After the frenzied pace of yesterday, it was nice today to have no agenda and no place to climb in the car to get to. After a lengthy sleep, we went down to breakfast served by our host, Tommy, here at Uliveto nel Parco.
The lazy pace of life here is pretty infectious.
After breakfast, we donned our hiking garb, grabbed some waters and set off. Our plan was to hike to the next town in the Cinque Terre chain, Vernazza. That can be done in about an hour or less along a trail near the ocean. But that trail was closed today. So, our option for hiking to Vernazza was a three hour journey up to the "high trail" and then back down. No problem. How bad could it be?
Did I mention that it was hot today?
Thirty minutes into the hike, after a false start where we selected the wrong trail to start, we were part way up a steep hillside, drenched in sweat (I mentioned it was hot, right?) and wondering what we had gotten ourselves into.
As we climbed higher, we were rewarded with views of the town below that kept getting more and more impressive.
Finally, after about 90 minutes we made it up to the Santuario di Nostra Signora di Soviore (Shrine of Our Lady of Soviore). There are a a series of shrines and sanctuaries up in the hills connected by trails. Laura and the girls visited the church and lit candles.
This was basically the top of our climb. From there, we followed the road for a bit south until the trail to Vernazza broke off. This trail gently descended for quite a bit or was level and went through lush grasses and trees. It was very scenic and offered many views of ocean along the way. By the time we reached this section of trail, thick clouds had started to roll in and we could hear occasional thunder. We even felt scattered raindrops, but a storm and lightning never did appear for which I was glad.
We made our way down to another sanctuary, the Santuario di Nostra Signora di Reggio (Shrine of Our Lady of Reggio). The sanctuary sits where the Roman town of Reggio stood. Around 1000 AD, the town moved down the hill and became Vernazza, but the sanctuary remains. Again, Laura and the girls went inside and lit some candles. This has become their "thing" in churches they visit.
By this point, Vernazza was getting tantalizingly close. Still, we were only encountering scattered other hikers. Finally, we reached the town, stepped out of a narrow alley and found ourselves immediately surrounded by a sea of tourists -- most of them daytrippers. We went in search of pizza because we were starving.
We found what we wanted at Baia Saracena. A nice table with a view of the sea, pizza, water, wine and a salty anchovy appetizer that satisfied. We sat pleasantly for the better part of two hours at our table just enjoying being there. Well, Laura and I sat that long, the kids escaped after they finished eating and we watched them play at the harbor's edge while Laura and I ate pesto pizza and drank wine. It was exactly the sort of afternoon we envision when we think of visiting a place like Cinque Terre.
After we left the restaurant, we wandered up the main drag again... this time it was much less crowded because it was later in the day and the daytrippers had all left. We stopped in a shop and Laura and I got matching Cinque Terre tee shirts.
We left Vernazza by train. While waiting for the train in the tiny station. We experienced the whoosh of "trains in transit" -- trains that are not stopping there, but just passing through. Since the station sits between two tunnels, the trains that pass through make alot of wind and noise. My kids found that fun.
Trains In Transit - Vernazza Station from Dan Douglas on Vimeo.
What took us over three hours to do through the hills on foot we covered in 3 minutes through tunnels on the train. Before we could really settle into our seats, we were back in Monterosso al Mare.
Fortified with some more gelato, we made the climb back up to our guest house in the orchard. After cleaning up, we all settled down to write journal entries (you're reading mine...) and made plans for what to do with tomorrow, our last full day in Cinque Terre.
The plan so far is to hit the beach in the morning after breakfast, and then after lunch, ride the train down to some of the other towns to see what they're like.
