Rome to Cinque Terra

Rome to Cinque Terra – Tuesday 19^th July

Breakfast with Anthony and he blesses the rosary beads I have bought for mum and prays for an easy final stage of her life.

He also shows us his community’s church. It was built around the 1950s and is reminiscent of Gaudi’s style with Catalonyan arches.

He drops us off at Termini, the Rome railway station, and it is yet another goodbye!

The train arrives but carriage 10 where we have reserved seats, is not there. We walk the length of the train, twice, and cannot find it. We ask – the answer is a shrug and a ‘no, the carriage is not there’.

First class is full, but we find seats with a Canadian lady and her daughter who we chat with during the journey.

Train travel is pleasant. None of the rush at the airport and the sitting and waiting to board, to take off and to land. The view from the train is pleasant and the time passes quickly.

We change trains at la Spezia and get off at the next stop, Riomaggiore. At the station we ask for directions to the bed and breakfast we have booked. It turns out to be an enormous climb up the hill – further and further, the view had better be good.

We finally get there, dragging our cases and lugging our bags full of camera and computer equipment. We are at the top of the village, and the entrance is blocked by a builder’s truck. Perhaps this is bad incident number 3 and things will sort out (the train, the long walk, the blocked entrance).

After an altercation with the builders and a lot of non-Italian swearing, we find a path into the bed and breakfast. We get sorted in our room and walk back down to the village and have a beer to cool off and calm down, then check out the area. We buy a pass which allows us to walk the paths, travel on the local trains and use the green trolley bus in each village.

We walk to Manarola and Corniglia along ‘via dal amore’ or lover’s lane. The path follows the sea and is lovely.

I’m taken by Manarola, so we take the train back there and have pre-dinner drinks at the sea front and then dinner in the middle of town. My sole is my best Italian meal. Bruce loves his mixed seafood.

We stroll back to Riomaggiore, along lover’s lane. It is dark and lots of people are out walking, sitting, taking advantage of the warm weather and the cool night air.

We buy a bottle of wine and climb the hill via the steps, so much shorter, and sit on our terrace and listen to a band practice in the hall across the valley.

Cinque Terra – Wednesday 20^th July

When in Cinque Terre, do as… We have been told that walks 1 and 2 are easy, walk 3 harder and walk 4 harder still. There are other walks in the hills for the more serious, but the water front paths will do us.

We take the Train to Montorosso and armed with 2 bottles of water and 1kg of grapes, we head out. We climb at least a million steps out of the village. It is already 1pm and the day is very hot. The view back to Montorosso is stunning and warrants a lot of photos. There are plenty of trees to give shade and the grapes help us. This walk is about 7km and at least half is steep steps, and hard work.

The descent into Vernazza is gentler. We arrive in this small village and find a cafe on the waterfront. Cold beer, pizza and salad have never tasted better. We sit for a while and enjoy watching the tourists and bathers.

We set off again for Corniglia. Once again steep steps and stunning views, but there are fewer trees and some very narrow paths on the side of the mountain.

The path is again beautiful and there are lots of photo opportunities.

We arrive in Corniglia and head straight for the train station. The train is 45 minutes late. Suddenly, we have concerns for tomorrow’s journey and connections. We change our train times hoping this will improve our chances on making the Milan connection, then go to the port of Riomaggiore for a drink. After that we go to the point to watch the sun set behind Punto Mesco – our first European sunset.

There are only a handful of people and the bar with the best view is closed. Having shared sunsets with hundreds in Broome and Darwin last year, it seems strange that this isn’t important in Europe.

A pleasant meal – Bruce has pasta and pesto while I have the gnocchi also with pesto. Then back up the hill to finish off our bottle of wine on the terrace.