We took the train from Rome up to the north coast of Italy, close to the south of France, to visit yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site, Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a series of 5 villages on the Italian Riviera that run along the Mediterranean Sea. They are pretty remote and there are massive cliffs surrounding them, so a pathway was constructed so that goods can be passed from village to village. To get from one end of the Cinque Terre to the other is about 10km. I don't remember exactly how long it took us, but we also stopped in each village for a dip in the sea. Several hours for sure. There's a train you can take from village to village if you don't want to hike, but Cath and I are always up for outdoor adventures, especially when we can save a bit of money that way.
There are not a lot of cheap places to stay in the area, but we managed to find a campsite at a village not too far away that had these little canvas cabins. Our was just a wood floor and 2 beds and there were bathroom and shower facilities on site as well, so it worked out great for us.
Our aunt had been in Italy not long before us and she had gone to the Cinqu Terre. We perused through some of her pictures on facebook, which gave us the wrong impression of what it's really like. I know now that my aunt opted to take the train from village to village. She was dressed all nice and wasn't all sweaty. We were definitely shocked when we saw what we were up against. There's something to be said about mental preparation when doing physical tasks.
Anyways, Cath and I both put on our swimsuits and just shorts and a t-shirt overtop. Cath decided to wear her hiking boots, partly because her sandals were not great for walking, but I chose to wear my birks. Let me also mention now that it was the beginning of August now and HOT outside. When we got to the trailhead, we had to pay at a booth to walk the trail - a small fee mainly for maintenance of the trail. There were signs all around the booth that if you weren't wearing good shoes, they won't let you go. My sandals were good enough, but they warned us to be careful. Immediately, we head into a steep descent up to the top of a cliff. The pathways were narrow and dusty along the edge of a cliff, and then sun was beating down on us already early in the morning.
We did the hike backwards, so we started with the longest distance between towns first. We figured that way when we're tired in the heat of the day, the worst would already be over. By the time we reached the first town, we were ready for a swim and some lunch, so we had lunch on the beach and cooled off in the Mediterranean.
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| Houses along the water where we had lunch |
The heat was intense! We downed our large water bottles quickly. The views were incredible! This is one of the most gorgeous places I have EVER been. I would love to go back. As the day went on, I was feeling more and more fatigued, hot, and my head started hurting. Cath asked me if I wanted to take the train for the rest, but I didn't want to give up, and we had to finish what we started, so I fought through it. By the time we made it to "lovers lane" in the last village, I was ready to collapse. Heat stroke had taken over my body and I felt awful! I was pissed - we wanted to have a nice Italian dinner on our last night in Italy, but I didn't feel like eating anything.
We ended up going back to the campsite with some crackers and 7-up, and Cath went out to spend the evening watching the sun set on the Mediterranean, while I slept in the canvas tent.
In spite of it all, this place was fantastic. I highly recommend taking the hike rather than the train, but be prepared for a good workout - it's no walk in the park, and the heat of summer doesn't help. Take time in each village to explore a bit and enjoy the refreshing blue waters of the Mediterranean. Make sure you wear good shoes! This doesn't exactly capture the steepness of the trails, but gives you an idea of what it's like.
There was a wall along the last path - "lover's lane" - where people wrote little messages, and we came across this little gem...
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