Trailblazers Too: Tuesday, June 5, 2018 (Cinque Terre)

We both woke up excited for the day but dreading the walk down the village street. Even with no luggage, the arduous road down into the village and the grueling return to our room caused a burn in muscles we didn’t even know we had. We stopped at one of the local restaurants and had an omelette for breakfast.

So many amazing churches everywhere in Italy. The San Giovanni Battista Church in Riomaggiore, Italy dates back to the 1300s.

Vehicles are not allowed in the village except before 10am and that is only for deliveries. During our talk with Margherita the night before and Tiffany’s online research, we found out there was a bus you could take us “up” the road to the little villages. Cinque Terre means five villages, which are the main ones, but there are actually 12 in total. As we walked down to the train station, we took a little detour and found more interesting sites in Riomaggiore.

A villager gardening on terraces

Johnnie

Riomaggiore terracing

Riomaggiore

Van ride up

We rode the train over to the village of Manarola. We walked through the town and rode up to Volastra. This was a very small village and there were a group of middle school age students that looked to be on a field trip. They were playing in a fenced area when we arrived. We had hoped we’d found a school but it turned out to be a church. No matter how small the village, there is always a church and sometimes more than one. Many tourists get off at the small villages and then hike back down to the bigger villages. We were not going to do that. We went to explore the town and found there was a little hotel with a bar, a little restaurant and that was pretty much all. It was going to be over an hour before the bus returned so we decided to cool off and have lunch. We had ravioli and bruschetta at the restaurant and it was delicious! There was a group of older men, probably 50-60+ in age, all in biking gear (spandex pants and tops). They stopped at the restaurant for lunch. David likes to meet up with his male friends and they have varied morning places they stop for coffee and visiting (donut shop, McDonalds, etc.) I guess this was the Italian male version of spreading the news and having good laughs. We asked the waiter how many people live in Volastra and he told us only 80.

Very Fit Old Men "Biker" Club

Soccer field even when space is at a premium

Olive trees, many olive orchards have been abandoned.
It's not economically feasible to maintain them.

We spent some time exploring Manarola.

Johnnie

Tiffany overlooking the harbor in Manarola

Ligurian Sea

Sunbathers on the rocks

Beautiful waterwheel

Drywall terracing in town

Drywall terracing

Seagull, we were really that close

Seagull

Very friendly seagull

Manarola

Lover's Walk that is not
currently open all the way
due to the mudslides of 2011.

Johnnie and Tiffany

Hey, this playground looked like Truman's!

We caught the bus, then a train and headed to Corniglia. We wanted to see all the villages and didn’t have a lot of time the next day. We were surprised at how small Corniglia was and it had no sea access. We walked through the town then decided to head back to our village for dinner. After dinner, Tiffany checked her clothes and they were still pretty wet. We needed to pack and we were afraid her clothes would still be wet. Drudgingly she got her clothes and decided to head back down the hill to the dryer. I couldn’t do the climb again so I stayed. I cleaned up and then started working on our blog. About an hour later, Tiffany returned out of breath, glistening with sweat and dry clothes. Tomorrow was going to be a full day.