When you think of the Cinque Terre, you probably think of Manarola. And for good reason as well, I thought it was the prettiest village of all and the cliff path opposite makes for the best photography place! But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I came down from Volastra, down down down lots of steps. I kept being asked by people coming up, panting, whether they were almost there. It would have been a hard slog, though I did it from the other direction (with less people so I could take a break every now and then). The path split into two at one stage, and I decided to take the one less travelled that went out across the vineyards. Here I came upon an old disused billboard, and the edge of the cliff (which I stayed well away from), and picked a path through the vines that took me down an alleyway and into the top of the village of Manarola.
When I got to the village itself, the first thing I spotted was a pasta place and, being starving at this point, I ordered some gnocchi with pesto. It was honestly one of the best meals I've had, but in that way you get when you're so hungry that food, any food, tastes delicious!
Fed, I set off to explore the town. First point of call was to go to that photo spot, with the thousands of other people! Good thing there is lots of room to take photos there!
At this point, I realised that I had forgotten to bring a spare t-shirt like I was going to - I was back in civilisation now! But oh well, I had to put up with looking like a sweaty mess, while the other girls there swanned around in their flowery dresses and floppy hats.I wandered through the village for a bit but there were so many people. I decided to keep going to the fifth and final village, Riomaggiore. I couldn't walk the path there because it was no longer walkable, so I had to catch the train. I got to Riomaggiore in about 5 minutes, and hopped off to explore.
It was heaving, like Manarola, so I didn't spend a lot of time at the harbour where most of the action was happening. Just enough to have a look, take some snaps and move on. But Riomaggiore had some really nice places with few tourists, like all the little alleyways branching off the main roads, some which wound up to churches and beautiful viewpoints over the village.
At about 3:30pm, I was done for. I'd walked at least 25km in the heat and was dying for a shower. So I said goodbye to the Cinque Terre and hopped on the train back to Levanto. I was pretty happy about my decision to tackle the Cinque Terre in this way, I think it suited me rather than staying in town. But I'd have liked to see the villages at sunset or sunrise. Out of all of them, Manarola was the prettiest but I think Vernazza was my favourite. I also liked Corniglia because it was less touristy but still pretty.
I got back to Levanto on the train, got my legs moving again to walk back to the campsite and promptly went to shower. I then treated myself to a glass of wine before sorting out dinner and crashing into bed.
What a day!