The Constant (Failed) Dieter: Travel Log: A Journey of Restoration (Day 5)

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Travel Log: A Journey of Restoration (Day 5)

Previous Day (Duomo di Milano & onwards to Vernazza - the Gem of Cinque Terre

Destination: France & Italy

Duration: 15 Days 15 Nights (Sep 02~Sep 17, 2014)

Day 5: “Village Hopping” at Cinque Terre & onwards to Lucca

Hotel Gianni Franzi breakfast area proved to be another location above the cliff with stunning view. How we wish to enjoy our breakfast everyday in this place! Breakfast was ham, salami, cheese, bread as well as some sweet cake with freshly squeezed orange juice and a coffee machine for yours to use. I do not drink coffee but the machine proved to be a genius by offering hot chocolate with milk as well! I loved the chocolate!!!! There was an unexpected guest during our breakfast – a BEE trying to get some meat! Then it decided to invite its friends as well. *facepalm*

In front of the Apartment

Here is the Breakfast Area

View at Breakfast Area

Carbohydrates anyone?

Lots of FOODsss!!!

View at the Right

Little Bee wants MEAT!!!

Love the Chocolate with Milk

After breakfast, we checked out from our hotel (after dragging our luggage down the 100 stairs!) and left our luggage with them. We then proceeded to Vernazza train station to get our 1-day Cinque Terre card with unlimited train access.

Last time at Common Area before checkout

Getting the Essentials...

Our plan today is to visit another 4 villages of Cinque Terre by Hiking, Train as well as Ferry to see the village from the sea. Our 1^st step was to take the Vernazza to Corniglia trail - one of the most beautiful stretches of trail along the Cinque Terre.

Hike, Train & Ferry in 1 day!

The Starting Path is right beside the Pharmacy

STAIRsssssssssssss

The trail consisted of TONs of steps and we managed to reach another ‘postcard’ spot of Vernazza. The trail should take around one and a half hour according to online guide. We walked through olive terraces and see homes that cling to the sides of cliffs just above the sea. We ended up taking 2 hours+ to reach Corniglia – the only village in Cinque Terre that does not have a harbor as it’s at top of the cliff.

Beginning of the Journey

Are the Steps necessary? *panting*

Finally at the Postcard Vantage Point

Stunning eh?

There are Love Locks here as well

National Park Checkpoint

Well, it's like 10% of our Journey?

Getting further away from Vernazza

Walking along the Trail

Translucent seawater at the coast

Flowers along the way

What else? STAIRssss!!!

Wild Flowers

1 hour in - Where are we? Are we there yet?!

The Trail is Endless!!!

OMG!!! HELP!!!

Can i eat these?

Finally see some houses!

Are we there yet?!

Nope! There is still 50mins away!

Why is Corniglia so far away?!

I don't understand the Sign at all!!!

Getting closer?!

Sammy coming out for some fresh air...

I think we might have to cross this!

Are we there yet?! HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More Flowers!

Another type of Flower!

A small town at the top of the hill... No idea what it's called

Beautiful coastline

Look at the Translucent Sea!

The Sole Purpose of this picture? THE DOG!!!

More Berries!!!

Grafitti! We must be Close!!!

Corniglia! Finally!!!!!!!!!!

Once we reached Corniglia, we wandered around the town and went to S.Pietro Church to take some pictures (means more STAIRssss). We didn’t stay there for long as there were still 3 villages to explore thus we took the bus to go downhill to Corniglia train station.

Seriously? We have to take more STAIRsss to the Church?

S.Pietro Church

Beautiful Interior

Bus!!!

Our next destination was Manarola – some might considers this village as the most beautiful in Cinque Terre due to its colorful houses. When we stepped off the train, we could see the entrance of “Via Dell’ Amore” (Way of Love) from Manarola to Riomaggiore was closed due to RESTORATION (what else?). We wandered into the town and found that Manarola actually looked very similar to Vernazza.

This is the Train Ticket Validation Machine!

Finally our train is here!

Arriving at Manarola

"Way of Love" is closed! *sob*

We were quite hungry and went into a crowded Pizza shop to grab ourselves some pizza & focaccia. As luck would have it, we actually found a great spot to enjoy our lunch just at the edge of the natural pool formed among the rocks. The water was translucent and there were people relaxing and swimming in the pool.

Going through the tunnel to get into Manarola Town, they used to hide here during WW1

Here we are! Look similar to Vernazza eh?

Let's have some Lunch 1st!

What to eat?

Calzone & Olive Focaccia?

Admiring the pool while eating our lunch!

Should i jump in?

Look at the water!

That was where we were...

After lunch at the pool, we walked towards the right of the coast line on the cliff to take ‘postcard’ view picture of Manarola since it’s famous for its beautiful merry colorful houses. Unfortunately for us, the sun was too strong until it somehow dimmed the color of the houses in our pictures. *sob*

Are we at the Vantage Point yet?

Unfortunately the Color is not as Striking as the poster

At Piazza

Goodbye Manarola

We then took the train to Riomaggiore and the 1^st thing we did when stepped off the train was to buy Gelato! LOL!!! Did I mention that the weather was HOT? We then explored the village and visited Church of St. John the Baptist and Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta after climbing up tons of stairs again before climbing up even MORE STAIRssss to reach Castle of Riomaggiore.

Let's have some Gelato at Riomaggiore!

Yet another tunnel to get to the town from Train Station

Where should we go?

Going Uphill!

Church of St John the Baptist? And the Ambulance.. LOL

Inside of Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta

Here is the outside

At the Top of Riomaggiore

STAIRsss to get to the Castle

Finally!!!

Via Dell' Amore (Way of Love) from the Top

We walked downhill again to reach the entrance of “Via Dell’ Amore” (Way of Love) at Riomaggiore where we managed to snap at least part of the trail from there. We’d decided to get more Gelato before heading to the harbor to get our Ferry ticket to Monterosso.

Going Downhill!

Almost there!

The Train Tunnel

Entrance of "Via Dell' Amore from Riomaggiore

More Gelato!!!

We missed out the 3.30pm ferry so the next ferry would be at 4.30pm *gasp in horror*. We ended up ‘people-watching’ at the beach to look at sexy bikini girls and hot guys while hiding under the shade. My gosh, some of them were like being roasted alive.. =P

At the Riomaggiore Harbor

Surprising look more colorful than Manarola - guess it's the Red House?

Miss the Ferry!

People watching - look! Lots of Bikini-clad ladies!!!

Hiding from the Scorching sun!

We got a good seat on the Ferry since we were the first view on the queue and off we went for the poor man version of Cinque Terre Coastline Sightseeing! Surprisingly, Riomaggiore actually looked prettier than Manarola from picture – I think it was due to the bright red houses at the coast. Similarly, Vernazza colorful houses didn’t look that colorful from the sea either.

Finally get on the Ferry

Riomaggiore from the sea

Via Dell' Amore from the sea

Getting Close to Manarola

Church at the Top of the Hill

Manarola from the Sea

Corniglia

Let's zoom in to Corniglia!

Another beautiful landscape

Vernazza from the sea

Monterosso from the sea - too commercialized though

It was 5.40pm when we reached Monterosso, we did not managed to enjoy the village as we were rushing to get back to Vernazza to catch a train to our next destination – Lucca. We only managed to see the piazza & the beach before running into the train station. Monterosso was quite commercialized if compared to another 4 villages and the beach front kind of reminded me of Phuket or Kusadasi.

Monterosso Beach

Lots of Empty Sunbeds

The water is quite salty and thicky though

Waiting at Monterosso Station

The train in Monterosso was delayed and everyone was waiting for it. The crowd got bigger and bigger and luckily the train finally arrived and the door stopped right in front of us. We squeezed on to the train and managed to get off and took our luggage and ran back to Vernazza Train Station again. The Cinque Terre card included internet access at hotspot thus we utilized it by searching for the available route to Lucca since there were no direct train from Vernazza and also emailing our Lucca Hotel correspondent to alarm him on our delay. It was almost 8pm when we got on the train to La Spezia. Thank God we did not pre-book any train ticket for this round!

It's getting late!

Finally!!!

We bought the connecting train ticket from La Spezia ticket counter and the lady told us to get to Lucca via Pisa Centrale. Thus we had a transfer again at Pisa Centrale to catch the train to Lucca – there was hardly anyone there so it’s not recommended if you were traveling alone.

At La Spezia Train Station

The only thing we saw in La Spezia. :p

Waiting Waiting

Here is our train!

At Pisa Centrale - there is no one there!

Grafitti on the Train

It was already 10.30pm++ when we reached Lucca Station and we got lost again in the medieval town trying to look for our hotel. We finally found our hotel (B&B La Colonna) after asking around and found the ‘hidden key’ as communicated by the hotel owner since he was not there anymore due to the timing. We finally got to our room and fell dead to the bed after a long day without any dinner. What a day!