The Hike

John and I love to  hike.  More than hiking I love to take photos.  So put it together and it was our plan to hike and shoot the Cinque Terre.  There is a trail that is pretty simple that goes right along the coastline.  It was why we picked this place to go instead of other pretty towns along the Italian Riviera.  So here we were, we took the train to the first town, Riomaggiore to begin the hike.  We were so surprised to discover that the trail had been closed due to some landslides!  Grrr!  That is why we were there...now what?  Oh.  Take the alternate route.  But it went way into the mountainside and was not easy...well, up we went.  It was the.hardest,hike.of.my.life!!!!!!  The farther we got, the harder it got and the less chance of turning back.  You can see on the map (if you want to see it closer, click on it) the dotted red line, that is the train, the black line along it is the Via Del Amore, the hike we went there for.  But, no, we were on the black line that goes more by the solid red line. It went straight up. with stairs mostly, then straight down, which is even harder on the knees than the climb up.  We went from Riomaggiore to Manorola, stopped for lunch and decided if we would continue.  We continued. It had to be the hottest day of the whole trip.  Finally we made it to Corniglia.  It had taken more than double the time that the easy trail would have. It was getting late, 

So we hopped the train to Vernazza.  I had gotten the photos I came for and was happy.

Here was one last look back at Riomaggiore before it was too late to turn back.

In the shot above, we were on the mountain across from it...we had to climb down and then back up to that town.

Here behind me you can see the train along the water, and the trail that we had planned on taking.

This is the first town we made it to.  Manorola.

Manorola behind us, Corniglia ahead.

The trail took us through terraced vineyards, forests, past villas and churches, olive groves all the while with beautiful views of the ocean.

This was the start where we had to make the decision to go up or go home.

Glad we went up.