Italy 2010

July 15 and into Italy, La Spezia - Cinque de Terre

Lazy start again.  Caught the 10 am train to Vernazza, the village where I left off yesterday, and headed off on the last leg of the hike!

This leg is one of the shortest but is to take longer, 2 hours.  Wow. Started off with steps climbing up and up and up!  wow.  Seemed like forever but was about 20 minutes of climbing.  Leveled off a bit and then more up!  The views of  Vernazza and Monterosso (the next and last village) are still amazing.

More difficult climbing/walking and the trails have become much much more narrow.  In many places not enough for 2 people to pass.

Still great.

The walk takes you through many terraces of olive trees and vineyards.  So nice!  Well worth the trip and so nice to be away from a big city. I will get that when I get to Rome tomorrow!

July 14 and into Italy, La Spezia - Cinque de Terre

Lazy start to day.  Caught train to Riomaggiore, the most southerly village of the area.

Head off on the walk.  Very easy going, wide, cobble-stoned paths, with many people in flip flops!  I am finally getting to use my new walking sticks.  I bought them in Kelowna, packed them, and have been carrying every since.  Took a bit to figure them out.  Not sure how many times they tripped me!  No one said you had to be coordinated to use them!  The coast line is beautiful!  Lots of people, including groups of people from cruise ships.  Not sure where they are.

Made it to the next town, no problem.  And off to the next, Manoira.  Another small little village.  The walking is getting a bit harder, fewer people, but still not difficult.  But getting nicer all the time.

It had to happen, actually met a former student, and her husband that work at the college!  Hilarious as she started to scream!  Too funny.  Had a great chat and turns out we probably spent a lot of the time traveling on the same train from Nice!  Amazing!  And we think we will be on the same train to Rome tomorrow!

The whole walk between through the 5 villages should take about 5 hours.  I spend about 3 1/2 hours doing all but the last leg, but I did spend a lot of time having lunch and chatting with a couple of women from Switzerland!

Made it to the next village, no problems, but again the walking is getting more difficult!  Saw a great beach to go for a swim, but it was a long way down.  That part would be easy, the hard part would be getting back to the trail.  But the ladies said there is a nice swimming place in Vernazza.  This is supposed to be the prettiest village of the 5.

And it is beautiful!  After a few steps, up and down, and down and up, finally made it!  This was the end for me!  As the next and last section is the most difficult!

The swim was great.  Cute as there are many colourful boats in the harbour!  Relaxed a bit, had an Italian ice cream and made my way back to the train and La Spezia.

July 13 and into Italy, La Spezia

Shall see if the guy at train station in Nice was right, when he rattled off the 4 changes of trains, and times of the trains for me to get to La Spenzia.  This is the Cinque de Terre area, a national park that had hiking trails along the coast, that runs through 5 cities.  Most of the last part of the trip was spent in tunnels with peeks of the Med along the way.  Looks great.

Arrived no problems, a bit tired, but was able to check in and go off wandering and find something to eat.