May 17th - Cinque Terra

Penny in town 1. We had "breakfast" and started the easy trail.

Today we went down the valley to Lucca, picked up the big roads to La Spezzia (almost) and on to Cinque Terra. There was a traffic tie-up at Carrera, so we went to the back roads. That took us past the marble yards with the huge and small blocks of marble in browns and whites and greys. Each yard seemed to be graded.

La Spezzia is a busy seaport city and we hit it in the morning rush. Not my most pleasant memory, nor the road from there to CT. Very hilly and dangerous, but really beautiful.





Town 2.

The Five Lands are 5 villages along the Mediterranean coast of Italy just south of Portofino and the Italian Riviera. They are connected by a whole series of hiking trails that climb the hills overlooking the sea in varying degrees of difficulty. The easiest trail, the one we took for 3 of 4 stages, goes the 13 kilometers through all 5 towns. There is also a train that connects the towns for the ride back, or for wimping out at any stage.

This water wheel in Town 2 dates back some 800 years. The places are really amazing.











On the trail to Town 3.

And then Town 3. Note the fishing boats dragged up onto the main street.





















Penny being very happy over lunch in the restaurant in the old fort section of Town 4.

Lovely food and a bottle of wine in a chi-chi place over-looking the sea on one side and the town on the other. Tough life.

We would question the wisdom of the food and wine later.





Now, watch what happens after lunch as we climb between Town 4 and Town 5.

The key is the square stone block with the beige roof. That is our restaurant.

None of these pictures are fiddled, they were all taken with max width of field (I think), except for this first one which is zoomed in a bit.

This is looking back as we are just leaving town.








And now we are well up the trail.

Can you still find the restaurant? Extreme right of town, just above the shrubbery.










Did I mention that the trail got pretty steep and narrow through here?

And that we got quite a way up from sea level?

And there were no guard rails or anything like that?













Oh, it kept going up after this, but we could not see Town 4 after this point. Can you find the restaurant?

















Eventually we got to Town 5 and just had time to grab the train back to Town 1,

The five towns, from south to north as we encountered them, are:
1. Riomaggiore
2. Manarola
3. Corniglia (365 stairs into town, took train to 4)
4. Vernazza (had lovely lunch before hike to 5)
5. Monterosso