Hiking Vernazza to Corniglia and return

September 11 was a full day of hiking. Out the back gate of our airbnb up a very steep path to Casa Valeria, more climbing across the steep, rugged terrain, to the small town of San Bernadino, where the old church rang the bell 30 times to declare noon, on to the trail junction of Cigoletto, where we reached our hike top elevation of 2089', a net gain of 1689' from our start at the airbnb. Then down about 1800' to the town of Corniglia, perched high on a cliff above the sea. We explored the town, enjoyed a lemon slurpee in the town plaza, then returned via the coastal trail to L'Eremo. Along the way we enjoyed the sounds of a busker playing his accordion with the melody following us a long way up the trail, a stop for lemonade and orange juice at a bar along the trail, again, accessible only from the trail, high up overlooking the sea, then despite being very sweaty, stopping for dinner at a nice restaurant, La Torre, high above Vernazza, and, again, only accessible from the trail, for an excellent dinner of seared tuna and fish prepared Ligurian style. Then a last climb back to the airbnb to turn in for the night. Total elevation gain while hiking was around 2300'. Distance is confusing. According to the trail maps, total trail length was only about 8 kilometers (close to 5 miles). But Anna's Fitbit and our hiking time of six hours tells us a distance of a little over nine miles.Read more