Our little trampers (12 July)
The last 2 days we have spent walking the Cinque Terre track. The boys have done brilliantly with barely a complaint, and the only skinned knee in sight was mine! Yesterday we set off at the crack of dawn (the crack of dawn getting later for us as the holiday continues) and caught the early train to Riomaggiore. Riomaggiore is the furthest town from us. After walking around the charming old town we began on the track. Caleb was our tour guide with his new ‘Cinque Terre Italia’ cap on (having left the last hat on a train somewhere the day before). He made a great guide, encouraging the group to stick together and doing a head count every now and then. I supplied him with tidbits of information on the towns via my Rick Steves’ guide, and Caleb helpfully relayed these to our group. Along with hundreds of other people (including a lot of Australians) we trecked from Riomaggiore to Manarola, up the 382 steps to Corniglia where we enjoyed some more pizza and foccacia followed by gelati for lunch, then on to Vernazza. The scenery was nothing short of spectacular. We walked high above the sea along narrow mountain tracks, and the Medeterranean sparkled below us with the most amazing blue colour. It was so clear that rocks on the sea floor were visible from high above. Each village had a slightly different character, but all were lovely. We wound our way through the olive trees and grape vines that the region is famous for. Every usable bit of land was utilized for something. Tim and I decided that there could be a lot more that we could do with Donvale. It wasn’t a steep block at all by comparison!
Even though it was only 6 km, the track was quite steep and rocky in parts and it was extremely hot. By the time we reached Vernazza the kids (and the adults) were exhausted. We jumped on the train and headed back to our accommodation at Levanto. Today we walked the rest of the track from Vernazza to Montorosso which is the final town. This was a harder section than the other tracks and the boys coped very well. Josh trained back to Vernazza to hit the beach with grandma and grandpa, while the younger boys and Tim and I decided to call it a day and return to our apartment. What a day! I can see why people name the Cinque Terre region walking track as one of the best in the world.
