The second day in Italy was a day I was really looking forward to - we visited one ofthe most stunning places I have visited so far - Cinque Terre. It is a complex of five small and insanely pretty towns located on high clifs by the sea. We managed to visit only four of them, but it still was a great adventure. Be prepared for a colourful set of photos!
RIOMAGGIORE
We left our hotel quite late, traveled by train to La Specia and changed to a Cinque Terre railway that took us to the first town of Cinque Terre - Riomaggiore. I remember when we were on that train, we drove through a very long tunnel through the mountains and at one point there was a short moment when it drove out of the tunnel and we saw the sea for the first time for a couple of seconds and the entire carrige gasped loudly in astonishment.
Riomaggiore was located high above the sea, after we left the train we headed uphill to get an overview of the town. The streets were steep, alleys narrow. What was different than other Tuscan towns we have seen was the amount of plants and greens everywhere. Some houses were carved in stone, others were painted in various shades of orange, yellow and red.
We wanted to walk the famous path Via dell'Amore that lead from Riomaggiore to Manarola on the cliffs but to our dissapointment it was closed for restoration and we had to take a train to Manarola instead.
MANAROLA
Manarola is the most recognisable of them all, probably. Most crowded for sure. For a good reason, though, the overview of the town from a nearby hill is truly breathtaking. We reached Manarola when it was the hottest hour of the day and all the tourists headed to the lowest part of the town by a small rocky bay. It was possible to ascend to the sea there and my friends and I could not resist the temptation. Actually people were jumping off the highest rocks to the water, which was definitely not safe considering that it was not deep and there were a lot of rocks under the surface, and what's more people ubove the bay were watching, cheering, recording with their phones and encouraging uncertain people to jump. We have witnessed an accident, and sadly we were not surprised...
Apart from that incident we enjoyed Manarola very much. We did a small swimming break, chilled for a while on the rocks, grabbed some Foccacias to eat and moved forward. We walked for a while along a path on the cliffs leading to Corniglia but we soon found out that it was also closed... So again we took a train. We were getting a little annoyed by that because we wanted to hike from one town to another pretty badly.
Apart from that incident we enjoyed Manarola very much. We did a small swimming break, chilled for a while on the rocks, grabbed some Foccacias to eat and moved forward. We walked for a while along a path on the cliffs leading to Corniglia but we soon found out that it was also closed... So again we took a train. We were getting a little annoyed by that because we wanted to hike from one town to another pretty badly.
CORNIGLIA
BEST HIKE EVER
My friend gave me her camera to take pictures so not all hope was lost for me. We walked out of Corniglia and finally we have found a path that was open! Well, the trail was 3,2 km of rocky paths of going up and down and up again, through passages and bridges carved in stone, sometimes through dense forests on the hills and sometimes up on the cliffs by the seaside with a breathtaking view. We started the trail around 4 or 5 pm, it was really hot even though most of the trial we walked covered in shade. I am not a hiker and I rarely go to the mountains but walking that road I realised how much would I enjoy that kind of activity.
The sun was slowly going down colouring the coast in gold, it was just beautiful. It was a really exhausting experience but I swear, the views have made up for everything and it was totally worth the effort.
VERNAZZA
When we finally reached Vernazza (i don't really remember how long did it take) we were so exhausted that we didn't initially pay much attention to it. We were very hungry so as a priority we instantly found a nice restaurant and ate good seafood because we deserved it. We ate brilliant gelatos too, I've had lemon and pesto flavours, what a bizzare combination.
After we regained strength we looked into Vernazza a little bit more. The square by the bay was lovely, specially at sunset. And at dusk. It was probably the best place to chill after a day full of adventorous sightseeing and hiking, very rewarding. We sat on concrete blocks by the shore, watching the waves breaking on the rocks and the sky changing as night has fallen.
Actually we enjoyed that moment a little too much because we were late for the train to Pisa and had to wait a few hours for the next one... Oh well, after the stress phase passed away we went to a restaurant on the main street of Vernazza, ordered a bottle of local pomegranate wine and enjoyed our wait listening to street musicians entertaining the last, most persistent groups of tourists. No hard feelings for extending our stay in Vernazza, none at all.
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