I awoke from the wierdest dream: I was trying to get into a palace / park / train station / archaelogical dig site and when I got in nobody who I was supposed to be in there with wasn't there: the pladce was open and empty. So I went outside to find everyone only only to find they had gone inside just then, so when I tried to get back in, I couldn't anymore.

What this has to do with anything is anyones guess.

Today I awoke to my alarm clock, hit snooze, then eventually got motivated. I jumped on a train to Riomaggiore in Cinque Terra. A short tunnel later I jumped off in a goregous hideaway town with a single road and many staircases. Cinque Terra is a land of mountains, streams and the sea, which crashes relentlessly at the sharp cliffs and rocks. The five towns sit on headlands and bays and are connected by the train (a local service goes to all five villages, the normal TreinItalia only goes to the first and fifth. The towns are also connected by narrow walkways, which you have to pay to use. Fortunately there's a ticket you can get which lets you on the train and the paths for a day. The walking estimate between all five towns is five hours, so I figured that's how I would spend my day.

Riomaggiore is a town split by a huge mountain. One side is connected to the other via a tunnel which shares the same tunnel as the train – so very noisy. The town itself has all the hallmarks of a classic Italian town: main street full of shops, wiggly staircases leading up to tiny apartments, a central piazza full of tables and cafe's, and a prominent church which tolls the hour and quarter hour.

After poking around for a bit I took the walking trail and found it to be quite easy – well constructed most of the way with a couple of spots tight and narrow hanging over sheer cliffs.

The next town, Manarola, has a small sea frontage much like Riomaggiore, but opens up into a reasonable size place for an inaccessible village. The town was nice, with lots of rooms to rent in private houses, though I didn't enquire about them of course.

The next stretch of trail was long and hugged the stone cliffs dearly, with little purchase for grapes and olive on the steep slopes. Very picturesque with small caves and great vantages for photography. Again, a fair hike but quite easy to the town of Corniglia, which was a bit less interesting, probably as it had no sea frontage, or much of anything. I bet it's a quiet and relaxing place though. The bus service that runs has a precarious and narrow road to follow to get to corniglia, but probably no less so that any of the other five towns. It's interesting that only the road into the Cinque Terra hails from Levanto to the north – none of the towns have vehicular roads, only a bus service to its mountainous outskirts. I've read that the parking toll is around €1.00 per hour, so there's no point driving there! Corniglia also has many steps.

The next leg was somewhat more challenging that the previous two. The start of the trail leads through bentle fields of grape and then throws stairs, foot-wide trails and narrow passes into the mix as you wind through the olive trees. The land becomes vertical and the path seems to turn this way and that almost randomly and little side trails traipse off into the groves or scrub. The only way to know the path is to watch for specially painted stones half the size of a fist, or to listen for the grunts and groans of the many tourists who dare to tread these paths.

Talk about a worthwhile trip – the next town Vernazza is an absolute gem. A beautiful sea port, quite small, but jamming so much in. The dominant features of this palce are a castle tower on a rise and a sweep of breakwall creating a secluded swimming area just of the main piazza. The piazza itself was a crush of boats and tables, seemingly mashed together so that the nose of a vessel pressed halfway into restaraunts. The sea was rough and great waves boomes over the breakwayy creating a fascinating attraction for anybody with a camera. Spray and water leapt several metres into the air. An interesting note is that the town has expoited these waves in that areas for swimming included tiled seats set out in semicircles that would be covered by the spray of the great waves – obviously a great spot to sit and relax on those hot, slow days.

Today was a lot warmer than I had expected, dressing for a cold blustery day. The sun was warm but it dropped off steadily after sunset.

After spending a good long time in Vernazza I eventually found the staircase out of town – the sign was about the size of a business card!

This trail started off difficult and progressed into “this is insane” territory somewhat quickly. I found myself pushing my knees on each step and stopping every hnundred metres or so for a good break. After finally cresting a hill I saw that I was about a quarter of the way done, and that the trail went down and then higher on the next hill. I was lying on a grape-collecting monorail when I said (aloud) “that's not very promising” to nobody in particular. A group of what I presume were Dutch tourists gabbled about this (I have no idea if they knew english) for a while and moved off. Eventually I felt a decision point: go on, be happy after I made it all that way after nearly giving up, or hurry back and just get on the bus or train? I pressed on.

Just along the track I met an Aussie called Adam who was a tourist just new to Italy in the lasy few days. He was taking a break from working on a farm in England and happened to recognise my Triple J t-shirt. We continued together on the trail, chatting and complaining about the rediculous difficulty of the trail, which actually made it easier to bear: I guess it took our minds off our knees. My knees got really sore at about the three quarter mark – enough that I had to stop frequently and stretch. Not exacly cramps, but pretty sore all the same. I got around it in the same way I've gotten around sore feet and cramps and the off stitch: press on and ignore the damned things!

Anyway, the lasy quarter of the trail was steps – downwards to my glee! Monterosso came into view slowly and I found the first nearly-a-beach place, complete with an ocean you could surf on. None of those silly beach huts, and people and dogs playing on the grey-almost-yellow sand. It was enough to stop for a beer and comment on. We also commented on the train line running just metres from the sand (literally) with the town on the far side of the rails.

On the train home we met a bunch of girls from Alaska – the first people I've ever met from up thattaway. They were just in Italy the day before after doing central Europe and we chatted about places to go and see and prices for hostels and whatnot. They wanted to do Florence, Rome and Naples, to which I of course told them all about Naples. I think they;ll be looking elsewhere when down south.

Tonight I had a randomly selected wood fired pizza from down the road and it was superb – but maybe thats my hungry feet talking. It was onion, bacon, mozerella and capsicum on a saucey base. As much as I'm already sick of pizza, this one was delicious and I left about 6 crumbs on the plate in total. Tonight I'm looking forward to my saggy mattress and lumpy pillow. Tomorrow is a domestic / rest day. I'll finish the Harry Potter book, do some laundry and do the emails. Maybe wander down to the sea port for a look around. Nothing too strenuous. An evening noggin in Riomaggiore watching the sun set of the ocean might also be in order. We'll see.

2005-01-24T21:03:24