Vernazza - Manarola

We had a bit of a sleep in this morning, although we were all awake pretty early as we’d left the shutters open because of the drying laundry. We went up the hill for brekky, then headed for the Torre (tower), which was on the path to Corniglia (the third village). Lots of stairs and some lovely views. The whole trek to Corniglia takes about 90 minutes, but currently the path is closed due to some nasty landslides a while ago (2011?).

Around midday we took the boat to Manarola, which is a 10 minute trip. Lovely views of Vernazza, Corniglia (which the boat bypasses as Corniglia is on top of a hill),

and then Manarola.

The boat docks at a very small, concrete jetty. Manarola has no beach, no harbour, and the waterfront is just rocks. Nevertheless we all really liked this village, much more so than Vernazza. It’s less touristy for a start, so the prices were lower! Caelli bought a sunhat (the stripey one).

We walked towards Corniglia around the headland, with views of Manarola looking south and Corniglia looking north. 

The path was closed just around the headland. We found some steps going up, so headed there. We passed a playground (Caelli had a swing and a slide), then found ourselves at the cemetery which was lovely, and very interesting.

We followed another path north, then up, and found ourselves on the Manarola Vineyard Walk, which goes in between some of the terraced gardens. Fruit trees, vines and vegetables, mainly, but there are a lot of weeds and flowers, many of which I recognised. Flanders poppies, a couple of species of mallow with pretty flowers, oxalis – all weeds – and bearded iris, daisies, bougainvillaea and pelargoniums were planted. This path took us to the back half of the village where we saw the Chiesa San Lorenzo and the creek, which had some pretty bridges across it.

Caelli and I took the boat back to Vernazza; Phil decided not to tempt fate and caught a train back (he didn’t get seasick on the trip over). Manarola with the cliff walk on the left:

And no - she's not throwing up. She just likes to travel as close to the water as possible.

Disembarkation back at Vernazza, with Caelli standing in the bow.

Late afternoon while Caelli did some homework, Phil and I went up the Castello Dario (castle). From the harbour, it was 200 steps to the top of the tower. The castle overlooks the harbour on one side and the beach on the other. When we climbed down again, we went through the little rock arch to have a look at the beach. There were a lot of people here, mostly sunbathing, as it warms up nicely in the afternoons when the sun has burnt off all the cloud.

We had found a nice little restaurant in Manarola, so we decided to go there for tea. Two stops on the train and  a short walk.  Caelli had pesto lasagne which was delicious, then tiramisu for dessert. Phil had a mixed grill of fishy things – prawns, calamari, fish. I had tagliatino with crayfish. The bill came to less than forty euros. Back on the train to Vernazza, ready for a 7.30 train in the morning.

Gelato flavours:  limone, nutella, tiramisu, caramel, fior di latte, cioccolata bianco (white chocolate).