Hiking in the Cinque Terre

l wish I could stay in this region of Italy forever. If you look beyond the tourists and see the everyday life of the people who live here-the simplicity, beauty and not to mention the quiet-it's tempting to want to find a house on the side of the mountain and live here forever....maybe one day. 

We woke up before the sunrise on our second day in the Cinque Terre (CT). This region is made up of 5 small towns and each one is known for some individual good (seafood, anchovies, olive oil, etc). Years ago the only way to get from one town to another is to hike along the mountain-and that's what people did. Now there's a train that takes you from town to town or you can choose to hike. The trails have become a National Park and people from all over the world come to hike here. Some of the trails are closed due to landslides and our as luck would have it only the challenging trail from Monterosso to Vernazza was open. All my research said to get to the trails early. So even though most of were sick or tired we woke up at 0640 to catch the 0715 train to hike. 

Waking up before the sunrises has its benefits-I took this picture from our balcony before we left. 

Waiting for our train ride-the ride from our town to Monterosso is about 6 minutes. Most of the people in our group were still half asleep on the ride over. When we arrived we stopped for some coffee. 

A view of the beach while drinking coffee. 

Once we were awake we headed out to find the trail. Some of the people in our group have never hiked before. Ever. They were going to walk the hardest trail as their introduction to hiking. I had been preparing for this hike back home. I just desperately hoped that it wasn't harder than potatoe chip rock because I barely survived that hike and my lungs aren't doing well since I'm sick. I was worried about having an asthma attack midway through the trail. As soon as you start hiking you come to a an endless hill made of steps. Online I read that this trail has 700 steps. That might be a little exaggerated but not by much. Everytime we thought we could see the top of the stairs we were wrong. There were more stairs. 

You think Shane is at the top of the stairs but the trail curves and there's more of them. 

Hey look more stairs. 

Will we ever get to the top?!

When the stairs ended we all had to stop and catch our breath. Then we lost our breath again when we saw the view.

I guess all the stairs were worth it. 

This was the backdrop to the rest of the hike-amazing stunning scenery. The rest of the trail was pretty mellow. There were parts that were very narrow without any rail and you're right on the edge of the mountain. Other then that fear factor it was a great hike. 

Super narrow trail

A bridge made out of rocks. 

Crossing the bridge. 

There are houses built into the side of the mountains. 

The town we started in gets farther away. 

Halfway point photo with Josef's selfie stick. 

We did a good thing by starting the trail early. The sun came out for the last part and we were already dripping in sweat. I kept my merino wool icebreaker base layer on to test out its ability to keep me cool and warm as I needed it. It really works! I stayed cool the entire hike and my sweat was wicked away from my body so I didn't get cold. 

As we came around the last part of the trail we were greeted to this view of Vernazza. We stayed up there awhile to take it all in. The town was waking up so I saw shop keepers bringing out goods and restaurants hauling boxes of fresh ingredients to the kitchen. There are no vehicles allowed in the town so people have to carry everything by hand. 

This hike was way easier than potato chip rock but the view is much better. 

It was Super Nel's idea to come back to the CT. I didn't need any convincing. I already want to come back again. 

As we come down the last part of the train into the town we could here music playing. Some of the locals play for the hikers. Super Nel poses as he walks up. 

The musicians. 

Everyone survived the hike (just barely for some) but we loved every minute of it.