Europe Day 4: Corniglia

Morning Corniglia! Why are you so beautiful? We started this lovely morning with breakfast at a nice outdoor cafe which apparently is also owned by the “ex-mayor”. After breakfast, we began our 4-hour hike to explore the other villages. On our way to the trails we saw a boat going out of the village when suddenly, the “ex-mayor” appears again and says, “like my boat?” It was then we all thought, what else do you own??? Comedic relief aside, we begin our hike with pulsatile upward spurts. Along the way we made sure that no one fell off the trail by having our timely headcounts and antibiotics counts being the geeks we all are. After 2 hours, we arrive at the next village of Vernazza – a cute yet relatively more touristy village. After eating much needed popsicles and seeing their seaside, we’re off again to the village of Monterosso – which apparently is a resort built for tourists. As expected, the village is relatively bigger than the other two and the beach is packed with tourists. After having some focaccia for lunch and meeting another owner of a restaurant who also seem to own everything, it is beach time! Lawn chairs and umbrella spots for rental? Great business plan. During this time, we met an adorable Italian girl who really enjoyed playing (well more like picking on us for Aimes) and talking with us, although we had no idea what she is saying. A little French boy also joined us and we all almost died of sweetness when the girl brought him over to meet her mom 🙂 It rained very briefly but it quickly passed. Next – training to the other end of Cinque Terre to Riomaggoire. After viewing the town for a bit and eating some sweets, we walked along “Lovers’ Path” to the next village of Manorola. This very romantic walk has probably been ruined for some couples by our craziness. But that’s ok. Along the walk, we saw many locks attached to bridges, chains and fences with names of couples, meaning their love will be locked together according to our Italian coordinator. Apparently the keys to these locks were thrown away after – very romantic. In addition, the walls were filled with declarations of love – some sweet, some sad and others just crazy aka ours. We originally planned to hike the whole way to Corniglia from Manorola for completeness but that trail was closed because of landslides. So we trained back. By the time we got home, all the markets were closed so our original plan go cook didn’t work out. Instead, we decided to have a picnic at the marina, where we ended our day with some heart to heart.