7/26 -- Cinque Terre

Woke up in La Spezia, and hadn’t been sure whether we would hike today or tomorrow because thunderstorms were forecast, but when Jourdan and I woke up at 7 (in separate rooms), the thunderstorms were basically not forecast anymore, so we decided to hurry and pack and get to Monterroso and hike.  Our plan was to hike to all 5 towns, about 12 km or 7.5 miles, stopping in each one on the way.  After taking the train to Monterroso, storing luggage at our Airbnb, and putting essentials in the backpack, it was about noon before we were able to start the hike, and we ended up only going to 4 towns.  Embarrassingly, I was the weakest link.  It was a lot (A LOT) of uphill, mostly stairs — my Garmin said I went up 279 (and down 275) flights of stairs by the end of the day — and my hip doesn’t love going up stairs.  I had gotten a steroid injection 2 days before we left for our trip that had kicked in about 2 days before we got to Monterroso, but by the time we reached Vernazza (the second town, after just under 3 miles of hiking), my hip was really bothering me.  I found a pharmacy and got some Tylenol (paracetamol in Italy), we walked around the town a bit and got gelato (obviously!) and electrolyte drink (because we were all sweating buckets in the heat and humidity) and then headed back to the trail.  Although not before we sat by the beach to eat gelato while a bar played The Pina Colada song.  Life was good.

It should be noted that the kids did amazing on the hike.  Very little complaining.  And Jourdan, who is training for a trail 50K up a mountain so regularly runs/hikes up and down mountains for several hours at a time, barely seemed to breathe hard.

We had read that the trek from Monterroso to Vernazza was the hardest, then Vernazza to Corniglia was next hardest, then the last two were shorter and easier.  So we happily headed up the hill from Vernazza, knowing it would all be good from here.  It was still hot and sunny and still lots of uphill, but we soldiered on.  Just over 2 miles later we landed in Corniglia and decided just to keep going, only looking a little around the town.  It was around this time we discovered that the main trail from Corniglia to Manarola — which is relatively flat and around a mile — was closed, and the trail to which we were re-routed started with 1.25 miles up stairs straight up a mountain.  (Ok, not straight up as there were some turns, but it was steady uphill with about 1000 feet elevation gain in just over a mile.)  And then when we finally got to flat, slightly downhill, we were winding through a vineyard — which was super neat but also directly in the sun.  The alternate trail ended up being 4.5 miles for that leg and by the time we arrived at Manarola, it was 8 pm and we were tired, hungry (we’d had paninis at around 11:30 and then just the gelato in Vernazza to eat all day), so, so dirty, eaten by mosquitoes for the last hour, and we still hadn’t officially checked in to our hotel rooms, so we decided to take the train back to Monterroso rather than keep going tonight.  In the end we walked 9.67 miles; didn’t do all 5 towns but walked longer than we planned.

On the super hard uphill leg of the trip, we kept running into a cool young woman and her mom; it turns out the young woman (as well as her sister, who wasn’t with them) plays water polo for the US team.  The kids are excited to watch for her in the next Olympics.

Despite the heat and the uphill, the hiking was incredible.  We hike often at home and frequently see mountains and rivers or lakes, but Montana does not offer the opportunity for mountains and sea in the same hike, and there is something to be said about rounding a corner and seeing a colorful town in the side of a mountain, overlooking the blue-green sea.



In Monterroso before setting out











On the trail from Monterroso to Vernazza




Vernazza from the trail














Vernazza to Corniglia







Corniglia to Manarola








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