Cinque Terre - Day 2

We were awake early, though neither of us exactly sprang out of bed. Tash was nursing a hangover and I had a bit of a heavy head myself—not too bad, just enough to remind us of the night before. We packed up our things and checked out, then left our bags on the quay by the boat ticket office, fingers crossed they’d still be there later.

We popped into the supermarket to stock up on supplies before catching the boat. It turned up on time and the crossing to the next town took about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, the sway of the boat didn’t sit well with Tash’s hangover, and she ended up being sick—poor thing.

Once we arrived at Riomaggiore, we had a little wander around the town to get our bearings, then set off on the hiking trail. The start was brutal—very steep and pretty hard-going. We were both sweating like mad within minutes, me more so as per usual. A small church gave us a good excuse to pause, then we carried on. The trail evened out into more manageable ups and downs, and while still challenging, it wasn’t as punishing as that first climb.

I had a few comments on my Lord of the Rings t-shirt from fellow hikers, which was a nice little boost. We made regular stops for food, drink, and to take in the incredible views of the coastline—absolutely stunning. It took us around five hours in total. It was tough going, but rewarding, and the terrain reminded me a lot of other recent hikes we've done. Familiar, but still a test.

When we got back to Porto Venere, we were relieved to find our bags exactly where we’d left them. From there, we jumped straight onto the boat to Vernazza, where we’ll be staying for the next four nights. We met our host, Elena and found the place easily—tucked away from the main hustle of town, which suits us perfectly. Lovely little setting.

We settled in for a bit—Tash sunbathed and read, and I just flopped out and wasted a bit of time scrolling on my phone. Then we got ourselves ready for our 7:00pm dinner reservation. It was a close call - the restaurant looked closed at first, but thankfully they let us in. Turned out a reservation was essential. The food was great, but we didn’t get a prime spot to enjoy the sunset, which was a bit of a shame.

We did, however, meet a really friendly couple from Denmark and had a good chat with them between courses. After dinner, we headed down to the quay and grabbed a couple of drinks just in time to catch the sunset properly from there. Vernazza is a gorgeous place - we were both really happy with it.

We had a little explore around the town afterwards, soaking up the atmosphere, then grabbed a couple of beers to take back to the apartment. We ended the day sitting on our veranda, sipping our drinks and relaxing under the evening sky. Brilliant day. Absolutely shattered.