Corniglia is the middle village in Cinque Terre. It is the only village where the ferry does not stop. It is a pretty small little village that is very high up on the hillside. To get down to the water (which we did) it is hundreds of stairs. We tried to count, but it was so many we lost track. When we got to the water, there was a really pretty stream that poured into the sea. It was in a jumble of rocks and I decided it would be fun to go across the rocks to the stream. The rocks looked dry…but they weren’t. They were extremely slippery. I slipped and fell right on my tailbone and almost knocked both my wife and myself into the water. That would have been cold.

There really isn’t much to do in Corniglia so we hiked on to Vernazza. This is where we ran into a little snag. The normal trail to Vernazza was closed for repairs so the helpful attendant told us we could take the road. So off we went, up and up and up and up and up. We ended up following the road for probably 4 miles and we finally got to the top. We had a map so we were planning on taking one of the minor trails.

We got about 500 feet down the trail which was very steep with switchbacks (oh and nothing over the edge except a long way down) when we came to a railing “protecting” you from falling. The problem was two of the five posts had fallen off down the cliff. At this point we turned around and headed back to the road. We then continued to follow the road all the way to Vernazza. It was a long way. I estimate 7 miles or so. Luckily, we were at the top of the mountain so it was mostly downhill. At one point it was so steep that we were basically falling forward running.