Cinque Terre

After Pisa it was off to Cinque Terre, 5 tiny villlages along the coast, which one hikes between. After my great hostel in Florence, I had boooked for their sister hostel in the area, which was in a camp site. I was much dismayed when I got there, as it was further from Cinque Terre that I thought, due to confusion with 2 similar place names, and I was the only person there, and it was raining so hard, that the afternoon I arrived I could do nothing but sit in my wooden cabin and do countless sudokus with the rain making thunderous noises on the roof.
I phones to try book other places in Cinque Terre itself, but had no luck. At least the receptionist was a charmer.
The next morning I was going to take the train to the furthest villlage, and walk back. However, the ticket office was closed and the ticket machine broken, so I could not buy a ticket. When the conductor came, I explained in my finest Italian that "la billateria es chiuso, en la machinata es roto", so he said no problem, I can pay him, but the charge was about 4 times more than the previous day, for a shorter journey, so we got into a heated debate, with me flinging my arms around in good Italian style and waffling about how unfair it is and why must I be punished when I was not given the chance to buy a ticket, so he decided that kicking me off the train would be the best option, which was perfect, as we had now reached Cinque Terre, so I just walked in the opposite direction.

The first village on my route, Vernazza.

Vernazza Harbour

And again.

Walking from Vernazza to the next village was really tricky as the rain really started pissing down, and the path was so muddy and slippery, it was slow going, and not much good for photo opportunities!

What was great to see is that there are wild cats living along the paths, and the locals have made these little shelters for the cats, and there is a big store of cat food in the shelter, so when walking past, you can stop and feed the kitties. They seemed starving, as not many peope out today! In fact, the entire walk the whole day, I only saw one other local en route between villages and no tourists. I imagine this is quite a different story in the summer!

Approaching Corniglia, which is the only one of the villlages not at sea level.

Corniglia

In Manarola harbour

I really enjoyed Manarola, and stopped for a tasty lunch here, and found a geocach or 2.

After Manarola, I tried to walk to the last village, Riomaggiorre, and got half way there, but then it seemed the path was closed due to the rain, so I had to go back and take a train to Riomaggiorre. By then it was dark, but I had a lovely time in the rain standing at the harbour wall, with giant waves crashing up in front of me, while watching the lightning over the sea. A pleasant end to a day with mixed fortunes!