Cinque Terre Part 2

We had another rainy night, but this rain was insignificant compared to Monday's. Our aim today was to see the other two villages of the Cinque Terre and by 9:15, after the drizzle quit, we were on our way down to the train station in Riomaggione for a quick trip to Corniglia.

The real hikers would walk this,but apparently, even though we've seen many people trekking, the trails are not yet open. That's our excuse and we're sticking to it. Anyway, once off the train in Corniglia, we were quickly faced with a 365 step climb to the village. That's one way to wake up.

Once in the village, it didn't provide the vistas that both Vernazza and Riomaggione do. It was stacked with coloured houses and its streets were narrow and winding with lots more steps. Because I know Dawn's knees don't like steps, we wimped out on the walk down and took the 2.50E bus - the train is only 2.10E from Riomaggione to Monterosso.

Our fifth and final village was Manarola, which was between Corniglia and Riomaggione and is actually considered a commune of Riomaggione.

Very quickly, we all felt that this village fell into the top "three most interesting and picturesque" category.

Compared with our start this morning when we were literally the only four tourists in Riomaggione, now there were hordes of tourists, many of a far eastern persuasion. The most unique aspect of Manarola was that every house had a boat - or boats - parked in front of it. In the centre of town there was also a nativity scene, which I guess stays up all year.

We opted for lunch here at a restaurant on the main street called Trattoria La Scogliera on Via Birolli. Our timing was impeccable because we got a nice table on the terrace and by the time we left, there wasn't a seat anywhere to be had inside and out. It was pasta for everybody with Tony choosing linguine with clams, Jackie lasagna, Dawn trofie pesto and for me, fish ravioli with sea bass. Delicious!

After lunch we planned to walk back to Riomaggiore on the Via dell'amore. This is a walking route on the edge of the Med, probably a kilometre and not much more.

This route is advertised everywhere, but somehow we missed the fact that since the same flash flooding that devastated Vernazza in 2011, that this route was closed. What they are waiting for to get it up and running again is not quite clear, because I'm guessing this was a huge attraction in the past.

We pretty much had no choice now but to take the train back to Riomagionne and after arriving we walked the formidable slope once again to our hotel. On the way, we stopped to order pizza at last night's restaurant for pick up at 6:00. Tony, kindly did the honours and walked down to get the pizza. Then we sat on the terrace and dined and chatted until the chill and dampness chased us indoors. One of the last images of Riomaggione we got from our terrace was of this clock tower as the lights went on.

We feel very fortunate to have seen all five of the Cinque Terre villages and although there was more train waiting than trail trekking, we are content as we now head inland to Siena.