Category: Italy/Slovenia/Austria/Liechtenstein/Switzerland, Fall 2021

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!

 

 

A 90 minute train ride from Camogli is Vernazza, one of the five villages that makes up the Cinque Terre (which means Five Lands).  We decided to stay in Vernazza as it’s mentioned by travel websites as the nicest of the five, with excellent restaurants and accommodations.  Vernazza is the second most northern village in the Cinque Terre.

We are staying in what I think is perhaps the best spot in Vernazza, an apartment rental from Ruth Manfredi who runs Cinque Terre Vacation , and we could not have found a better host!  Here is the view from our terrace.

The water is directly below the terrace.

This photo shows the location of this awesome little apartment from the adjacent hillside.

I have been communicating with Ruth for over a year and she has been super informative and helpful in planning our 6 days here.  If you have any intention of visiting, please reach out to her as soon as possible as her place books up fast.  My friend Stan (see Camogli comment) would love this spot, as there have been at least 5 women sunbathing topless on the rocks below us, although only one of them was “binocular worthy” (I actually think one was transgender….NOT binocular worthy!).  No, they are not in the above photo, so you can stop the “Where’s Waldo” search Stan!

Ruth told us about a shuttle service that would take you up to the church sanctuary above Vernazza called Reggio, and from there it was an easy hike back down to Vernazza, with incredible views.  We bought tickets at the train station for 1.50 euro each and we were treated to a Mr Toad’s Wild Ride of one way roads that were actually NOT one way!

For whatever reason, the driver didn’t actually go to Reggio, and we ended up getting off at a different church called San Bernardino, which turns out is a pretty remote spot that few people ever venture to.  We quickly realized we were in the wrong spot, but we were still fairly close to Vernazza, so we could still hike down.  There are a LOT of hiking trails in the Cinque Terre!

Before we could find the trail, I saw a guy moving freshly harvested grapes up to his winery, and I asked if we could taste with him.  A half hour later we were in his small cellar.

This is a brand new winery in the Cinque Terre called Cian du Giorgi, and the winemaker and his girlfriend just moved here from Bordeaux, France to work full time in his childhood home to try to revive 80-100 year old vineyards that have been neglected for a generation (or two).  Their first vintage was last year, and they are so new they don’t even have a website set up yet.

The grapes you see hanging in his cellar are Italian white varietals (Bosco, Albarola and Vermentino) that are set to become the next vintage of his Sciacchetra (I still can’t pronounce it…something like shock-a-thra?), a sweet wine that is very popular in the Cinque Terre.  These grapes were harvested in the last few days, and will remain in the cellar until November, when they will be pressed to make the sweet wine.  I’ve never seen anything like this before.  I just figured sweet wine was left on the vine to rot (via boytritis, otherwise known as the noble rot) until it achieved it’s desired flavors, but not here.

After the very informative cellar discussion, he led us to a tasting with his girlfriend Adelaide (I hope I got that right).  She poured a Rose of a blend of their local red wines (which aren’t so poular here outside of Rose), and their white blend.

The view below us was just incredible.  That’s the town of Corniglia behind Adelaide and her sister.

I’ve tasted in some spots with incredible views, but not like this.  The wines were just as good as the views.  I wish they made enough to export to the US!  They are so new at this point their website isn’t up and running yet, but I will share a link once it is.  This is definitely a “must experience” in the Cinque Terre, so I’m actually happy the bus steered us to the wrong spot.

The first part of the hike down from San Bernardino was nice, as you walk along the top of one of the terraced sections of the hillside.

It quickly turned steep after that…very steep.  We are still feeling it today.  I would not recommend this trail, so if you happen to visit San Bernardino, take the bus down.  Here is Vernazza from the steep part of the trail.

Our dinner the first night was at Belforte, located in an old tower prominently overlooking the harbor and ocean.  Ruth booked us an excellent table!

It’s really a rough spot to watch the sun set on a beautiful day in Vernazza!

The dinner was exceptional, and the waiter, Andrea, was a laugh a minute.  This experience was so good we are going back on our last night here.  Thanks again Ruth!

Coming up, the hike from Vernazza to Monterosso.