Rome and Florence held such high interest for us that we were in constant motion, going from one site to the next, trying to suck it all in. Our trip to Elba was supposed to be restful, and it was compared to Rome and Florence, but it was so beautiful we felt we had to keep moving to see it all. Cinque Terre is amazing. Yesterday we hiked and swam, took train rides and boat rides, trying to experience the area. We are feeling our exertions. Today is a day to catch up, relax and revive for Siena, which starts tomorrow.
The plan was to sleep in this morning. My body does not alway listen to my mind's plans, and by 6:15 am it was wondering why we were still in bed. I forced it to stay horizontal until 7:00 am, but it stood up out of bed. I stared at the comfortable mattress from atop this disobedient body, wondering why we were vertical instead of horizontal. I tried to coax it back into bed, but it would not have it. We were up. Sally rolled over, looked up at me through sleepy eyes and wished me a good time on my hike and not to worry about getting back soon. She would be asleep for quite some time and she wanted me to feel free to have the time to get out a bit.
Succumbing to my body's demands, I packed a light daypack with water and a chocolate bar and headed out the door. It was as if I was walking a dog, only the dog was my body. I planned to hike toward Manarola, the town in the opposite direction of the town we hiked to yesterday, Vernazza. This trail does not stay low. The low trail is wiped out by avalanches of rock and stone each winter. The high trail climbs directly up the mountain behind town for 800 vertical feet, traverses south for a mile and a half, then descends 1100 feet into the town of Manarola.
I embraced the idea of a good workout and started up the trail. It begins right outside the door of our B&B, climbs between houses, then vineyards and finally through forests. I set a pace that assured a rapid heart rate and sweat. The trail climbed pretty much straight up the mountain, with the occasional switchback when the slope got too steep. The occasional breaks in the woods, orchards and vineyards on the way up afforded me views of Corniglia shrinking away as I ascended. It felt good to move quickly and be out of breath. I checked GAIA GPS on my phone periodically to see what the contours could tell me about the trail ahead, and soon as seen on the map, the trail leveled off and headed generally south, located on the top of terrace walls, often with lush grape vines coming right up to the trails. I greeted a man in his 50's working on the vines with a happy "Buon Giorno". He did look up from his work, nor respond. I don't think he was happy that vacationing foreigners walked through his grape crop.
The views from this elevated perch were spectacular. Corniglia was 800 feet below, shrinking in size as I moved further south. Due to the northwest facing slope, the early morning sun was not upon me. In the distance I could see Vernazza and Monterosso.
The trail soon entered a "town" perched at this lofty altitude. I followed the red and white markers painted on walls and posts through this hamlet. The trail took an abrupt right turn at a street corner with a small open grocery store. I ducked in for a piece of freshly baked foccocia bread, then headed down the road toward Manarola. Now the trail was only steps, for the next half mile as it descended 1100 feet down into Manarola. I munched on my bread as I hopped down the stone steps. The path finally emptied out onto a road that I followed for half a mile into town.
Manarola is the second town of the 5, Corniglia the 3rd. This was the fifth Cinque Terre town I had visited. They are quaint, charming, clinging to steep valley walls tucked into drainages. Manarola had a sizable grocery store compared to our very small store, so I bought lettuce, carrots, etc., the fixings for a salad. I worked my way through the long tunnel to the rail station, secured my 4 euro ticket and was soon climbing the stairs up to Corniglia from its train station. It was now about 10:30 am.
Sally and I walked to Valentina's shop to ask about checkout in the morning. She was not there, but we met Mette, a energetic blond woman from Denmark in her mid 30's. We got talking and had a hard time leaving, we were enjoying the conversation so much. She was funny, enlightening and interesting. In our brief 15 minutes we covered happiness and education in Denmark, what an embarrassment Trump is both as a president and as a human being, taxes, Happiness in Denmark, parliaments versus electoral colleges, life in Italy and more. We finally pried ourselves from the shop so she could be more attentive to her customers.
Sally and I rode the train to Monterosso, found the beach from yesterday, and took turns watching our stuff and swimming. About 2:30 pm we headed for the train station and rode back to Corniglia. We had dinner, then began to walk into town to search out the hostel and check it out. Along the way we ran into Mette. The next hour we felt like locals. We picked up where we had left off this morning, laughing and talking. Sara from the store joined us on her way to the train station and the four of us giggled. Sara had to catch her train, but no sooner had she left than Mette's 8 year old daughter came running down the road followed by the family dog. Sally and I were beginning to worry about keeping Mette away from her family and dinner, but she showed no intention of ending the conversation. The Danes are indeed the happiest people on earth.
We finally broke away and began searching out the hostel. We found it, checked it out, and returned to the store for a "just before closing" cookie snack on the benches in the town square. As we ate, up walked Mette and we talked a bit more before she scurried off to dinner with her daughter and boyfriend.
We finished our cookies and walked back to our place to pack and get ready to leave on the morning train.
What another great day!
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