Today we saw two of the “Five Towns,” Vernazza & Monterosso. We took the train to Vernazza, ate some breakfast in the main square on the water and then explored the town. A fairly leisurely afternoon in the hottest sun thus far. We then began the 3 kilometer hike to Monterosso. All five of the towns are connected by what is known as the “Blue Trail.” Unfortunately, heavy rains a few years back caused extensive landslides which closed all of the trails but this one. This is the longest and most difficult of the four but has some of the best views.
We climbed and climbed, through vineyards and past tiny farms. We kept getting views of Vernazza that I have seen in photos in magazines. Climb, climb, climb… we got to over 166 meters (Almost 550 feet). The hike, along cliffs over the Mediterranean was breathtaking. Van said it was the nicest she had been on ever and we’ve hiked many trails. We shot video along the way.
Despite the vertical ups and downs and the many photo & video stops, it wasn’t long until we saw the village of Monterosso in the near distance. Down we climbed, again through many vineyards and over narrow trails perched above sheer cliffs leading down to the Mediterranean Sea. Monterosso supposedly has the nicest beaches, meaning the nicest to lay a towel on and sunbath so it is the most touristy.
We immediately saw drunk, sunburnt, British tourists. This is not our type of place. The town was far less cute than the other three we’ve seen thus far. Our dinner was alright but the most expensive yet. We were here for one reason: to see Arsenal Football Club play Hull City. Monterosso had the only pub in the five villages that had a large screen TV that we could find. Our Italian friend Cristiano warned us that it would be difficult to find a place that played anything other than Italy’s premiere league, Serie A. We quickly found The Fast Bar and sure enough, the bartender claimed to not know of Arsenal or The English Premier League. He asked his boss who did claim to know what we were looking for and told us he would put the game on. Arsenal won 3-0.
The pleasure of the win quickly turned when we took the wrong train which blew past our stop full speed. We exited in the next town and luckily there was one more train heading back north. We waited a long hour, intoxicated and tired but finally got back to Riomaggiore.
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