June 5, 2012 Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre is made up of 5 small villages on the side of the mountain.You can only get there by train and they are all unique in their on way.Last year 2 of the towns were hit by floods that swept away homes and a lot of the towns were covered in mud.They are still cleaning up in Vernazza and working hard to rebuild.They have trails that you can hike from one town to the other although in between 2 towns the trails were closed from the slides.We took the train to Riomaggiore and then hiked the trail to the next town which was Manarola.It is a flat trail that winds around the moutain and the view is spectacular.After we walked around this town we took the boat to Venazza and skipped Corniglia.We decided to take the trail to the next town not knowing it would take us about 3 hours.If we knew what is was like we would have never done it.You start at the sea and go high above to the top of the mountain and then come all the way back down to the town of Monerossa al Mare.This trail was very narrow in places and rock steps going all the way up the mountain.Up about halfway I didn't know if I could make it or not.It is the hardest climb we have ever done.The steps were very uneven and sometimes I would have to pull myself up as my legs were to short.Did I say this was the hike from Hell.The trail was very crowded and at times it was so narrow only one person could walk and wait till you could get by.After all was said and done the villages were beautiful but I would never take the trail again from Vernazza to Monterosso.I say take the train and get off at each village.