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Barney & Kel's Travel Journal
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BJ & Kel's Travel Tales
Last Update: 04-07-2008 Views: 4239
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Cinque Terra national park consists of five little coastal villages in Italy's North West. The villages are linked by rail, and by a trail along the cliffs overlooking the sea. We set up camp in Riomaggiore, the southernmost village, with a view to hiking the 12km to Monterosso over two days. Our legs were starting to become weary from all the travel we had done, and things were not made any easier by the fact that our hostel was located at the highest point of Riomaggiore, about 280 steps above the street!!
Most tourists commute into the villages of the Cinque Terra from larger towns nearby. As a result, there is an extremely relaxed feel to the place in the evenings, which we spent sipping cocktails and watching the Euro 2008 football. A lot of people attempt the hikes in between the towns, but we found that as we walked, the crowds thinned to the point that we were by ourselves most of the time.
The hike itself ranges considerably in difficulty and length between villages. The walk between Riomaggiore and Manarola is called 'Lover's Way', and is relatively easy, as is the next leg to Corniglia. However, the rest of the path becomes steeper and a little more uneven, with longer distances between the towns. The dirt path hugs the cliff face, and we were constantly stopping to admire the breathtaking views back along the coast. The steepest and most difficult part of the hike was back down to sea level at Monterosso, and it was here that an opportunist lemon farmer had set up a lemonade stall that backed onto the path. We just had to stop for some freshly made limoncello - a local specialty.
We left Cinque Terra for Nice abslutely exhausted, and ready for a few days of lying on the beach. The weather in Nice seemd to be cloudy and chilly for half the day, and beautiful and sunny for the other half. This was fortunate because any more sun and I think we both would have suffered! Besides, when it clouded over, we had an excuse to get up and walk to Fenocchio - the best ice cream shop we have ever seen!
We returned to London with brown skin and with some amazing memories.
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