Tuesday - Sunny

Today was my Birthday, and the Cinque Terre coast is not too bad a place to have it. If I don't say so myself.

We had a nice breakfast on our deck in the morning sun. Then a quick game of of cards before we got ready for our walk.

We left the caro park and walked back through the villages to the train station. From there we walked the cycle path through what seems to be old railway tunnels to a couple villages called Bonasolla and Levanto.

One of the main trails through the Cinque Terre N.P starts at Levanto and we took track no.1 and 10 towards Monterosso.

It was a very good trek, the scenery was spectacular! We walked through forests, up and down gullies and along cliffs. The water looked so blue too, and after all the hard yakka to point Mesco, the view of the coastline and the five villages was a great pay off.

From the point we had reached a height of 391m, and after a few pics we headed down into Monterosso. Once we hit level ground we stopped in at a cafe for some cold drinks and a panini.

There seems to be two villages that make up Monterosso, I liked the old town most, which you can get to through a tunnel or around the point. In the old town there was a little market set up, and a couple nice churches and plenty of shops and places to eat.

The start of track no.2 lead us to the next village was at the end of the beach. The path followed the coast for a bit and then steeply rose up through terraced farmland and past remote houses.

It was a hard walk to Vernazza, but again the reward was worth it. As we came over the last ridge, the late afternoon sun gave the town a rich warm colour. We made it down to the water just before the last of the stunning sun had set. I went for a paddle while Kim soaked her feet, it felt very nice to get a rinse. It had been a long day of walking.

Varnazza is a beautiful village, while swimming we decided to have dinner here, and once we had dried off we went for a walk looking for a pizzeria. We had a tasty pizza and gnocchi and some vino rosso right by the harbor.

We caught the train back to our lovely quiet village and made the trek back up the hill to the caravan. After 6hrs of trekking today, the 40min walk home from the station was probably the hardest. Haha!