Corniglia is different to the other towns in the Cinque Terre. It is elevated 100 metres above the sea, and only reachable by climbing the Lardarina, a long flight of 377 stairs. If this is too much, you can also get there by walking up a long and winding road. It takes about 20 minutes to walk up from the train station at the bottom. There is also a bus that goes up and down according to the train schedule.
We chose to take the road, mostly because we were the first off the train and took the wrong turn to get to the stairs. It turns out it was a good choice, the stairs would have been way harder. They're the type of stairs that are very common in Italy, wide and very shallow. Very frustrating to walk up and down! It was a really nice walk, there were no cars and we had a great view of the sea and Manarola. We also got to see all the old Tuscan houses. I love the old houses made of stone, so amazing.
It was so hot, we had to stop and get some frozen yoghurt immediately upon arriving at the top! Frozen yoghurt, not gelato, because it was the first place we came across, but also the toppings you could have looked so yummy. We pretty much saw the guy ordering in front of us and said 'We'll have that!'.
We didn't seem to have any problems with the language in Italy actually. We had a phrase book so we knew the basics, and managed to convey what we wanted most of the time anyway. Plus, the Italian people are so friendly and helpful, we always just ended up laughing when having conversations.
Yum yum frozen yoghurt with chocolate sauce
Corniglia seemed to be much smaller than the other towns. Perhaps because it is on top of the cliffs, but it was very compact and we managed to wander round the whole town in about an hour. We then had about 45 minutes until the next train that stopped at Vernazza, so we just sat in the sunshine and admired the view before the hike down the stairs back to the train station. Going down is obviously much easier than going up, and we passed heaps of people coming up taking breaks on the benches at every level.
What we really noticed about the Cinque Terre in general was how many New Zealander's we heard. They were literally everywhere, probably one of the most common accents we heard apart from American. Plus heaps of Kiwi's were wearing NZ memorabilia of some sort. Not as bad as the Aussies though, clad in green and yellow rugby jerseys!
We found this sign hilarious for obvious reasons...
The view towards Vernazza and Monterosso
Looking out over to Manarola
The 377 stairs back to the train station
What I really liked about Corniglia was how all the locals knew each other, so every-time they'd pass someone they'd be like 'Ciao!'. Even the kids, though they were more reluctant and said it as they were running away. The way of life in Italy seems great, loved the old Italian ladies sitting together chatting and enjoying the sunshine.
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