Hiking the Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre towns are connected with gorgeous hiking trails along the Ligurian coast. During our 6 days in Vernazza we hiked all the segments. The above photo is a view of Vernazza from the trail to Monterosso. Our apartment was right behind the bell tower on the left of the picture. The towns are also connected by the train. It's very comfy hiking - 2 hours of hiking to a beautiful new town, we'd stop to explore, get gelato or lunch then take the train home. It was a nice mixture of walking and wandering with Kelton.

Our first hike was just up to the tower in Vernazza. The view was wonderful, and the tower stairs were fun if a tight fit with Kelton in the backpack. It also gave us a chance to build up our leg muscles for stairs. Everything in Cinque Terre was up lots of stairs.


Kelton is surprisingly content in his backpack. He loves to look out at the water, see the flowers and even spot the occasional cat in town.


Kelton will often fall asleep in the backpack and I suddenly feel a heavy little head resting on my back. On the long hike to Manarola Kelton slept for 2 hours, one on my back then another one in David's arms while we watched the sunset over the town.



Of course usually when we get to a town Kelton will wake up and we'll let him out. He loves to run. Here's Dad in hot pursuit when he goes too far to fast.


One day we took a boat ride to Riomaggiore then hiked the trail back towards Vernazza. It was Kelton's first trip on a boat. He really enjoyed the ride, although when the wind would blow strongly he'd hide his head against my back. He saw a man in a rowboat and was all excited - he thought the oars were brooms.



We had such a nice time in Cinque Terre that it was hard to leave!