Cinque Terre

Today we (kind of) hiked the famous Cinque Terre trailer in Italy.  I was pretty pumped for it but my excitement was shot pretty quickly upon our arrival when we were informed we could only hike 1 out of 4 trails on the real coastal trail. The area has been seeing lots of rain lately and there was a high risk of mud slides and some of the trail had washed away.  We weren't about to head back so we got our train pass as well because that was the other alternative between towns.

We were super happy to have had the day we had--sunny and 23 or so with a slight breeze.  The scenery really is beautiful.  We trained all the way to the southern point of the hike to start the “lovers stroll”... Supposed to be nice and flat...and closed!  So hopped on the train to the next town.  We figured out a way where we could take the secondary goat paths from the second to third towns. It was nice, it took us way up and up and then over to the next town.  We strolled through some vineyards which was nice and left the crowds behind.  The actual distance between the two was small but it took us almost two hours on the route we had to take.  The next leg was fully closed and nit accessible by foot on any trail, so back on the train we went!

The final leg I to monterusso was the only leg we could do on the true trail.  The views were fabulous and the hike very pleasant.  

All in all we are glad we did what we did.  We aren't sure we would have gone had we known in advance about all the closures.  The only really retchid thing was the washroom facilities, or lack there of them.  I am going to leave it at that...But for a trail that sees thousands or visitors daily, it is appaling. The other thing we noticed was all the cars and roads! Websites will tell you the towns are only accessible by foot, but each town had roads with big parking lots in them!  So wasn't quite as remote as we thought. But all in all a nice day.

Time for bed! We just booked chamonix tomorrow for 2 nights!!

Xox