Cinque Terre

We arrived in Riomaggiore to find a lovely village atmosphere and lots of locals enjoying the public holiday for Easter Monday. We managed to find the apartment managers office pretty quickly and he walked us down steps and up steps to an apartment looking over the sea and boat ramp. We had to walk through a open restaurant to get to the main door but that seemed okay with everyone. The room has two bedrooms, a kitchen with very little in it and bathroom. The balcony looks out over the boat ramp and sea which is very picturesque.

We found out that afternoon that the main walk between the 5 towns was closed due to subsidence which was really disappointing. We decided on the first full day to take the train to Monterosso at the other end of the 5 lands and see each town using the rail link between them all. It meant we got to see each town anyway and then on the second day we walked 3.7k from Manarola to Corniglia via Volastra using the mountain route. This was a major feat for me particularly the section coming down from the hill top. It had been raining the last couple of days and the path was wet in some sections. The first section to Volastra was good with steps going up and good walking paths.

The second section was a bit muddy as we crossed along the top of the mountain but not too difficult. The hard part came when we had to descend. My knees began to shake under the pressure and because I was not so fit. It was suppose to take 2.5 hrs but we did it in just over 3hrs as I had to stop to get my breath and rest my legs. There are only photos of the better parts of the walk as when it got tough i couldn't think of anything but not slipping. Some of the track along the top had experienced some land slides but we could still step across these.

I was so happy to get to Corniglia and we found a lovely restaurant which was recommended to us by a friend of Cliffs. We had a well earned meal of grilled swordfish and seafood pasta which was fantastic and wine and topped it off with gelato which we ate looking over the water down in the town. It was so nice to be out in the warm weather for a change. The walk took us through olive orchards and vineyards still farmed by families.

All of the towns are lovely in their own way but we are happy we chose Riomaggiore to stay as its got lots of character and interesting locals to observe. It's a shame we couldn't do the normal Cinque Terre walks but we conquered a harder one. We plan to use the next couple of days exploring Riomaggiore and possible another walk into the hills behind us.