Tuesday, 31 December 2013

Day 1: Germany – Milan – Monterosso – Vernassa - Prevo


 
I met Bru at the Zurich airport and then we flew together to Milan. It was nice to see Bru again. We understand each other pretty well and had been on trips together before. Our flight reached Milan at around 10.30 am. My plan was to take the train from Milan Central to Moterosso al Mare at around 12 noon. By the time we got out luggage it was around 11:30 am. And the train from Milan Malpensa airport to Milan central took us more than 45 mins. So we had to take the next train around 1.
By the time we reached our starting point – the first of the 5 villages  - Monterosso it was around 4 pm. There are two tracks to choose from to visit the villages, the first one and the easiest is called the ‘Blue Path’ which runs at almost the same height above sea level as the villages. This is also the most popular route and one can find a large amount of tourists on this route on a sunny day. The second one is called the high path which runs high up the mountains. That means one has to climb up and climb down as we move from one village to village. It is also a bit strenuous and time consuming and one needs a certain level of fitness to try this route.
At the time of our hike some portions of the blue path was closed due to landslides the previous year. Some of the tracks were partially opened and some others were completely closed till next year. From the Cinque Terre National Park website I downloaded a map of the hike routes and information about the current state of the tracks. The five villages on our hike route were Monterosso, Vernassa, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. And our stop over on the first day was a homestay midway between Vernassa and Corniglia on the blue path.

At Monterosso we stopped by at a restaurant to pick up some food and water. I also wanted to get some information about the status of the hike route. The owner of the restaurant told us that it will take about 1.5 -2 hours to reach Vernassa and an another half hour to reach the homestay. But he is not sure whether the hike route from Vernassa is open or not. Since its already a little bit late to start the hike he recommended us to take the train to Vernassa. “Take the next train at 4:25 pm and you will be there in Vernassa in 5 mins. From there you can easily hike to the homestay. Since it’s a sunny day the hike route may be open today”. Not an optimum beginning to our hike and definitely not something that I would have liked to hear. On one hand if he was right, it was already a bit late to start and if we didn’t find the hike route, it can get a bit risky as we will not be able to find our homestay in the darkness.
We thought for a while and then decided to fuck the risk!!! No risk, no fun, right? We came here to hike, so let’s take the chance. So Bru and I decided to try the luck. With a backpack of around 12 kgs, the hike was not exactly easy. Especially to climb up the stairs from Monterosso. We had to stop in between to catch the breath. I began to wonder if it would have been wiser to do the hike from Riomaggiore to Monterosso. In spite of the difficulties, the landscape was absolutely beautiful. It was motivating enough to keep us going. It took almost an hour before we started seeing Vernassa from a distance. Vernassa lies about 3.3 km from Monterosso.  About 10 minutes from Vernassa we came to a clearing which looked like a perfect  photo spot. With the golden light of the setting sun hitting the village from a distance, it was a quite magical view. We climbed down to Vernassa and walked around the village. In between we stopped to do some shopping for the night and for breakfast the next day.

 Afterwards we continued the blue path towards Corniglia. The distance between Vernassa and Corniglia is about 3.2 km.If the path is not closed then we should be able to find the homestay halfway between Vernassa and Corniglia. From almost sea level at Vernassa we again had to climb up to proceed to Corniglia. But the walk through the woodlands with a view of the sea on one side was never boring. After about 30-45 mins of hiking we reached our homestay called “the heart of Cinque Terre” in the small hamlet of Prevo. It was an absolutely beautiful location. The garden of the house was on the cliff with full view of the sea and from the balcony of the house one has a direct view of the village of Corniglia on the mountain top. Our host Peter was a nice guy. It is a pity that he has only one room to rent. We felt really lucky to have got the accommodation at this beautiful location in the national park and also directly in the blue path far away from all the noises and disturbance that comes along with such touristic places. It was beyond doubt the best place to live in the whole stretch.
We were glad that we found our accommodation in time. Both of us were really tired from the travelling and hiking the whole day. We sat on the garden overlooking the sea, enjoying the sunset, ate our dinner and finished our first wine bottle of the hike! Life couldn’t get any better than this.  We just chatted old stories long after we finished our dinner and also long after we finished our only bottle of wine. I always enjoyed travelling with Bru. Kind of freak like me, but honest, sincere  and more over we both have the passion for the same continent – Africa!

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