Vernazza and Monterosso

Tuesday, June 23, 2015
We slept in late either by design or pure exhaustion from mountain climbing the day before. The farmers have shown up today lining the streets with fresh produce. We help out the local economy by purchasing some fruit and pastry for breakfast. We find our corner of Vernazza and enjoy our breakfast watching the tourists rustle by.

A little strolling around Vernazza after breakfast to explore the charm the city has to offer and also to people watch. It was fun watching the tourist near the ferry launch watch the waves crash against the rocks, because they would get caught off guard when a big wave would crash and splash them with water, we knew better than to get to close to the crashing waves.

(watching the tourist get wet)

 (Vernazza plaza)

 (the view from the ferry launch, away from crashing waves)

Against our better judgement we decide to take the coastal walk to Monterosso. You need a ticket to walk on this "walkway", the train station sells them. We inquire with the person in charge of information, "is this walkway easy or like the 531"? He laughed and assured us it was nothing like the 531, easy walk with little ups and downs. So on that bit of information we decide to do it. It should take one and one half hour to complete according to literature, signage and locals. I'm setting my timer, its 12:35pm ....

 

(left: ticket for coastal walkway, right: coastal walkway trail marker)

The hike to Monterosso was not as bad as the hike the day before, yet we still had to walk over a mountain, but the views has more coastal scenery.

(Vernazza in the background as we ascend)

(still ascending with Vernazza in the background)

(some of the coastal views with Vernazza still in background)

(finally over the top we can see Monterosso in the distant)

(a view of some of the stairs climbed on the "walkway")

...3:05pm we arrive in Monterosso, that is two and one half hours AND the Italians lie! That was a frickin hiking trail NOT a walkway. Tired, thirsty and distrustful of Italians we rest our dusty selves at El dorado wine bar for food and drink. I had some tasty lasagne and Brenda had pizza. 

 

(left: my lasagne, right: Brenda's pizza)

Feeling refreshed we are now able to muster the energy to explore the town before catching the train back to Riomaggiore.

The 5:30 train seems to be the popular train for tourists leaving the Cinque Terre area, as we stopped at each town on our way back to La Spezia, more and more tourists kept boarding the train.

(our ticket from Monterosso to Riomaggiore)

In La Spezia we had an hour before the train arrived so we pick up some of the national bread, focaccia. This will be dinner, the train departs at 7pm and travel time is three hours, I feel certain we will not find any place open at 10:00pm. The sixteen minute walk from the train station to the hotel should be interesting. I'm half way expecting to see Phil Keoghan from the Amazing Race at our hotel steps to announce, "...you are the last team to arrive".

The historic Florence area was shutting down when we got off the train, but the rest of Florence was just getting going. We had some gelato on our walk from train station to the hotel, its what you do in Italy.