Should have brought that headlamp...

We should have brought a headlamp... Thinking that we would have good light situations for pictures, we started the 12km Cinque Terra trail at 6:45pm. The sun sets at around 8:10pm these days, but we had been cranking out kilometers like it is our job lately. We probably should have thought a little harder about the situation and thrown that light in the day pack, but we have been rolling with the punches really well.

Cinque Terra is an Italian national park, consisting of 5 tiny coastal towns (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggior) and a trail that connects them with lots of side trails along the way. We decided to take the train to Riomaggior and hike to Monterosso where we would spend the night. It is decieving to start the trail in Riomaggior, the trail is much easier on that end.

We charged the trail, stopping to capture a scene with the camera here and there arriving in Vernazza (the 4th town from our direction) right before sunset. Now, we just had to make the 5th portion of the trail back to Monterosso and dinner. The twilight faded way too fast. The first 4/5ths of the trail had taken us about 2 hours, the last fifth, in the dark, would take us another 2 hours... about that head lamp.

We are not talking about a level, solid, well lit, well marked path here. Instead we are talking about a rocky, uphill, downhill, meandering, pitch-black path. I would have failed the "being prepared" part of the Boys Scouts on this day. However, it was a good experience giving some me some good pictures and a story. There cannot be too many people that have experienced Cinque Terra having the trail lit by lightning bugs, a crescent moon, and the constilations of Orion, Cassiopea and Ursa Major among others.

Manarola, the 1st town past Riomaggiore

Corniglia, the middle town

Vernazza at sunset