The Blue Trail

This morning we took the train out to the last town in the Cinque Terre. For those who don't know what the Cinque Terre is, it is five towns that have been declared a national park, have very limited access by cars, are all linked by tracks and one train line that travels through a narrow tunnel.




The five towns are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso. The most famous walking track that connects the four villages is known as the Blue Trail, it takes approximately 5 hours to walk.




The first walk between Riomaggiorre and Manarola is very easy. Known as Via dell'Amore (street of love), it was paved all the way, had very nice views and an interesting sculpture. It takes 15 minutes.




After doing the first walk we promptly started the second between Manarola and Corniglia (approx. 30 minutes) when to our dismay, after rounding the first spur, we found that the track was closed and we had failed to notice the information telling us so (we weren't the only ones). Deciding we didn't want to take the two hour alternative we ran back to the village to the train station to get on the (very crowded) train that was leaving in six minutes. We are still taking credit for doing that section as we still had to walk the 382 very steep steps from the train station to the village.




After that drama we started on our 3rd walk - Corniglia to Vernazza (approx. 1 1/2 hours). The walk was extremely hard and hot, had very little shade and was very tiring. I quote the trail guide It is almost flat if anything it was not flat . Very hot and very tired we made it to the third town, we stopped for a short while and had gelato and refilled our water bottles for the third time.




We started on the next track - Vernazza to Monterosso. Going by the trail guide we were nervous, had this been some walk almost anywhere else I would have done it with great reluctance and great amounts of moaning, this track was supposed to be the hardest and longest of them all (taking 2 hours). After the initial huffing up the stairs (180 m climb according to the guide book) I had lots of fun. It wasn't too hard going, the views were brilliant and the shade and cool was in large supply plus it was done in only one hour
.




In Monterosso we celebrated our achievement with a big ice cream (Dad also had a beer). Then it was back to camp at Deiva Marina via the train and shuttle bus and straight into the pool for a cool down.
Luke

Location:Cinque Terre