France/Italy roadtrip – the Cinque Terre path: Monterosso & Vernazza | alison richards

The morning that I woke up to hike the Cinque Terre path it was storming. The lightning was crossing the sky in sheets of light, thunder rumbled and the rain hammered down on the roof of my camper. I checked the weather, it was due to clear up mid-morning so I donned my hiking boots, shorts and t-shirt and rain jacket, had breakfast, grabbed my Cinque Terre park pass then left the campsite. It was early when I left (6:15am) to catch the train from Levanto to Monterosso al Mare, the first of the 5 villages that form the Cinque Terre. I was to pick up the path from here.

I got to Monterosso at 6:40am, and huddled under some shelter as the rain kept coming down. It started to die off at about 7:15am, so I left to go have a look around the town and prepare myself for my hike! It might not have been as pretty in Monterosso in the rain as it was in the middle of the day in glorious sunshine, but it had a certain appeal. The plan was to do the entire hike today (except for the part in between Manarola and Riomaggiore, which you can't walk due to mudslides in 2005... apparently the Italian government have no plans to fix the path), so I had to make an early start.

All the unused deck chairs due to rain and early morning – these would all be filled by the time I’m long gone

Clouds in the hills – that’s where I’m heading

Around the headland a little, and there was more Monterosso!

The path changed quickly and I was soon in among crops and, more importantly, vineyards! It was cool in the early morning light, but it was hard work walking up those hills as the steps just kept going up and up. It was beautiful though so no complaints!

Vines were everywhere along the entire path

This cool old bridge spoke to the history of the path, which apparently used to be used by goat-herders!

I popped out at a headland somewhere and spotted Vernazza, my destination and the second of the Cinque Terre. It was really far off in the distance! It was beginning to get really warm, but also it had rained all morning so it was super humid. I was drenched but feeling so good! Seeing Vernazza made me keen to keep going to see what was around the next corner! It was a bit like that, every corner had something different to show.

My path looking all mysterious in the humidity haze and sunshine

I kept going, buoyed by the fact that any corner that I turned around could be the one to give me a closer view of the village. And then sure enough, there it was, looking so pretty from above.

A closer view of the church and gelato-coloured buildings

The path into town was as you'd expect - through narrow streets with tall, colourful buildings either side. It was lovely. I made my way down to the water's edge and sat for a bit, having a drink of water to recover some of the fluids I'd lost! I wandered along the pier, watched kids jumping into the water (that looked like fun!), then went to a focacceria that was open and bought a slice of focaccia to eat - I was starving already! It had taken a bit over 1.5 hours to walk this 4km section, with all the photo breaks, so was definitely time for a mid-morning feed.

These kids and their dad were having a great time jumping off into the ocean

After my recovery, I decided it was time to keep going. I picked up the path (it was a little hard to find with the maze of alleyways) then set off. Where the village turned into agricultural land again, there was a little hut with a guard inside - the only national park official that I saw on the whole hike and who I gladly showed my day pass to. He let me past and I stopped to take a few last pictures before heading towards my next destination: Corniglia, which I will cover in the next post.