Vernazza & Monterosso al Mare

Lets start the day with a view from the top of the hiking path that looks down on to Vernazza, Just to remind you all why we picked Vernazza to stay in for our 3 days in The Cinque Terre:
You have to climb a bit to get this photo, but it is totally worth it.  Hiking is big in The Cinque Terre. You can hike from one town to the next or take the train or do a little of both.  A couple of the paths are still closed due to the flood of 2011, but they are being rebuilt.  If you like to hike, bring a good pair of hiking shoes (I prefer Keen's as they really protect my toes!), plenty of water, a couple of small snacks and a small bag or backpack to carry your camera, water & snacks.  I wish I would have brought my lunch and just stayed up on that hill side and enjoyed the view for a while longer.  As you can tell it was a beautiful day - clear weather. The path wound up & up.  I was amazed at the number of homes & rooms for rent I saw along the way.  There were even a couple of small bars/restaurants at the top!


On this day, CJS & I thought we would grab a train to Manarola in the morning and maybe Cornaglia in the afternoon.  However, somehow we got on the wrong train and ended up in Monterosso!  Which was not a bad thing, as we had Monterosso on our list to visit the next day.  It's nice to be on vacation and not in a hurry.  Be flexible and go with the flow I say!


So here is a Map of the 5 towns - you can see from Vernazza, it should have been an easy trip to  Manarola, then a quick stop in Corniglia on our way back home, right?  No, not if you are directionally challenged and head the wrong way!

So we ended up in lovely Monterrossa al Mare!
The town is divided in to two sections - the Old Town & the New Town.  The two are connected by a tunnel.  When you arrive in Monterrossa you will arrive in the New Town.  The New Town looks like a typical beach town.  Monterrossa has long beach, that runs almost its entire length.  It is well used by tourists and locals alike.  It really is one of the only real sandy beaches in The Cinque Terre.  They have umbrellas & chairs for rent and plenty of Seaside business for food, clothing, souvenirs.  It was lunch time when we arrived, so we found a close restaurant for lunch.  We were both a little disappointed by what we saw from the train station and the lunch was not that good (bad restaurant choice on our part!) Never look for a place to eat when you are really hungry!  Ask a local where to eat.  Monterrossa is the largest of the 5 towns, so we thought, maybe we would pass it by and head to Corniglia after lunch.  We decided to stroll around a bit after lunch before heading back to the train station.  This is when we discovered the tunnel to Old Town, and what a difference that made!!
          As you can see by the below picture, New Town looks  little like Disney, doesn't it?

New Town Monterosso

After lunch we strolled the new town area an found a boardwalk that headed up hill.  When we got to the top of the hill, there was what looked like a large cargo container (like you see on boats & trains) and the doors were open.

There were these lovely little benches to sit on all along the cliffs looking over the Sea.  I wanted to go investigate the cargo container, and CJS opted for sitting on the bench and taking in the view.

Old Town Monterosso

I walked inside and discovered it was several cargo containers, put end to end to create a tunnel.  There were signs throughout telling you not to worry about hearing falling rocks - the containers will protect your head!  What they were doing was re-building a safe path from New Town to Old Town.  They were using the containers as the temporary walk-way.  I walked all the way to the other end and discovered Old Town.  There was a street artist playing an electric piano for tips in the middle of the tunnel.  It gave the tunnel an eery calm feeling.  I quickly rushed back to get CJS so we could explore Old Town together.

What a wonderful town.  Even though Monterosso is much larger than Vernazza, it has its own special charms.  There are many things to do in Monterosso - hike, boat, shop, wander around through the village and take in the sites, sounds and smells.  It is a fabulous town for just letting your feet take you where they will.  If you want some history & culture, there is the Church of San Giovanni Battista, which you will fine in the main square of the Old Town,  The San Francesco Church where there are major works of art, the concrete Statue of the Giant and the Soviore Sanctuary which is high up atop Monterosso.  We mostly strolled, poked our heads in stores, buildings & churches.  And of course we stopped for Gelato.

CJS was very intrigued with the photo to the left.  It is of the Church of San Giovanni (White & Black marble with the tower behind) and the building to the side in Yellow & Orange stripes.  She actually saw this painting in Storie in Italy and bought a little charm for her necklace of this.  When she found the exact spot where the artist had sat to do his painting, she just had to take the shot.  Beautiful, yes?

Then there was the giant rock climbing adventure.  On the New Town side of the beach there was this giant rock sticking up out
of the water.  See picture below taken from the nice little bench that CJS was sitting at, near the top of the boardwalk.


CJS says to me -- 'you should go climb that!'  It was a beautiful day and I had my Keens on, so I thought, why not?   I had to time the tide so I could jump on to the rock and not get my feet wet.

Here are a couple of shots for fun. I later saw the sign warning 'no Climbing on the rock', but oh well.

We had fun in Monterosso del Mare.  It is the largest of the towns, and quite convenient if you are looking for a place to stay that has more options for hotels & rooms than Vernazza.

Next up, back on the train and home to Vernazza!

 More of Cinque Terre to come - we still have Cornagila, Manarola & Riomaggiore to explore before heading to Lerici!