Day 28 - Cinque Terre & Lerici

Rise & Shine! We were on the 8am train to Monterosso this morning to do the 2 hour trek to Verragio (2 of the 5 Terre) You could just imagine this place chocka block in Summer-time because it is THAT BEAUTIFUL! The water is just SO inviting, you can’t beat the Mediterranean.

When we were having a look around the furthest north of the Cinque Terre towns, I was getting a bit nervous because we saw people geared up in full on hiking gear with back packs, hydration packs and walking poles… surely this track we were about to embark on couldn’t be that bad…. Could it? We’d be ok in regular clothes and our Nikes…wouldn’t we? Me with my regular handbag slung over my shoulder and my necklace swinging off my neck?

The first half an hour was so grueling I thought my soul was going to pop out of my body, sprout wings and fly right up to heaven. It was stair case after stair case of steep narrow stairs with an incline a shaving off a 90° angle it was like ì all the way. If I was at a gym, no personal trainer in the world could have motivated me to keep going on that stair master, I would have just clocked him.

Oh yeah, feeling the pain

After that, the intensity petered out a bit (don’t get me wrong, it was still pretty full on, but more in an awesome way than a “OMG I’m about to have a heart attack” kind of way). The kids were so impressed they couldn’t believe we were actually doing this, they kept saying “are we really doing this, or am I dreaming?”

Needless to say, the views were just breathtaking (or was that my unfitness taking my breath away?) After an hour of up and down and around on some pretty narrow tracks, I was starting to get nervous about the descent on the other side. It was OK though. Nic and Liv were a bit worried because their legs were ‘wobbly’ but Ben and I helped them down and it was very exhilarating for us to have achieved that. Would never have thought…

This is Verrazzo and that little bay just invited my children in for a swim

The best part of the day was yet to happen for the kids. We had worked up quite a sweat and the sun was shining and the Mediterranean was calling, so we bought them bathers and a towel and let them go in for a swim.  

 All they kept saying was “Best day ever” I think a few events have been bumped down the Top Ten list to make room at the top. After a couple of hours in the water (and a large Peroni down the gullet for Mum & Dad) we caught the train back to our hotel to have a quick shower and head back out.

Our first time touching a sea urchin

BEST DAY EVER!

This time, we caught a bus to Lerici in hope of visiting the Castello on the hill which also houses a Paleontology museum. On the bus we got to see quite a bit of La Spezia and it’s nothing really to write home about – so I wont.

Lerici on the other hand…WOW. How gorgeous. Here is a beautiful little unimposing seaside village, nestled in among some hill tops with a medieval castle making it’s mark up on the main hill top of Lerici and another on the other end of the cove at San Terranzo. They must have been protecting this cove back in the day.

We climbed the 200 odd stairs up to the Castle (as if we needed THAT today!) and found the castle closed :(

How disappointing. Apparently because of Easter (you know; the event that happened days and days ago?) and the fact that they had had a few landslides over winter (you know; the season before this current one?) They were closed. The guy in the coffee shop that was explaining this to us shrugged his shoulders and said “You know how we Italians are, we are not in too much of a rush for anything, even the elevator has been broken since last summer, Ah well…” Yeah, no worries coppa, we just killed ourselves to get here at a reasonable hour for nothing!

Instead, we sat on the marina just enjoying the view. In fact it was just what we needed. The kids even took a nap on one of the floating docks. 

A crab nearly snipped Olivia's toe, this is Ben trying to get it... but it got away

Sunset in Lirici

We hung around like this for 2 hours, just chilling, and then we went into a bar for some refreshments. Went out for dinner and caught a bus home.

We were all in bed asleep by a reasonable hour (10pm) It was a big enough day to almost feel like two. The kids kept saying on the bus ride back to the apartment “Did we really climb a mountain this morning?” They still couldn’t believe we had done that at the Cinque Terre.

Best Day.

;)