Via dell'Amore, Day 11, 7/12/18

All Linda and Amanda wanted was a salad

Via dell'Amore (street of love) one of the most romantic and famous stretches of the hiking trail along the coastline from Rigomaggiore to Manorala. This trail, while not dating back to Roman times, is fairly new. It is a hard rock trail winding along the Mediterranean Sea. If you are a tourist in Cinque Terra this is on the to do list. Needless to say, stunning vistas. A portion of the trail was closed, but we did manage to get 22,000 Fitbit steps.
Today we toured the rest of the villages. Since the trail was partially closed, we traveled from village to village by train. Some were air conditioned, some were not. We liked some, did not like others. While all the villages were very pretty and colorful, our favorite was Manarola. Our biggest challenge was Corniglia. Corniglia is the smallest and the highest of the five villages. There is no port. The only way to get there is by train or walking. We took both options. We rode the train to the station and walked about one half mile to the beginning of a multi-layered terraced walk way that led to the top. The village is 382' high. The village is surrounded on three sides by terraces and vineyards. The steps I am talking about is called Lardarina. There are 33 flights with 382 steps. While this does not sound like much to you, especially if you are sitting at a computer reading this article, I will be the first to tell you, it is a tough hike going up. Not so bad going down.
A word of advise to anyone planning a trip to the Cinque Terre, get on your treadmill and get on it now. Put some hills on your exercise program. A bit of a challenge, we did it and would not miss it for the world. We returned to La Spezia, tired, but ready for more. We walked down to the town center, had dinner and called it a day.