Today is a big day. Today we do the cinque terre walk. I don't really know what to expect. I have read many articles about the walk. I've see people talk about completing the walk in the rain, and having to hide under olive trees to protect yourself when the rain becomes too hard. I've been told by people (people older than myself) that have done the walk, that it easy. I've read reports that say the walk is only 11 kilometers, and others that say it is a 30k walk. So really,when we set of at 7 am on a cold wet morning, I'm not sure what we are in for. Can we pack warm clothes in a bag, that we can then store in the bus while we walk, or do we have to carry everything with us?
We were soon to find out.
We all assembled at Florence train station, and we were told that we had an approximately 2 hour drive ahead of us until we reached the national park in which the cinque terre was located. The drive was along a freeway, besides which were the typical industrial type businesses that you see along busy roads. Car and truck yards, gas stations, marble yards........ Yes marble yards. It was absolutely amazing to see yard after yard absolutely crammed to capacity of massive marble blocks. What was even more amazing was to look up into the hills in the distance and see the mountains. At the top they were snow capped, but down at the bottom, the white that you saw was the marble mining that they were doing in the mountains! Oh, if only I could have gone out and grabbed a slab or two!
As we wove our way through the Tuscan countryside, we saw an area that was famous for its plants. The whole area by the side of the freeway consisted of nurseries. Not only did the have multitudes of varieties of plants, but copious amounts of specialty trees such as topiary. The Italians love to use plants to decorate their homes. Be it a simple splash of colour, with geraniums, or the casual haphazard array of native type flowers. There is greenery and colour bursts everywhere you look. I think we have been incredibly lucky to arrive when we did. The rains of the past few weeks have brought the fields to life. Everywhere you look it is green, but not only green, sprouting their heads here there, and everywhere are splashes of red, purple, yellow - you name it. Absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. This is the real Italian countryside. The stuff that dreams are made of.
Before we arrive at our destinitstion we travel through the town of La Spezia. This town is the first town on our trip that is actually on the coast. In this town there is a large base for the Italian navy, and in fact there are old navy frigates here that were used during the war still in the Harbour. On we go, to arrive at the second town on the cinque terre walk - this town is called Manarola.
We get out here, and it is icy cold. We put on our polar fleeces, and scarves (mind you we are both wearing shorts, so the top may be warm, but the bottom part - the legs are still cold!.)
In large groups, there are always the ones that are the lolly gaggers. As we wait for them, I decide to shuffle the arrangement of clothes around. I decide to put th spray jacket under the polar fleece, instead of on the top. It worked at treat, until we climbed that first flight of stairs! Not only was I warm, but I had created my own little hothouse! Ok, time to strip down. All the way down now to the singlet top! - well at least until we got back down to the bottom of the stairs again! It was a bit of a pointless exercise really, but it did warm us up, and we did get a pretty good view from up there.
I think though the point was to show us what was ahead. If you felt this part of the walk was too hard, then it was time to perhaps think seriously whether you could do the rest! But back down we head, to get on the train.
There was extensive flooding on October 25 last year, and so portions of the walk are still not open. In fact, portions of the towns are still under major refurbishment.
We get on the trail and go one station to the town of Corniglia. Corniglia is the smallest village of the cinque terre. It is the only town on the walk that does not have the sea lapping on its doorstep. It sits on a promontory about 100 meters high, and is surrounded by terraces full of grapevines. I tell you, I would hate to work those hills, they are seriously steep. Apparently the younger generations are not wanting to live this lifestyle anymore, and so to encourage people to the area, the government are giving people tracts of land, with a 20 year lease for free. They cannot build on it, but they can cultivate it, and sell what the land produces to make a living, but we are talking seriously steep land here! The portion of the walk here is comprised of 33 flights of stairs (382 stains in total!).
We stop for lunch at a beautiful restaurant perched on the top of the hill. We are treated to an antipasto plate consisting entirely of seafood. It has an octopus and potato salad, and a seafood salad which has prawns, mussels and octopus. A seafood croquette, and a type of fish and potato pâté type thing. Also on the plate was a white sardine. Now I am not particularly fond of sardines. But I thought I better give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised, it was actually lovely. Must try and source them at home! This was all for what they call the antipasti course. For the primo course we had pasto with a pesto and vegetable sauce. The cinque terre region is the birthplace of pesto apparently.
After lunch the real hike begins. Any one who feels they cannot make it is given the option of taking the train to the end. I don't know if anyone opted out, Barb was determined to lead the pack, so we were off and running. When we got to the end of the walk there was a sign saying 2 hours, we managed to do it in one and a half hours!
The walk was breaktakingly beautiful. As you looked behind you, you saw where you had come from, and you looked ahead to see where you were headed. It was by no means an easy walk. The path was uneven, with many steps. At times the path was so narrow, that you had to flatten yourself against a tree or the side of the mountain to let people past.
When you reach your final destination you are rewarded with the quaint little town of Monterosso al Mare.
As we lead the pack, we had two hours to explore the town. We found a little store that was more than happy for you to sample their wares. We tried Limoncello, Melon cream liquor, marmalades, lemon honey, and a wonderful jam made from walnuts and apples. Lemons are plentiful here at the cinque terre, and you see them absolutely everywhere. We we learn the next day that lemon trees, are a status symbol!
Typically what happens is you walk from one end to the other, then catch a boat back to your starting point, but as the seas were too choppy this day, we ended up having to catch the train back. As we could not get the boat back (and because it gives you a different perspective of the walk) they rewarded us with a drink at the bar at Riomaggiore.
After the drink we then took the easy part of the walk, known as Lovers Lane. Some people (the lazy, and unfit) come to this area, and only do this less than 2k flat stretch of the walk, and claim they wave walked the cinque terre!
Bloody cheats! Back on the train and we head back to La Spezia, and our bus that awaits us to take us home. We all wearily climb aboard, and sink into the seats. I think we are all a little tired. Some came to the walk not knowing in anyway what was ahead, and they sit on the bus feeling a little worse for wear (many wore the completely wrong attire for a serious day of walking!). We are all going to sleep well tonight,
We all assembled at Florence train station, and we were told that we had an approximately 2 hour drive ahead of us until we reached the national park in which the cinque terre was located. The drive was along a freeway, besides which were the typical industrial type businesses that you see along busy roads. Car and truck yards, gas stations, marble yards........ Yes marble yards. It was absolutely amazing to see yard after yard absolutely crammed to capacity of massive marble blocks. What was even more amazing was to look up into the hills in the distance and see the mountains. At the top they were snow capped, but down at the bottom, the white that you saw was the marble mining that they were doing in the mountains! Oh, if only I could have gone out and grabbed a slab or two!
As we wove our way through the Tuscan countryside, we saw an area that was famous for its plants. The whole area by the side of the freeway consisted of nurseries. Not only did the have multitudes of varieties of plants, but copious amounts of specialty trees such as topiary. The Italians love to use plants to decorate their homes. Be it a simple splash of colour, with geraniums, or the casual haphazard array of native type flowers. There is greenery and colour bursts everywhere you look. I think we have been incredibly lucky to arrive when we did. The rains of the past few weeks have brought the fields to life. Everywhere you look it is green, but not only green, sprouting their heads here there, and everywhere are splashes of red, purple, yellow - you name it. Absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. This is the real Italian countryside. The stuff that dreams are made of.
Before we arrive at our destinitstion we travel through the town of La Spezia. This town is the first town on our trip that is actually on the coast. In this town there is a large base for the Italian navy, and in fact there are old navy frigates here that were used during the war still in the Harbour. On we go, to arrive at the second town on the cinque terre walk - this town is called Manarola.
We get out here, and it is icy cold. We put on our polar fleeces, and scarves (mind you we are both wearing shorts, so the top may be warm, but the bottom part - the legs are still cold!.)
In large groups, there are always the ones that are the lolly gaggers. As we wait for them, I decide to shuffle the arrangement of clothes around. I decide to put th spray jacket under the polar fleece, instead of on the top. It worked at treat, until we climbed that first flight of stairs! Not only was I warm, but I had created my own little hothouse! Ok, time to strip down. All the way down now to the singlet top! - well at least until we got back down to the bottom of the stairs again! It was a bit of a pointless exercise really, but it did warm us up, and we did get a pretty good view from up there.
I think though the point was to show us what was ahead. If you felt this part of the walk was too hard, then it was time to perhaps think seriously whether you could do the rest! But back down we head, to get on the train.
There was extensive flooding on October 25 last year, and so portions of the walk are still not open. In fact, portions of the towns are still under major refurbishment.
We get on the trail and go one station to the town of Corniglia. Corniglia is the smallest village of the cinque terre. It is the only town on the walk that does not have the sea lapping on its doorstep. It sits on a promontory about 100 meters high, and is surrounded by terraces full of grapevines. I tell you, I would hate to work those hills, they are seriously steep. Apparently the younger generations are not wanting to live this lifestyle anymore, and so to encourage people to the area, the government are giving people tracts of land, with a 20 year lease for free. They cannot build on it, but they can cultivate it, and sell what the land produces to make a living, but we are talking seriously steep land here! The portion of the walk here is comprised of 33 flights of stairs (382 stains in total!).
We stop for lunch at a beautiful restaurant perched on the top of the hill. We are treated to an antipasto plate consisting entirely of seafood. It has an octopus and potato salad, and a seafood salad which has prawns, mussels and octopus. A seafood croquette, and a type of fish and potato pâté type thing. Also on the plate was a white sardine. Now I am not particularly fond of sardines. But I thought I better give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised, it was actually lovely. Must try and source them at home! This was all for what they call the antipasti course. For the primo course we had pasto with a pesto and vegetable sauce. The cinque terre region is the birthplace of pesto apparently.
After lunch the real hike begins. Any one who feels they cannot make it is given the option of taking the train to the end. I don't know if anyone opted out, Barb was determined to lead the pack, so we were off and running. When we got to the end of the walk there was a sign saying 2 hours, we managed to do it in one and a half hours!
The walk was breaktakingly beautiful. As you looked behind you, you saw where you had come from, and you looked ahead to see where you were headed. It was by no means an easy walk. The path was uneven, with many steps. At times the path was so narrow, that you had to flatten yourself against a tree or the side of the mountain to let people past.
When you reach your final destination you are rewarded with the quaint little town of Monterosso al Mare.
As we lead the pack, we had two hours to explore the town. We found a little store that was more than happy for you to sample their wares. We tried Limoncello, Melon cream liquor, marmalades, lemon honey, and a wonderful jam made from walnuts and apples. Lemons are plentiful here at the cinque terre, and you see them absolutely everywhere. We we learn the next day that lemon trees, are a status symbol!
Typically what happens is you walk from one end to the other, then catch a boat back to your starting point, but as the seas were too choppy this day, we ended up having to catch the train back. As we could not get the boat back (and because it gives you a different perspective of the walk) they rewarded us with a drink at the bar at Riomaggiore.
After the drink we then took the easy part of the walk, known as Lovers Lane. Some people (the lazy, and unfit) come to this area, and only do this less than 2k flat stretch of the walk, and claim they wave walked the cinque terre!
Bloody cheats! Back on the train and we head back to La Spezia, and our bus that awaits us to take us home. We all wearily climb aboard, and sink into the seats. I think we are all a little tired. Some came to the walk not knowing in anyway what was ahead, and they sit on the bus feeling a little worse for wear (many wore the completely wrong attire for a serious day of walking!). We are all going to sleep well tonight,
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