Day two cinque terre

Started the day off with a generous complimentary breakfast. There were croissants, cakes, cold meats, cheese, bread, cereals, juice, proper coffee, yogurt and muesli. Above standard breaky when traveling conservatively! This was exactly what we needed for the intense day of trekking ahead of us, needless to say we made pigs of ourselves! 

To enter the world heritage listed cinque terre national park we payed €10 which included a train fare back to riomaggiore from monterosso. 

As it goes we Obviously we started in riomaggiore and trekked on and through manarola, corniglia, vernazza to eventually end up in monterosso. We kicked off our journey with shirts off, a couple litres of water, a hand full of fruits, plenty of sunscreen and the determination to conquer the trail! Considering our health at the moment with the lingering Ios cough we did really well I think!

We were able to take many great photos of the magnificent views. I can't imagine how long it must have taken to carve out all the paths and especially the multiple-levels of vineyards along the coast line situated on the steep sloping hills leading towards the ocean. The pictures taken are amazing but they will never do it justice, capturing the true beauty of what we had experienced is impossible, it has to be seen to truly be appreciated.

Each village had it's own feel, apparently riomaggiore and manarola are the most untouched of the five villages. We had a brief walk through manarola and had a look at a couple sights and markets in town.

 The next stretch was tough but possibly the most beautiful considering we were very high above sea level. One sign we passed showed our altitude being 169m and this wasn't even the highest point. We walked in amongst the vineyards on the steep sloping hills, sampling the grapes off the vines soaking up the magnificent scenery.

 After the grueling detour due to land / rock slides between manarola and corniglia, we stopped to take a rest.  For lunch we had our first italian pizza, tomato base, basil, diced fresh tomato and mozzarella,  something simple and fresh. We found a nice little spot to sit, relax and recharge.

After lunch we continued down to a swimming hole/ cove.  Beautiful crystal clear waters and my favorite; a couple cliff jumping spots! This must have been my highest yet, approx 10m! We spend an hour just relaxing in the water cooling off. 

Back to business. We continued  onto vernazza which was about a 90minute walk roughly. Again very steep hills, narrow paths and plenty places to roll your ankle. 

In vernazza you can start to sense that 'touristy' feel. I'm quite happy with where we are staying, it's private, quiet and relaxing. People don't talk too much English which is great because you are forced to pull out the phasebook and have a go at the language, it's embarrassing knowing you sound like a complete gump when ordering lunch and dinners  and more often than not the sentence you just spent five minutes practicing comes out nothing like you had practiced but never the less the people appreciate the effort as appose to just talking English and taking for granted the fact that they may know a little.  The other great thing is if you want to stay out late, make some friends and sit next to the waterfront with a glass of white, a cold beer or some €5 cocktails, the limited number of restaurants and bars do stay open quite late. But enough about riomaggiore, vernazza is a beautiful little village. I believe we may have captured our best day time picture of one of the towns up on the hillside leaving vernazza. It's incredible viewing the buildings literally stacked on the cliff edges. It's like the Greek islands but in a different world.

Our final trek from vernazza to monterosso again became a walk through a couple vineyards, we actually came across an old guy with a stealthy little business nestled in amongst it all. He was selling his 'rare' shiraz (600 made each year), limoncillo and a couple white varieties. interesting little spot but luckily we weren't roped in. It's a pity we are only here for three nights, it would be nice to stay a couple more, get better / rid of this cough and be able to sample a few bottles over some pretty special meals. Needless to say the specialties on the menu are of the seafood variety, there are plenty of pastas, pizzas, salads, delicious cold plates and entree's aswell. This place is special and a very romantic place for couples, Ross and I throw a couple jokes here and there whilst getting dinners just to fit in and feel part if it all haha :p. 

Monterosso again has that 'touristy' feel but is a very nice place non the less. The sandy beach here is packed with umbrellas and sun beds, plenty of water activities and sun to soak up! 

All in all, I think we must have started the roughly 15km walk at around 9:30am from riomaggiore and arrived at monterosso at around 6:30 - 7ish. I think we did the walk justice, it's easy to get on a roll when you are walking and forget to stop and soak in the magnificent views, but I believe we paced ourselves well! It felt so good to get to the end of such a hike and say mate we just did it! From pictures taken you will somewhat get a feel of what we endured, definitely worth every step, I see our dandenong 1000 steps and raise it by a billion!! It is truly something special we will always remember and be able to say I did that! 

A monster walk deserves a good dinner, so dinner at riomaggiore Marina it was. 

Glass of white, shrimp and leek dumplings, grilled sea bass with olives, capers, tomato, eggplant and roasted capsicums, fried fish with lemons - local specialty, too bloody good! 

After dinner we met two ladies from Boston, daffney and shisana. Somewhat trying to hold back our coughs so we didn't scare them away, it ended up getting the better of us and we had to come forward with the tale of the 'Ios cough'. Smooth Rosco worked us in for dinner the next night setting up a meeting point and time. It should be interesting, although we both went to the pharmacy to get some more medicine,  we both still have a horrible cough and I hope it doesn't flare up over dinner, there are a lot of smokers and it seems to aggravate it. 

Cinque terre Day 3

We decided to take it easy today, especially after the monster walk from yesterday. We started the day off again pigging out to the breakfast buffet, then headed over for a bit of sun and a swim. 

 The weather we have received so far has been amazing! I don't think we've had a bad one yet. Our tans are coming along nicely and we are slowly trying to work off our singleton tan.

The rest of the day consisted of a ferry across the 5 villages fir us to take a few shots from a different angle. 

In Monterosso we decided to buy some grappa, distilled wine from what I can tell. This we used to take the edge off before our date with the ladies we had met the night before.

Dinner went really, the food included:
Salted anchovies and stuffed mussels (local specialties), Ragu ravioli,  sea bass and grilled groper and obviously a bottle if white. Afterwards we headed over for some ice-cream followed by a couple drinks down near the marina, finally sharing the beauty of this place with someone from the opposite sex :p

Cinque terre Day 3

We decided to take it easy today, especially after the monster walk from yesterday. We started the day off again pigging out to the breakfast buffet, then headed over for a bit of sun and a swim. 

 The weather we have received so far has been amazing! I don't think we've had a bad one yet. Our tans are coming along nicely and we are slowly trying to work off our singleton tan.

The rest of the day consisted of a ferry across the 5 villages fir us to take a few shots from a different angle. 

In Monterosso we decided to buy some grappa, distilled wine from what I can tell. This we used to take the edge off before our date with the ladies we had met the night before.

Dinner went really, the food included:
Salted anchovies and stuffed mussels (local specialties), Ragu ravioli,  sea bass and grilled groper and obviously a bottle if white. Afterwards we headed over for some ice-cream followed by a couple drinks down near the marina, finally sharing the beauty of this place with someone from the opposite sex :p
-Ryan