Vernazza, one of the five towns that make up the Cinque Terre region is composed of beautiful colorful homes and a small marina. It's one of the most relaxing places I've ever visited. There are no cars, no pollution, no worries. A small population of only 1,000 people make up this village where many tourists come each year to enjoy a few relaxing days next to the marina or hiking from village to village. I visited Vernazza for a quick 2-day trip with some friends. The village is so small you can walk around the whole area in 5 minutes but it is still worth the visit. There more restaurants in Vernazza than there are any other types of businesses. We ate at two restaurants with similar price ranges. I spent about 15 and 25 euros at each restaurant. One where I only had spaghetti and water and the other where I had pizza, wine, and water. The food was delicious but the view of the Italian Riviera was by far the best part of the dinner!! While in Vernazza, my friends and I did a lot of relaxing but the best part was hiking to the village next door to it, Corniglia. Vernazza is in the middle of both Corniglia and Monterosso. One of my friends decided to go to Monterosso via train since she's not much of a hiker. Monterosso is mainly just a beach area, so that was more up her alley than hiking. I, on the other hand, was up for the challenge. So I headed on a 2 hour hike with my other friend. When we reached the start of the mountain there was a small cabin that charged hikers a small fee in order to cross over. We ended up paying the children's price of €4 to be able to start our journey. Why we paid the children’s price, I do not know but it saved us €3. As we were about to begin our hike, the man in the cabin said it should only take about an hour. We, however, are not hikers so it took us twice as long. After an hour of hiking up the most steep mountain I have ever seen in my life, I thought we had finally made it but I was wrong!! There was a big sign at the top of the last uphill stairway that read “You are 1/2 there.” This sign also happened to be the sign to a restaurant which said it sold smoothies so since I was only halfway through my hike, a smoothie sounded like a good idea! I ordered my smoothie and to my surprise it wasn’t really a smoothie but instead freshly squeezed orange juice! I was very disappointed! After I finished my “smoothie” we continued on our hike which got a lot easier since it was only downhill from there. Before we started marching downhill we stopped by a small balcony that had an amazing view of the villages we were between. One hour later, we finally had made it to Corniglia. Corniglia, to no surprise was also very small (maybe a tad bit bigger than Vernazza) but it had a few more restaurants and seemed as more of a residential area than did Vernazza. It was a very cute village which my friend and I finished exploring in about 15 minutes. We then decided to do a bit of souvenir shopping and ate some pizza before we went back to Vernazza. When we headed back to Vernazza, we did so via a bus that took you to the train station. I was too tired to hike my way back!! In Vernazza, we spent our last night eating great food, enjoying gelato, and admiring the beauty of the Italian Riviera. Vernazza was a beautiful experience that I hope to have again, but next time I’d like to hike between all five villages!! Hopefully I’ll be in better shape by then!!
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