cinque terre, part 3 – a tale of vernazza

walking into vernazza from corniglia

vernazza is really beautiful.

a cosily packed bunch of houses on a finger of land that juts out from the cliffs into the sea, forming some sort of a natural cove. well, raymond (my travel bud) had mentioned that vernazza had actually suffered quite siginificant damage due to flooding (inland, not from the sea.. in case you were wondering like me). and things were actually still in pretty bad shape up till march this year.

so i was glad to see a vibrant little township, with things pretty much all restored and the damaged houses freshly painted in cherry hues of yellow and pink.

mind you, the journey from corniglia to vernazza ain’t easy, considering that you first have to scale a ridiculous amount of steps to even get from the train station at corniglia to corniglia, and then embark on a circuitous, hill-climbing journey that spans roughly 2km. i was panting and really annoyed at my lack of fitness whilst huffing along the paths, and very very glad i had bought a full litre of mineral water in corniglia.

so of course i rewarded myself to an artigianale gelato in Vernazza – choosing a crema di Vernazza which is a blend of vanilla, strawberry and white chocolate bits. yummy!