Climb Every Mountain

This is our second post for Monday. Our original plan was to take it easy after lunch, so we decided we would just stroll from the old town of Monterosso (where we are staying) to the new section. It was pretty closed down, but we poked about and did some hikettes around the area.

After exploring, our legs were only a little wobbly, so Howard suggested we hop on the local train and get ourselves down to Riomaggiore, town number 1 in the Cinque Terre lineup. Upon arriving in Riomaggiore, we went on Rick's self-guided walking tour.

Howard has a few comments about the terraces.

It always amazes me how people can look at a slope of land and see a city or terraced farms. The next picture shows terraced walls on the hill sides. These walls are everywhere. At first, I thought nothing of them, but the mural which also follows, depicts the efforts to make these walls. It was all work done by hand, chiseling the rock, hauling it up and placing it until terraced plots and farms were completed. It was a huge undertaking, cooperatively and with a common goal of making the land productive in order for a small hamlet, now village, to survive. Without these walls, I seriously doubt there would be a Cinque Terre, at least not as you see it today. What an amazing feat, an amazing act of community and an amazing act of cooperation.

We then decided that since this was our rest day (ha ha), we would walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola, town number 2. This walk, the Via dell' Amore, or Lover's Walk, was named for the amorous graffiti along the path. Did someone say GRAFFITI?

Because there were video cameras along the way, I only left a little flaming heART.

Emboldened by another couple who scratched their names onto a rock a bit down the path, I whipped out my red weapon of destruction (or whatever name I gave it previously) and went to work imediately. (I must admit, they were a bit impressed that I was carrying such a fine red pen.)

Once we walked into Manarola, we again followed Rick's walking tour.

We caught the train back to our home base of Monterosso, had a cappucino, and rested our legs by doing a blog post.