Moneglia

04/06/2010

The Cinque Terra, in case you don't know, refers to a series of 5 villages right on the coastline and also the surrounding area. The whole thing is world heritage listed and main coastal track, about 12km long, connecting the villages is a famous walking trail. By the time we'd gone the few stations to get to Monte Rosso, the northern most town of the Cinque Terra, we seem to have picked up most of the tourists in northwest Italy. Surprisingly, not many of them alighted with us, so we assumed they must be walking south to north. The first stretch of the path is pretty tough going, sometimes no more than a goat track of the side of mountain and constantly up and down as it winds arounds the ridges and valleys. Spectacular scenery all the way, though. The very last section is a much wider, level and paved path and is known as via amore (lover's walk). There is a custom in one particular section for couples to write their names on a padlock, lock it onto the hand railing by the path and throw the key into the ocean, thus sealing their love forever. There are thousands of them.

After taken the train back to Moneglia, we headed to the beach for a swim. The water was magnificent and was enough for us to decide to stay another day, just taking it easy.