The Five Places : Chapters One to Three

Prologue

Elena and her son, Thomas, picked us up and took us out to Eataly, somewhere near the Genoa Aquarium. We made plans to head to Portofino the next day along with Gabriele. Dropped off near the train station we walked back to our hotel, Albergo Parigi. Both tired we packed it in pretty quickly. Nic fell asleep, but did so in spite of a banging noise that was more than apparent in our room. I though a neighboring renter was moving stuff around at first, but the noises came randomly. I tried to sleep as Nic had done, but kept getting stirred by the noise. Eventually I figured the noise was caused by a banging shutter, maybe not even in the hotel but on another floor in the same building. I wasn't able to sleep and the noise was starting to agitate me. Of course I awoke my wife, the Italian speaker, to ask if she knew how to get in touch with the night manager. The only way was to buzz from the front door. No contact info had been provided in the room or front desk. The banging persisted so I decided it was worth it to walk downstairs to the outside facing door and buzz in hopes of contacting the night guy. But when we tried to open the hotels front door it was locked, even to those who were already inside. (Our hotel was in one of those neighborhoods, not that Nic or I could have known that going in) Now I was upset because of our fire hazard and I kept thinking of stories you'd hear about people getting cooked. I didn't sleep that night, but was already tired from travel lag. My mind did it's thing. I tried to stay quiet in our room so Nic could sleep. But it was truly a form of torture, not being able to get our or sleep or do anything. I knew my day would be a write off. I wanted out as soon as possible. With our breakfast(room service) appointment set for 7:30, I figured it wouldn't be long before someone showed up. Our alarm went off at 6:30 and we packed our bags. Checking the door again it was unlocked. It must have been on a timer. At first I wanted to wait for the hotel staffer to show up so I could demand some sort of refund, but the first train for Vernazza left at 7:11 and this was the best, fastest way out of hell. We emailed Elena and Gabriele, grabbed our Ospreys and walked over to the train station. Finally on the train, Nic was frantically dialing Elena to explain. Finally getting through, there was no issue from her end. A relief but I still feel guilty about jamming on such super nice people.

Another lesson for me in stretching our hotel dollar too far.

Which brings me to our next problem. In order to hook up with Elena and Gabriele to go to Portofino, we had to change our meet time with Chiara(our hostess at  the Vernazza rooms where we were staying) to the late afternoon. Now realizing that would in fact need to arrive at the original time, Nic sent an email to notify her. We did not hear back. Originally we'd meet under the train station but no one was there to greet us. We found the Blue Marlin, ordered a light breakfast and pretended to be calm as Nic phoned all the numbers we had for them. 

Finally at around 9:25 they called back and all was ok. When Chiara's assistant finally found us at the Marlin, our  vacation in Cinque Terre could get going.

Chapter One - Vernazza

Le Cinque Terre means Five Places. 5 Small towns. roughly 4 miles between the northern most Monterosso and Riomaggore in the south,  on the west coast of Italy between Genoa and Pisa. Italy has combined them all into a natural reserve accessible only by a train line that tunnels through the mountains that line the coast.  

From down on the beach

The local watch tower. So far, all the CT towns have one

View from high up

From across the water

 We had an easy day. Recovering from our early morning evacuation we ate a sandwich lunch and dinner from a place near the water. The menus here are heavy on the seafood. All good for me, Nic still found what she wanted.

Chapter Two: Vernazza to Corniglia

We slept in starting our hike to the town south of us around 9 am. Overcast and good conditions we started up the steps that line the surrounding farm land. I would look back every so often to get a picture of Vernazza.

The morning sun brings out the vibrant colours of the town below.

 BUT.... the trail was closed. For some reason when we bought our trail passes the day before the agent didn't mention that Vernazza to Corniglia would be closed in the morning  for workers to manage the risk of rock slides. Back down we went. (The trail was to open again in the early afternoon so the hikers could have their turn).

Chapter Two - Take Two: Vernazza to Monterosso

So we headed north instead to Montorosso, Vernazza's more resortee cousin. Climbing out we can look back fro a really good view of Vernazza.

Climbing the trails on either side of Vernazza requires a lot of up.

 And up...

 and up often on sections of trail that are too narrow for 2 way traffic.

 

 Looking back again at the coastline and Vernazza in the distance. The trek to Montorossa is about 1.5 hours. Vernazza south to Corniglia would have been about the same.

Me proudly rocking the 70's era Star Wars shirt representing an era when Star Wars was still great. With the exception of Rogue One, the new Movies have all been Mickey Mouse crap.

The first hour of our hike was quiet with many amazing views. As we neared Montorosso we started running into oncoming traffic. With many sections of the trail to narrow to pass, we stopped and waited in many places for people to get by. I was annoyed but it's not like they have many options in terms of widening the trails. 

Originally I had it in mind to hike back to Vernazza. As we neared Montorosso, the trail became a network of steep steps. We got close to town moving passed winded hikers going the other way. This after we'd navigated a fair bit of down hill. I remember feeling bad for the climbers who had a rough run in front of them.Vernazza to Montorosso is a much better hike. I looked at Nic and said "Train back?". "Totally", she replied.

Montorossa has the best beach front I've seen so far here. After a meal, I wanted to get my shoes off and into the water. Nic was happy to do so as well.

 Less happy when the cold April sea washed up a bit higher on her leg.

 Getting ready to get the train, I got an idea. 

Chapter Three : Corniglia to Vernazza

We bunny hopped Vernazza and went to Corniglia. The plan was to hike the reverse of what we'd tried to in the morning. Corniglia already sits up the highest of the Cinque Terra towns. I figured we'd be able to cheat. Unfortunately the train doesn't climb up to the town, instead dumping it's passengers off by the beach leaving them all to climb up to the town.

 No good deed goes unpunished, yeah?

 All the towns we visited have views like this around them. Hill sides cut into farm-able land.

Getting into Corniglia, we stopped at a deli to re-up our fluids. In total Nic and I drank around 3L of water and 1L of ice tea each on this day.

We met Ed and Sharon from Calgary. Oilers fans who liked the Sedins and hated Johhny Gadreau. We took a vacation from our vacation to talk hockey. It's always nice to run into like minded people on your travels. 

 We took about  45 minutes to putter around Corniglia considering we'd worked hard to get there.

A view of Corniglia if you're headed the wrong way

 Feeling we'd seen what Corniglia had, we decided to head on our way back to Vernazza.  It turned into a grueling climb.

25 minutes in we ran into a French lady with walking sticks coming back the other way. She asked us where we were going and we replied Vernazza. She said that this wasn't the trail to Vernazza. 


Chapter Three - Take Two : Corniglia to Vernazza

Whenever Nic is pissed at me she does a smart thing and walks ahead. She keeps quiet until she has something nice to say. It was totally my fault. Backtracking I saw the sign that I totally ignored that said Manorola (in the opposite direction). Back at the intersection, we went straight instead of turning right.

A view of Corniglia if you're headed the correct way

 Being on the right path didn't deprive of us of any climbing. By now the sun had been out in full force. We consumed water and slogged it out.

 Far enough out you can look back again at Corniglia, also Manorola is in the distance.

 Eventually our climb crested and we could head down. Gravity fed hiking can be just as challenging though....

 ...and more treacherous. Especially when your legs are running out of gas. I made an extra effort to pick up my feet as to not get my toes caught up on a piece of protruding rock.

 Finally we could see our goal. Vernazza was near.

But one last obstacle lay in our path. Bar Le Torre rest above Vernazza. A neat location for hikers to stop and ponder their day above town. Nic and I stopped for drinks and rested before finally heading back to our hotel.