Day 17 June 8, 2023
A little history about where we are staying – Manarola, where we are, is one of the five villages that makes up Cinque Terre. The other villages are Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, and Riomaggiore. It’s a six-mile stretch of coast first described in medieval times as the “five lands” (cinque terre). After the threat of pirates faded, the villages prospered by catching fish and cultivating grapes. Each village comes with its own tradition and their own dialect. There are no cars here, except for the local deliveries and garbage pickup. Cinque Terre has been a national park since 1999 and you can hike, swim, and do boat rides. The villages are connected by trains, boats, and trails. We came for the trails, lol!
We left about 9 a.m. and did the trail from Manarola to Corniglia, which is about 4 miles and takes about 3 hours. It is a lot of climbing up with different terrain involved. We had some beautiful scenery, and I took pictures of the different flowers that were growing wild along the trail. The first stop on the trail was at Volastra, where there is a small church, the Nostra Signora della Salute, which was first mentioned in 1240. We continued upward until we leveled off and then started the descent. It’s pretty rough on the knees going down as the terrain is very uneven. We entered the town of Corniglia, walked around a bit and then found a place for a bite to eat. We got smoked salmon on one board and a meat/cheese variety on the other, along with bread. We had a great view overlooking the water!
We took the train back to Manarola, showered up, then headed to a wine tasting/tour/bites event we signed up for. We met two couples from Seattle and a couple from Perth, Australia. Sarah was our guide for the tour up in the vineyards where she explained the three varieties of white wine grown in the region and how difficult it is to maintain the vineyards as they are growing on the side of a hill. The stones walls are made from hard labor, but the wines are great as well as the olives, lemons, and capers that grow there as well. After the tour, we had a three-course wine tasting with a white wine paired with bread and homemade pesto, a red paired with meat/cheese/olives and a sweet wine (which was not very sweet at all!) paired with a lemon biscuit/cookie. All was good and we enjoyed meeting others and swapping stories. We came back to the room for a final glass of wine and called it a night. Another wonderful day!
Miles walked – 7.71 Ciao!
