The Cinque Terre

We were slowed a little by rain around La Spezia and also some navigation confusion with the TomTom. Then, I remembered in an email from the place we would be staying at that they requested I call 24 hours before arrival to make plans to get the keys. You see, there are very few hotels in the area. An offhanded guess of how accommodation is divided in Cinque Terre would be 95% private rooms and 5% hotel. I contacted a woman from Rick Steves book. She was booked, but had a friend with a nice room. I went with it, based on the Steves recommendation. Anyway, I forgot to call the number the day before, so I called from La Spezia as we were driving. Monica told me that the room was gone, that the 24 hour call was to "confirm" we would be there, not just to arrange to pick up the key. But, she said to call back in 10 minutes as she apparently has an entire network and would find a good place for us. We were less then an hour away by this time. Radhika placed a call 15 minutes later, and all was settled and we were told where to go in Vernazza to meet our new hostess (Erica). So that was settled and it was on to finishing the drive. The roads into the Cinque Terre and to Vernazza where we would be staying are full of hairpin turns, or switchbacks. The rain was behind us, but now it was dark and the road frequently narrow. We were basically alone on it, no one coming from behind or from our destination. The roads did not suit Radhika well, who asked me on several occasions to reduce speed. We followed the TomTom and road signs with no problem to the parking area that's about 1km above town. We parked, but could find no place to make payment. So, we each grabbed a bag and headed down the dark road that we assumed led into town. It was a perfect night for Halloween - - unfamiliar place, windy with trees and bushes weaving back and forth, very dark. We eventually walked past some houses, along a small river, and eventually more and more houses that turned into the town of Vernazza. We were to meet Erica at the only pharmacy in the town, which was on the main street. As we approached, a woman who was talking with a group called out my name. We met and walked together to our room for the night. It was in the center of town, right off the main street. It was newly done, small and clean. We were good for that night. But we were told that we would move to another, larger room with a window on the street tomorrow. It seemed we would be moving a lot while we would be there! Anyway, I went back up to the car and brought down other bags we may need. There were not a lot of people out, perhaps because it was Monday. But we walked around a little, grabbed some pizza, and called it a night. It looked like this was a very small town. I would go as far to call it a village, with a couple hundred residents. As we would see, the other 4 towns that make up Cinque Terre were equally small with 1 exception.

The next morning, after moving our stuff to the other room, I went up to the car to pay for parking. One guy was very nice, but the other guy barked basically everything he said. I had to move the car, as it was in a "short-term" area, so the barking dude had me follow him in this shuttle bus to another area farther up the mountain. Not too far, I parked the car and rode the shuttle back into town with Mr. Sunshine after paying for 5 days of parking. We decided to hike over to Monterosso, the westernmost town of the 5. That was the longest and most strenuous of hikes between all of the towns! Guess it's good we did it on the first day! It was s nice, sunny, hot day, and even before we were out of sight of Vernazza, people coming into Vernazza from the Monterosso were huffing and puffing. I made one girl panic by telling her she only had about an hour more to go when knowing she had less then 5 minutes. Man... the look on her face!! But I let her off the hook and told her how close they were. The views along the path were gorgeous, with sheer cliffs below and the green-blue waters of the Mediterranean. You could see towns in the distance and occasional lemon groves. Monterosso is larger then Vernazza, has a much larger and nicer beach, and it seemed there was more to do there. It's not as quaint or picturesque as Vernazza. We stayed there a while, grabbing lunch near the beach and enjoying gelato. It was getting late, so we decided to take the train that runs between the towns back to Vernazza. It's only a couple of Euros and took less then 5 minutes!! The hike over was about 2 hours!! That night, we had a slice of pizza and chilled out around Vernazza. During our 5 night stay, we spent an entire day on the beach in Monterosso, took an early morning train from Vernazza to Riomaggiore, the easternmost town, and spent the entire day hiking back to Vernazza, visiting each town (Riomaggiore, Manarola, Cornigia) along the way, and overall just relaxed. The only "downer" was changing our rooms every night except one because of the 24 hour "non-call". But even that was okay as we got to sample different places, had different views, met different people, everyone involved felt sympathetic, and we received reduce rates. We really enjoyed our time there. The locals were very friendly, as well as visitors we met. The Cinque Terre is simply a "can't miss" stop for any visit to Italy.