Cinque Terre, part 2

We started out on our hike and quickly realized that this would not be a quick romp along the coast. This section of the path is wide and paved and very accommodating. Therefore, this is the part of the path that everyone walks -- people with children dawdling along, unwieldy tour groups following an amplified guide who holds a flag tied to an umbrella high in the air so as to be found and followed in a crowd, older couples going at a clip that may well be fast for them but not quite as fast as others... Basically everyone is out there, and everyone is loving it.

This part of the path is more of a Sunday stroll than a hike and with the scenery that surrounds you, it's a welcome suggestion to slow down and take it in. You walk high above the sea and are privy to coastal views all the way to the next village. The sea below races along the shore kicking up frothy waves, sailboats flit along the route, and wildflowers and lizards scale the rocky coast. It is nothing less than breath-taking.



Manarola was our second town and the one we plan to return to first. It was small and colorful and had the best swimming along the trail. It's beach was rocky and aquamarine and had coves and crags and all of the niches that make swimming interesting. We skipped the swimming this time due to time concerns -- and apparently it was very cold as well. An Italian mother showing her small child the beach from where we were standing kept saying it was freezing cold and only the Germans were going in the water -- which I doubt was a compelling argument from the child's point of view for staying out of the fun-looking water.

The food was also great in this town. We stopped at a small walk-up foccaciaria where there was an embarrassment of food riches on display. We weren't ready for lunch but we could hardly pass up a chunk of foccacia with pesto, a local specialty, heaped on. It was wonderful and demure pesto -- with the basil's flavors left dancing, rather than smothered in garlic. We shared it on a bench outside of the shop, among the boats that lay there waiting to be used.



We were sorry to leave Manarola and get back on the trail but it was only the second of five towns we were to visit that day. And so off we went. Again, the trail was gentle and well-populated. And the views were incredible.



There is a certain unique challenge to this sort of travel, this kind of trail. It's the danger of becoming numb to the splendor of the views, to take for granted the sea scent flirting in the air, to stop being amazed at the golden pops of cactus flowers along the way. It's true, the first views you take of this area give you pause - you struggle to see it as a whole, to catalogue and comprehend the view, and feel so lucky for being there at that moment. And in fact, to be alive. But then you move on and you see another beautiful town - the kind you've only seen on postcards before - and you think how pretty it is. And the next town is pretty too. And then the next one... I don't have an answer for the challenge of staying "in awe" but I guess when the problem is seeing too many beautiful things at once, it's one of the best problems to have.