Corniglia to Monterosso
Some people might feel too embarrassed to tell this story. Some might try to forget about it and pretend it didn't happen. I mean, it was pretty stupid. I however, have decided to share it with you both for entertainment value, and for the small possibility that someone might read this before they do the same walk. I hope my mother doesn't get too worried about me after reading this.
Basically, I got lost walking the Cinque Terra.
For those of you who don't know what the Cinque Terra is, it is a beautiful piece of coastline containing five small historic villages in the Liguria Region of Italy. From North to South they are: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The area is famous for the bright colours of the houses and the picturesque harbours each village has grown around. The walk from village to village is just that, a path for tourists to walk along the coastline between the towns.
It sounds simple, because it is.
I never got to see these beautiful villages or their little pebbly beaches, because I went the wrong way...
^ I arrived by train in Corniglia on a hot sunny morning with a pack full of snacks and wearing those Nike shoes that look like they would be great for running, but are actually made of elastic and foam, and which are incredibly slippery on uneven terrain (can you guess where this is going...)
I decided that because of time restrains I wasn't able to see all five villages, and because home was to the North, I would start at the Southern end. The train station was just before Corniglia. You can see the village of Manarola in the distance.
Turning my back on that pretty sight, I climbed the steps from the station to the town. I believe this was the only part of the trail that I actually walked.
^ Manarola
^ Some back gardens, cars and less exciting houses in Corniglia with Manarola in the distance.
It is at this point, about 20 minutes in, that I went wrong.
I was, understandably, very excited to be here, by myself, adulting and all that. I was excited to stretch my legs too, craving some exercise after so much delicious Italian food. The path from the station came up behind the village and then looped around at a small intersection on a dusty road. There were no signs (in hindsight the right path was obviously the one that went into the village) but my instinct told me to stay on the path I was already on and walk straight instead of turning off. To solidify this in my brain, two American tourists happened to be wondering up the path from the village at this opportune moment, eating ice creams and looking very relaxed.
"Is this the path for the Cinque Terra?" I asked them. "Oh, yes it is, we just came from the town and it's this way" they replied.
Great! continuing along this path, and with a handful of other tourists walking behind solo little me, I found a small wooden sign written in Italian, naturally, which said something about a Church and the Cinque Terra. The arrows pointed towards the hill at the back of the village. As you can probably guess, this was enough for me to assume that the path must divert to the village, and then come back again behind the town and curve back down to the coast again towards Vernazza once past the town.
^ That's Corniglia. A little way away, but the sign said church, and I knew Italian churches were usually built fairly high up hillsides.
But no churches came into sight, there was no longer any sign of ice-cream-wielding tourists on my tail (hooray! I thought) and the trees were thinning out...
The atmosphere was actually really nice, and the trail was beautiful. It was very quiet and I had fun pretending to be Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games, which I was reading at the time. In the back of my mind I knew this surely wasn't the way, but I supposed the path would come out at another one which would take me in the right direction. Turning around and retracing my steps didn't seem very appealing either, as that would be admitting defeat, and after all my time was limited to just one day. I didn't want to see the same scenery twice!
...The path came out at the top of the mountain, where it met with a alpine highway and logging road. After deciding I didn't want to get run over by a logging truck, I decided to continue on the foot track which I spotted on the other side of the road. Here, my logic was telling me that if I took my chances on the highway I could be walking for a long time and end up further out of my way because the road was designed for cars, but staying on the walking track meant a route designed for walkers, so it couldn't go on for too much longer or for too far without reaching an ending point. It had taken me a few hours to hike to this point already. Perhaps this logic made sense? I should have swallowed my pride and headed back to Corniglia to harass those Americans. The only map I had on me was a computer print-out Silvia and I had made which had a basic layout of the order of the towns along the coast, and a couple of walking tracks marked along the top of the mountain.
As you may have noticed, I had stopped taking photos at this point, because I was too busy telling myself to stay calm. I took this photo as a reference - the trail numbers didn't match the ones on my map! I knew I was going towards Vernazza but I was unnerved that there was no mention of Corniglia, where I had come from. 1, 7 and AV5T also all pointed to the same direction, so that was it.
There are no photos from the little village on the top of the mountain which I arrived at some time later. Hey, at least I'd found the Church! I found a local and tried to explain in sign language that I was lost. The trail with the corresponding number was closed due to land slides (that sign at least I remember being in English) and there didn't seem to be an alternative walking route. No one understood my sign language for 'I've been walking all day but the path is closed up ahead and I need to get to the train station'. Finally I decided the best thing to do was to use the road which I could see weaving down the mountain ahead of me. This would take up all the rest of my time, and I would probably miss my train, but at least I was on my way towards the coast again, and I could use a phone and ask Silvia to come and pick me up.
...and then luck struck! Hallelujah! At an intersection up ahead two lorry drivers were talking via their drivers side windows. One of them didn't look too scary, and they were laughing in a good hearted way. I approached the truck and tried my sign language again. Not a single word of Italian entered my head, and only a few words of English pre-existed in his. But I knew I was getting the train from Monterosso, and he understood that, laughing again because 'that is a long way away, you can not walk that far'. Bless the man, he offered to drive me to the where the trail connected with Vernazza. I wish I had asked him if I could have photographed him. Lovely saviour man.
He dropped me off on a small dusty path at the top of the hill overlooking Vernazza. I'm fairly sure it was someones back yard. From there I was able to walk down to the village. Monterosso is the beach town in the background, with Vernazza in the foreground.
Relieved to be back on track, so to speak, I arrived in Vernazza! I was so tired that, again, I didn't go down to the harbour and get the best view of the town, but instead ran for the train which I could see on the platform, and made it to Monterosso via rail, in time to relax for about an hour on Monterosso beach before getting my train home again.
^ Monterosso and the hills I was wondering around all day
Sitting on the train on that return journey watching the sun set over the ocean, I was very very grateful to my truck driver man, and proud of myself for not panicing. I didn't get to see the Cinque Terra, but I got to test myself, meet the locals, the exercise I wanted, and I was home in time for dinner.
[copyright Google images]
^ This was the track in its entirety from Manarola to Monterosso.
Maybe next time I can take the coastal route...
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next: Verona
