Day 8 - Cinque Terre

Got up around 7:30am and we got ready for our big day hiking the Cinque Terre. For anyone who doesn't know the region, or heard of it, the Cinque Terre (5 lands) is a series of five small villages along what they call the north end of the Italian Riviera. This whole region is very swanky with lots of big boats in the marinas, beaches, adn a gorgeous hilly landscape opening onto the Mediteranean Sea. Apparently George Clooney has a place just a few kilometers down the coast from here. The Cinque Terre stretches 11 km from the most northern town of Monterosso to the most southern town of Riomaggiore. There are trains connecting the 5 towns and roads run into 2 or 3 of them, although the best way to see the area is to hike from one end to another, but not an easy hike at all. We took a ferry from here in Lerici up the coast, stopping in 4 of the 5 towns. There's no stop in the middle town, Corniglia, because its built up so high on a cliff that its not practical at all. We rode all the way to the most northern town of Monterosso and stopped to get a slice of pizza and had a beer out on the street, that we'd brought in our bag, before starting. I didn't really know what to expect at all from the hike. I knew it was supposed to be tough and have great views, but i definately had no clue just how rugged and dangerous the trains were and just how much you actually have to climb, but the unbelievable views made it all very very worthwhile.
The first part of the hike from Monterosso to Vernazza is 'supposed' to take about 1.5 hours and is the hardest part of the hike by far. The first hour of the hike consists of going pretty much straight uphill along ancient steps and on very very narrow ledges. It blew my mind that we actually could hike straight up for that long, although we stopped for lots of breaks. As soon as we got to the top though, the climb was well worth it. I'm not sure if all the pictures that i took will capture even a fraction of how incredible it was, but i really hope they do. I haven't been able to find anywhere how high we climbed during the course of the day, but hundreds of feet up for sure, probably closer to 100 miles straight up (felt like it anyways). The other thing that blew my mind about the hiking was how narrow 75% of the trail was. Most of it was no more than 3 or 4 feet wide (no bullshit), with the outside dropping straight down or very steeply dropping most of the times. There's no way to get medical help up there if someone does slip off (which i'm sure must happen dozens of times a year, but medical help wouldn't matter anyways, because i'm sure 99 times of 100 there'd be no hope for survival anyways. The worst part for us was that we were walking from north to south, but since we were on the west coast, we were always passing people going in the other direction on the cliff side instead of the mountain side, which wasn't always fun and i think it bothered Faye quite abit. Everyone should be very proud of her for doing the trail though! Had i known what it was like, i'm not sure if i would've thought that she would make it all the way from north to south, but she was a trooper. On top of the climbs and the ledges, it was 30 degrees C, which made the conditions even tougher, but she trooped on like a champ, smiling at least 50% of the time. By the end of the first two trails, i was feeling rough, so i can only imagine how she felt. We had the option to train from the middle town of Corniglia to the south end town of Riomaggiore, but Faye wanted to push on saying she hadn't come this far through the two toughest parts to quit then.
The two northern routes were BY FAR the hardest taking us about 4.5 to 5 hours, including breaks, with the last two trails being much shorter and MUCH flatter, taking only about 1.5 to 2 hours. Most tourist only do the two southern trails as the two north ones are too hard. In all, it took us around 7 hours from north to south. WE were both so happy that we did it. After going through breast cancer, chemio, radiation, adn then a heart attack less than a year later, its absolutely amazing that Faye did what she did. She told me that she's sure had she not been training all summer for her breast cancer walk that she's sure she wouldn't have made it.
We got to the last town just in time to find a great table at a bar hanging out over a cliff, 100 or feet above the sea, and we sipped a couple of glasses of the local vino and had the most amazing view of the sun setting across the water. We sat with three Australians about my age and chatted with them over our wine and then found a small local restaurant and dined on octopus and anchovies pulled from the ocean that day.
We caught a train from Riomaggiore to La Spezia at 11ish (only a ten minute ride) adn then had to wait an hour for a 30 minute or so bus back to our place in Lerici.

Fantastic day.

ps- if you're going to hike the 5T, don't wear cotton underwear (trust me)