The famous coastal trail leading from Riomaggiore to Monterosso was unfortunately closed due to heavy rain for safety reasons. However there are other trails to track, starting off from Manarola where we stayed. The people from the hostel suggested a trail from Manarola, which the starting point happened to be just further up the road, via Volastra and all the way to Vernazza.

On the way to the starting entry point, we passed this beautiful very mini version of waterfall. There are check points to keep hikers in check to make sure that people are not off the trail. It is in the form of red and white stripe.

At the point when we took this picture, we were near to trail leading to Groppo. Also at this point, I was getting warm from the walks and the jacket was taken off and shoved into the bag.



It was unfortunate about the coastal walk, but mountain views are breathtaking too :)

It was then followed by many, many, many steps uphill and we had to get off the walking trail as certain parts were to be avoided due to possible landslide and closure. We continued the walking journey on tar road... till we saw this.. and we stopped and started snapping pictures :P

These 5 villages by the sea are just beautiful. I believe the view by the closed coastal trail would have been magnificent.



Ah... see that railway track by the sea!


So you see.. the houses in the village is facing the sea with backyard of mountains. Like how those HK tv shows describes expensive mansions.

There was much more of walking involved and by this point, we were a little worry that we have missed the entry point to go down to the village. There were not a lot of cars, even lesser were people on foot. That equal to nobody for us to ask to see if we have missed the village. The story was if we missed the exit, we risked walking all the way to the mountains. Out of desperation, we flagged down a car to keep us in check. :P The driver thought we wanted to hitchhike but hehe.. he was willing to drive us to Corniglia but we declined but were really grateful.


Imagine our joy when we saw this. Yay! It meant that we have walked from Manarola and approaching to Corniglia... just need to hike all the way down.


See the village down at the end? Thats the destination...

But... these were the obstacles...


Verdict? We didn't make it down to Corniglia. The walking path somehow just died off. We reached a point where there just wasn't a path to walk. Our heart sank. It was quite a steep hike down, which translates to... a steep hike back up. So, back we went, retracing our steps and back to the tar road once again...

... till we come to this sign that read, "Vernazza 1 H 7." We have walked to the next village after Corniglia and that was the route we have to take. Going on further will lead to Monterosso if lucky, otherwise, all the way up to the mountains.



This trail was much better. We met slightly more people on this trail. Despite needing us to cross vineyards, bushes ...

And finally we came to Vernazza...


We later found out that the trail to Corniglia may have been closed too due to the rain. So it was a blessing in disguise not having to trek all the way down before coming back up again :)


Side note: Watching Burn Notice on bed...
Phew.. that was a long one...