Yesterday we went to bed and the waves were still crashing with a bit more force than the placid surf had presented on other days. This morning you would never have known anything had been going on: the sky was blue, the water crystal clear and calm. Our final day of walking in the general area of the Cinque Terre villages looked like it would be a lovely day to walk and take a boat ride back.
The easier group would take a far shorter and less challenging walk from Campiglia to Port Venere. The group tackling the harder option would have to first ascend paths from Riomaggiore to Campiglia and then follow the more difficult paths (avoiding a mountain road walk) that would take them to Port Venere too. We took the easier option. After taking a train to La Spezia the 10 of us doing the easier walk piled into taxis that drove up to the hilltop village of Campiglia. As we had ample time it made perfect sense to settle down for a mid-morning coffee break. After all, we had been en route for an hour or so even if it was by train and car. We finished our cakes and coffees and hoisted our packs at 10:20.
You leave the hilltop village by paved roads and forested paths that wander through the forests on the clifftops. It is easy walking. Now and then a view opens up and we were able to look out and down into the harbor where La Spezia resides.
After about 3km our widening forest roads and paths would take us to some type of installation. Maybe it has something to do with the navy. At this point our easy walk lead us onto a mountain road which we would follow, gently descending, for several kilometers. The sun beat down upon us, the high was 83F, as we walked along the dusty mountain road. At one point we had a good view of Campiglia to our west sitting up high above us.
It isn’t the most exciting road to walk down and we were probably lucky in our choice of lunch spot in a shaded curve that while out of the sun certainly had nothing to offer in the way of fine views.
In time our road intersected the Alte Via Golfo (High Gulf Way - the people tackling the harder walk would come down along that mountain trail).
We passed a small quarry and kept heading down. We still had some climbing to do. Leaving our mountain dirt road for a shady road that gently climbed and then following a short modestly steep trail we gained 40 meters in short order before picking up another road. By now we were within 1.5 miles of Porto Venere. We left the road for a descending mountain trail that steepened as we went. LIke so many trail in this region this one used steps to change elevation. We soon found ourselves sitting at a refuggio where you could buy a carafe of whine for 2 euros: many people did. Not long before reaching the refuggio we had passed a sign suggesting it would take 45 minutes to reach Port Venere from that point. If you see signs with place names and what looks like a distance remember that in mainland Europe a decimal number like that is in fact a time. It turns out that the 45 minutes is likely about right for an average. We plunged away from the refiuggio rapidly descending rough steps, sometimes very narrow , towards the sea. I think I got down in about an hour; Mom 45 minutes.
We still had well over an hour before our boat ride would commence. Ample time to enjoy a gelato and then stroll around the resort-like port. It was nice to just relax while waiting to board the boat. This may not have been the most exciting walk we have done but we enjoyed it nonetheless.
The boat ride back was a fine way to end the day. It might be best to think of the boat as a water taxi. It stops at all the Cinque Terre villages (not sure if it goes beyond Monterosso) and seems to have its home port at Porto Venere. However, it is definitely not a tour boat as the only announcements you are going to hear are very brief ones saying the boat is landing and leaving a village.
We rounded the point of Porto Venere with its fortress sitting on the bluff guarding the entrance to the harbor. The boat motored smoothly northwest along the coast. Small clutches of buildings dotted the mountainous coastline. Campiglia came into view. Other tiny settlements were passed. Somewhere up there, as many of these hamlets definitely do not have access to the sea, there must be roads.
Eventually Riomaggiore came into view. Many describe the villages of Cinque Terre as picturesque. I did not find that to be true while walking in the villages. They do look much prettier as they come into view from the boat. It also became clear why boats like ours cannot dock in anything other than pretty calm waters. We just sort of nose into a quayside, drop a gangplank, and passengers are disembarked and then embarked onto the boat. In remarkably short order we visited Riomaggiore, Monarola, Corniglia, and finally Vernazza where the entire HF group (the hard walking group had joined us) left the boat. I am not sure why we did not go all the way to the last village of Monterosso. Vernazza does seem to have more charm but it would have been nice to see all the villages from the sea and the timing as far as train to Bonassola goes doesn’t matter. We had nearly an hour to while away before catching our train at 18:30to Bonassola.
This was a long day as we had left the hotel a bit before 08:30 and did not return to it until about 19:00. A lot of travel time, a fair bit of waiting, and plenty of enjoyable walking or other sightseeing along the way.
Stats: The walk today was just over 8.9km long. We ascended 150 meters and descended 500 meters. Those ascent and descent numbers are considerably lower than we had been expecting. The overall length of the walk was shorter than expected too but by not as much. We took 48 minutes off from walking but were moving for 3 hours 47 minutes. Under direct sun shine, mostly when walking the mountain road for about 3.5km, the temperature rose to about 83F. It was easily 10 degrees cooler in the shade.
Photos1 In the distance you can kind of see La Spezia.
2 Looking to the west and up towards Campiglia.
3 You start to get a sense of how large La Spezia is. Much bigger than we thought.
4 The numbers you see on this sign are not distances but time. “AVG” refers to the name of the route: Alte Via Golfo (High Gulf Way).
5 We have about a mile to go and about 650 feet to descend. We are heading to what you see (more or less). Lots of it irregular steps to trudge down.
6 The fortress at the headland of Porto Venere.
7 Little clusters of buildings, usually including a church, pop up all along the coastline. Most do not have access to the sea but we had a tough time spotting roads.
8 The collage shows the 4 Cinque Terre village we passed on our boat trip
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