Corniglia & Vernazza

The day following our trek to Manarola, we visited two more of the five towns: Corniglia and Vernazza. Looking back on the experience now, these two were probably by favorite of the five towns at Cinque Terre. We took the train this day, much to to that excitement of my aching legs. However, after exiting the platform at Corniglia, we found ourselves facing a tall, seemingly endless, flight of stairs! After about five minutes (it felt like an eternity) we reached the top, and followed the road down and into the town's main area. From there, we were pretty much free to explore for ourselves for a couple of hours. With a couple other people from my group, I walked through the small town via narrow streets, popping in and out of local shops. Following a sign "Alla Marina," "To the sea," we found ourselves overlooking the Mediterranean on one side, and hills of terraces grapevines on the other. Below us was a small cove of beautiful turquoise water, but, because of time, we were unable to climb down yet another flight of stairs that would lead us there. Corniglia was so quaint, and I absolutely fell in love with the way the light and color from the buildings magically reflected off surrounding walls.

After leaving this third town, we jumped back on the train and five minutes later, we found ourselves in Vernazza. Town number four was different from Corniglia, but equally amazing. It was much more crowded, and it's main street was wider which allowed for more crowds of tourists to make their way through. In Vernazza, we were also given a couple of hours to relax, because after this, we were going to be hiking once again. These couple hours provided just enough time to grab a bite to eat (olive foccacia, of course) and then sit by the bay. A few of us found ourselves a large rock, partly submerged in the sea, and relaxed here in our swimsuits for the remaining time. The hours passed by quickly, and before we knew it, we were hiking up and up the hill next to Vernazza, the town slowly growing smaller and smaller. The trail we were on would eventually lead to Monterosso, the fifth and final town. However, we would be saving that for another day. A little under halfway up the path, our instructor stopped us at a lookout point where we'd be drawing for another couple of hours. The view was amazing; giving us nearly a birds eye perspective on the town below. We would be returning to this location a couple days later to finish the art that we started. 

The above images are all from Corniglia; taken as I explored the town. The rest of the photos below show Vernazza, and the beautiful trail we took that overlooked the town and the sea.