Today I visited the Cinque Terra. These are five villages located on the spectacular Ligurian coast. Part of it is national park (the bit I visited today) but there is still lots of vineyards and olive farms and the terraced path I walked today is still used to access these farms but these days these is also a road and train to make access easier. The five villages are linked by a path but unfortunately part of the path was washed away, so today I only walked three: from Monterosso, via Vernazza (spectacularly set on a promontory), finishing in Corniglia. I accessed both ends of the trail by train from La Spezia. It was very spectacular and rocky and steep in bits, and very busy. The villages (which are quite small) were even busier. I would hate to see it in the peak of summer.
You have to pay a fee to walk through the national park part of the trail. I wondered how they would enforce this. Simple: ticket boxes on the path at both ends and one ticket check box in the middle, in case anyone sneaked through. There were a lot of Americans, Australians and French tourists on the trail. One American had music emanating from her backpack, not loud but loud enough to be irritating. Another one (nationality unknown) was wearing thongs on the trail - at least she got to show off her nail job. A lot of people were wearing runners - I would hate to see the state of them (and their feet) after walking on what at times was very rocky, uneven ground. There were a few entrepreneurs on the trail - one offering freshly squeezed orange juice among other things (in the middle of nowhere) and two accordion players on the trail. While waiting for the train back I noticed a sign saying "For Security Stand Along the Whole of the Platform". I wasn't sure whether we were supposed to be prepared for a pat down search or what but it was later clarified by the English announcement which said that we should spread across the platform to enable quicker boarding of the train when it came.
The weather is not supposed to be as good tomorrow but in any event I am going back to Cinque Terre because I have a Cinque Terre card which allows for unlimited train travel tomorrow.
You have to pay a fee to walk through the national park part of the trail. I wondered how they would enforce this. Simple: ticket boxes on the path at both ends and one ticket check box in the middle, in case anyone sneaked through. There were a lot of Americans, Australians and French tourists on the trail. One American had music emanating from her backpack, not loud but loud enough to be irritating. Another one (nationality unknown) was wearing thongs on the trail - at least she got to show off her nail job. A lot of people were wearing runners - I would hate to see the state of them (and their feet) after walking on what at times was very rocky, uneven ground. There were a few entrepreneurs on the trail - one offering freshly squeezed orange juice among other things (in the middle of nowhere) and two accordion players on the trail. While waiting for the train back I noticed a sign saying "For Security Stand Along the Whole of the Platform". I wasn't sure whether we were supposed to be prepared for a pat down search or what but it was later clarified by the English announcement which said that we should spread across the platform to enable quicker boarding of the train when it came.
The weather is not supposed to be as good tomorrow but in any event I am going back to Cinque Terre because I have a Cinque Terre card which allows for unlimited train travel tomorrow.
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