Hiking to Vernazza, Cinque Terre

Our first village-to-village hike in Cinque Terre heads over to Vernazza, the next town south along the Mediterranean from Monterosso.  We start on a path around the hill at the edge of the village, then proceed up up to the National Park trail booth, where we pay for a day's hiking on the trails (many of our hikes are over trails with no charge, but the popular lower trails between some of the villages require a payment to the National Park).

Around the hill, looking back at Monterosso

Proceed up and along the trail

We are rewarded with occastional glimpses back at Monterosso, growing steadily smaller as we continue.

Monterosso in the distance

The trail proceeds straight along the ridge overlooking the Mediterranean and, soon, we round the corner and start to get glimpses of Vernazza in the distance.  The trail has quite a few people hiking and we hear that earlier in the summer, some of the trails were made one way to ease the congestion.

The trail continues

Fabulous view of the sea

Magically, we turn the corner and Vernazza appears

But, we're not done with the trail yet, we have more fairly-level hiking along the ridge, then the descent into Vernazza.

Continuing

Vernazza grows closer

We're almost there!

The trail leads into the narrow streets of Vernazza and we descend into the city.

Streets of Vernazza