First let me setup CT for those who don't know: Cinque Terre literally means "5 Villages." The villages are cut into steep hillsides that drop right into the Med. You can only get to 3 of them by rail or ferry. The villages thrive on fishing and farming (and more recently tourism). It's pretty incredible to see these terraced hillsides that produce grapes (which they make into great wine), olives, among others.
So with limited transportation, the big thing to do is to hike between all the towns. We decided to hike between ours (Manarola, the 4th Terre from the West) and Vernazza (2nd Terre) via Corniglia. The first leg was pretty easy. It began with a slight uphill around a point where we had a great view back on our Terre and then around a cover where a bunch of boats had pulled up for day on the water. We then crossed a wood rope bridge and got to the entrance to Corniglia...which is actually the base of a switchback up the side of a steep hill. Awesome. They aren't without humor though. Once you reach the top there's a sign that Congratulates you on scaling the 287 steps into Corniglia. Oh those silly Corniglians...
All said though, the hike to Corniglia was pretty easy so we were sort of figuring we'd get to Vernazza pretty quick too. Later we would learn that this leg is the hardest of the hikes between any two of the villages. It was full of long, steep climbs and descents along the coast. Fortunately we had the foresight to leave at 11am and hike during the peak hours of the day. It was a heck of a trek, but there were incredible views the whole way. There were also sections through olive groves and grape vines. It was definitely a primo hike.
By the time we finally descended into Vernazza we were ready to get in the water and cool off. Vernazza is one of the 2 Terre's with an actual beach, but since we had daypacks with us we decided to head to a rocky part of the shore so we could have our stuff out of the way. We found a good sized rock and Greg started one way to it, and I went anther and then...SPLASH! I look over and Greg is all wet. Before I could start laughing at him though, I had a sudden realization: Greg's camera was probably in his pocket. Once Greg got helped up, he indeed pulled his camera out of his pocket. We left it on the rock to attempt to dry it out, but ultimately the camera (and it's SD card were done. Fortunately Greg had changed his SD card the last day in Vienna, so he only lost some Venice and CT pics that I basically had duplicates of.
(Note - I didn't have the heart to laugh at him at the time, but Greg was helped out of the water by a mid 50s older man wearing a speedo. On the other hand, the guy had a smoking hot mid 30s wife/gf/mistress, so wtf do we know. Still funny though..)
In spite of the minor crisis, we still had fun in Vernazza. We met a pack of UCSB students who were on Summer break and swapped DP stories. There was also a formation we deemed "Hot Chick Rock" which should be pretty self-explanatory 8-). I also didn't get tagged by a jellyfish today - booyah.
We took a ferry back to Manarola. It was pretty cool to get to see all 5 Terre's from a few hundred yards off the coast. It's amazing that these tiny cities have been fully functional since the Roman Empire purely b/c of how difficult it is to get to them.
The other highlight of the day was the food we had in Manarola. Before our hike we went to a small pizzeria in town and I think it has to skyrocket to the best I've ever had. Fresh meat and veggies mixed with all kinds of fantastic spices and bread - just better then any I've ever had. Dinner was spectacular as well. Fresh seafood right out of the med mixed with fresh produce right off the hillside. Throw in a fantastic Chianti and you've got a pretty good evening. The night we spent back at the bar, splitting another bottle of Chianti and rehashing the day (including ribbing Greg for getting saved by a 50yr old merman :-p).
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