his mother, and his wife. Mother and wife hated each other, and the husband seemed to the favor the mother. Love and marriage! Lots of yelling from behind the kitchen door. Interesting meal.
Lightning discharging into the sea
Orange tree supporting satellite TV.
It was foggy one of the days we went hiking
Trail marker
Here's the little shack where they check to make sure you have purchased the pass to walk the trails. They check it only between the "touristy" towns of Veranazza and Monterossa. The other trails are so rugged that not many people hike them. But we did!
Sadly, asshole tourists think it's okay to steal grapes from the vineyards. They do not understand that they are stealing the family's livelihood. This is a problem with people who have no contact with an agrarian culture. They have no respect where food comes from or how difficult it is to raise and harvest. Farmers have put up "toxic" signs to keep tourist thieves from eating their grapes.
Harvesting is still done by hand—there is no room for machinery. Once upon a time vineyard workers would carry their wicker baskets for miles up and down ladder-like trails that are a challenge even when you hike on them unloaded. In the last 20 years, however, the Cinque Terre cooperative winery (and some other, independent grape-growers and winemakers) has installed several dozen miniature cog-wheel monorails that snake through the vineyards stopping at collection points, many of them on this trail.
Sometimes, vintners allow hikers to "ride" down these cogs. Rollercoaster of Certain Death!
Olive trees grow in the wild.
It felt kind of biblical. Stone path beneath the olive trees.
I appreciated someone deciphering the pictogram: "Avalanche de Balls."
Telephone wires
It is called “heroic winemaking” because of the back-breaking effort that goes into each and every bottle of wine made in the Cinque Terre. Wine making has been the crucially important to the formation and growth of the Cinque Terre villages throughout their history. The incredible terracing which defines the coastline surrounding the towns was created over the course of a thousand years to create space to place the vines. The entire economy revolved around the sale of wine.
Of the Cinque Terre’s approximately 5,000 residents today about 700 belong to the local cooperative winery. Just about every family bottles its own private stock.
Walked under this "cave" to get to the sea. It went from medieval to prehistoric!
Trying to find the trail. Sometimes we got lost in the little villages, which is a big deal when you have to climb some 900 steps to get the to village then have to go back down then up again.
Beautiful morning glories on trail.
Atop Vernazza, which is kind of touristy now due to cruise ships offering a ferry ride here as a "day trip." I wouldn't want to "day trip" here, which would be shopping and eating in substandard yet expensive restaurants. I would much rather hike the trails and see the cities on my way through!
High in the Apennine mountains was a little feral cat city. Someone put out houses, food, water, and collection boxes.
A little pop-up shop in Monterossa.
The beach. Hmmm. The U.S. truly has some of the best beaches in the world!
I actually didn't appreciate this graffiti. This is a UNESCO world heritage site.
A little tunnel under the mountain in Riomaggiore. It was so pretty.
Drank some beer and ate some foccacia here. Two other people in the place. Of course they were from Seattle.
I had complained that Larry always complained when I wanted to take his picture, so he tried to cheer up.
I wanted to knock on this door in Manorola so badly!
We could see the train station but couldn't figure out how to get there from where we were.
One of my favorite things was walking past everyone's gardens. Even in Rome, you saw tiny patches of lush gardens wherever there was dirt. Vegetables and herbs give all food all the flavor, yet most Americans are too lazy to grow anything even though we have huge yards.
A little storybook bridge over a storybook brook in the mountains
Manarola. It was difficult to reach on foot.
In a tiny bodega the size of a broom closet in a tiny village thousands of years old that can be reached only by foot, you can buy Muddy Waters--on vinyl!
Inside the little church near our room.
This is the plaza in tiny Cornoglio. I thought it was beautiful and spooky at night!
Menu at one of the restaurants
A creepy alley in Corniglio
View from bedroom balcony in morning
These cute dogs came to greet me whenever I walked by. They'd bring me a lemon and I'd throw it. Italian tennis balls!
Little church down the way from our place. It was ancient and rustic and the bells chimed at random times: 6:10, 7:04, 8:16, 9:01...you get the picture. The other church in town also had chimes that went off all day at random times. We found this to be true in all of Cinque Terre. Winding clocks is "not so much" in Italy!
Picture perfect morning
We stayed in the pink one, top floor.
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