One of the “must do” activities in the Cinque Terre is to hike from one village to another via the coastal trails. Unfortunately there are currently only two of these trails open. The other two are closed due to landslides. Fortunately, Vernazza is between the two that are open. Yet another reason to choose this village as home base. Here is Vernazza at the start of the trail.
The hike to Monterosso is about 2.5 miles, and involves a lot of steps and some pretty narrow sections. We departed around 1030, and in hindsight, we should have left much earlier. Think of the Cinque Terre villages as small Disneyland’s, that are empty in the morning, but as soon as the gates open (in this case the trains and ferrys start arriving), the villages and trails quickly get overwhelmed. The trail mostly follows the terraced walls of the hillside.
A view back towards Vernazza. It took a lot of steps to get up this high.
The trail is well marked with white and red stripes throughout.
Here is one of the narrower sections. It was so crowded you had to wait for large groups to pass before you could continue. We encountered several groups of 20+ people.
As we neared Monterosso the trail consisted mostly of very steep steps (and out of breath people spreading covid left and right). It might have just been my imagination, but the steps coming up from Monterosso seemed much steeper than the steps we took from Vernazza.
Nearing Monterosso.
One last narrow section amid the steps.
The beach of Monterosso. This is the older section of the village. The village is divided into two parts, with the newer part on the other side of the hill on the far side of the beach. The train station is also on the newer side.
The end of the trail.
We did a wine tasting experience in this town with a company called Cinque Terre Riviera, but I wouldn’t recommend it. After the tasting the day prior, it’s going to take a lot to impress us. The company was also terrible about communication. We only found out where to meet for the tasting the evening prior, and only because Ruth intervened for us. What does it take to spend money with some people?
We are coming back here for dinner a couple of times, so I’ll cover more of Monterosso then. In the meantime, this was a very bizzare entrance to a church we saw.
I’ve got the say this is the first skull and crossbones I’ve seen on the front of a church. Must be a wild sermon on Sundays!
The Latin translates to “ the association of death and prayer”…fascinating