One of the most popular activities in Cinque Terre is to go on their trails and walk from town to town, since they are located so closely to each other.
Cinque Terre was supposed to be a rest stop for us since the rest of our Italy schedule was so packed. I wanted to lie on the beach and KW wanted to go on a trail (he was in his checklist mode). We came to the agreement that we will do the easiest one, which was a 20mins trail, Via dell'Amore (named as such because it was supposed to be scenic and hence, romantic. I thought it was romantic cause you can finish it within 20mins).
I didn't want to waste luggage space bringing exercise gear, so all I brought was a pair of yoga pants.
Advice 1 -
Before I go on, my first advice would be for you to check current trail conditions, because, when we got there we found out that the Via dell'Amore walk was closed. KW (checklist mode on) frantically searched for alternative routes, he decided on the Monterosso - Vernazza trail. The agreement was that after the hike, he has to lie on a beach of my choice.
On hindsight, it wasn't a wise choice on my part to let him choose.
Advice 2 -
Proper gear. If you've planned your trail in advance, you will most probably not be in inappropriate outfit like mine.
Wrong shoes
Tote bag was most annoying. I needed both of my hands to grip the rocks at some parts, so I had to improvise.
My makeshift backpack was creative right? Don't mind the weird pose. I was pointing to my shoes and telling KW how amazing I was to do this for him despite the inappropriate gear.
Not pictured - sunscreen and mosquito repellent. Please. bring. Being Singaporean, I thought we would be invincible, (no need la, our skin is used to the sun and mosquitoes). ok, I know my logic is a bit flawed. Anyway, we were not prepared for CT's sun and mosquitoes. We paid a ridiculous amount for both products there.
Trail
I'm terrified of heights, so I wasn't able to snap many pics. The trail was actually not too bad. Only 3.2km and the path wasn't too narrow. (I'm still scarred from Bhutan's hikes).
But at certain parts, it was tedious. There never ending steps, especially the first 15mins when you start from Monterosso.
This red and white flag is important. Always look out for it to make sure that you are still on the right path.
Because even though there is a flag like every 50m, you get idiots like us who missed it completely.
And even though there is a big sign for Vernazza (complete with 2 arrows), and a big rod to deter us from entering, we were still convinced that this was the right way. We removed the rod and continued down the narrow path which got so scarily narrow that we had to do the sideway crabwalk. This, incidentally, was the scariest part of the trail for me.
Then we found ourselves trespassing someone's vineyard.
We had to walk back the same way, and then we saw the sign. Didn't know how we could've miss something like that.
I did say that we were idiots.
The walk was scenic. Got mountain, got water, got flower.
You will pass by many vineyards. P.s. The harvester looks like some kind of extreme roller coaster.
As you approach Vernazza, the views of the town was breath-taking.
If you are lucky, you will also see breathtakingly stupid wefies by Asian tourists against the pretty backdrop.
Who are they? No la, I don't know them.
This was slightly bizarre. There was a cat community quite high up on the trail. Seems like they were quite well taken care of.
Ahh... and of course... some place for lovers to hang their locks to demonstrate eternal love (or something like that). If you were a tourist attraction, this is something to be proud of. It is like a stamp of approval that you are worthy enough for people to throw away their perfectly good locks.
I've never done anything cheesy like that. So naturally, I demanded that we give it a go.
kw - 'don't want la.. got no lock how to do??''
ah.. but lest he forgets, his wife is the creative inventor of the convertible tote-haversack.
Enters the hand sanitizer. *background music -cue eye of the tiger.
Seems legit.
KW signed it very happily. Really, he was happy.
There it is.
Could I ask that you guys check on it if you do the trail? And snap a picture of it please :)
You are pretty near Vernazza by the time you see this.
You will go down several flights of steps and emerge right in town!
Small sign indicating the start of the trail for Vernazza to Monterosso.
We took a little over 2 hours. But that's also because we stopped several times to take pictures, wefies, and indulge in activities like trespassing vineyards and finding a 'lock' to hang.
So.... remember my part of the deal?
Will TTW ever get to lie on a beach?
And what is really beyond this point?
I know you are just dying to find out. (or maybe not).
For my full post on Monterosso, find it here !
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