Mountain Training Camp
The Cinque Terre are five small fishing villages perched on the edge of the mountains where they meet the Meditteranean sea. Until the 1960's they were completely cut off from the rest of the world except for a network of paths that linked the villages. Now a train links the villages. There is a path that runs along the coast between the villages and many paths leading up into the mountains,Our room was in an apartment in the first town, Riomaggiore and half way up the hillside. The first day here it was raining but as I needed to send a document back to the UK we headed by train into the nearest big town; La Spezia on the train where I managed to deal with the charming postmaster entirely in Italian. I'm not sure if the letter will ever get there but I think I sent it to UK, express post!
The following day the weather was a gorgeous sunny, warm autumn day so we headed out for a run in the morning along the coast path that links the villages. It is flat and paved to the first village, Manorola, but then becomes a rocky, hilly track up to the next village of Corniglia. At one point in the run it became too steep for me to run up and was a bit hazardous on the way down, but no ankles were broken. Back in Riomaggiore I had to make it back up to our apartment and only made it half way up the hill before I had to walk. In total 6km.
After breakfast Mr lulu decided a long walk was in order so we looked at the map and he decided that the coast path was too easy ' only for running ' and he identified the highest point above the village as our target for the day, 635m above the village. It seemed to be straight up most f the way and took us just over an hour of climbing up through the vineyards and olive groves on steps and a rocky path to the top. Once we got there we walked along a path at the top until we came to a bar and another path back down to the village. It took us about 3.5 hours in total to do the walk and going down was nearly as bad as going up.
No run for me the next day but we decided to walk all the way along the five villages. It might be an easy path to the first two but the following two it's quite a tough path going up and down to each of the villages and even Mr lulu was glad to arrive in the last one, Monterosso after about 4 hours of walking. That includes stops for refreshment along the way of course!
Here are a couple of pictures:
First is a picture from the walking trail that goes between the five villages. You can see me (wearing a CR cap!) having made it to the fourth village, Vernazza which is one of the prettiest. The section between the previous town and this one is the worst section of the path, lots of ups and downs, very narrow and rough so we were pleased to see the town ahead.
Second, is a pic of Riomaggiore, taken from the water on the day when we didn't do a long walk and took a boat trip instead. A very lovely place to stay and our apartment was in the orange building on the left of the picture towards the top of the village.
Two more runs along the path between the villages of 7.5km and 6km as well as some shorter walks and our time in the mountain training camp is over as we head to Rome today.
More from there later as we have to go and catch our train now. Ciao!
posted by Lulu @ 6:45 PM
13 Comments:
Wow. Sounds incredible Lulu. Can't wait to see the photos...and wait until I tell you about Don Juan singing YMCA at kareoke!!
635 metres! Secret 6' training Lulu?
See ya (that's Ciao in Aussie).
I think Ewen might have you pegged...
Great stuff lulu - sounds simply divine ;-)
Impressive stuff - I should be there doing my 6' training :-)
I have a calendar of Cinque Terre and it has some beuatiful photos of the villages and the coastline.
It's all just making me feel like I need a holiday.
Enjoy the rest of the trip Lulu - keep up all that wonderful exercising in the hills. Great for the legs and butt!
Some impressive aerobic workouts, and sounds very scenic and romantic too.
At karaoke I had the ladies swooning and throwing their knickers at me.
Ciao Bella.
yeah - I want to see the photos too!! Not that your gorgeously illustrative turn of prose doesn't do it all justice - piccies would just be nice too :)
Oh wow Lulu - that brings back great memories. Cinque Terra - so amazing and so many hills for you! You did well walking to all the villages. When we were there we could only manage two cos it decided to absolutely pour with rain. You were lucky having stunning weather.Keep having a ball. I'm impressed with your running among all those hills.
Lordy! This is what you call a holiday?
Sounds like a wonderful holiday. I'm sure the views are spectacular!
Not-so-secret training for Fitzroy Falls 10km! BTW Don Juan is delusional. Can't wait to catch up.
Wow. What a stunnning place.
Good to have you back!
Fabulous pics, Lulu; just love them!
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