After spending a short trip to the market in Casteggio, Patrick and I parted ways with Gaby, Cindy, Jim, and Theresa, and headed off to Vernazza, which is part of Cinque Terre. Driving most of the way on highways until we reached this nationally protected area, the roads close to Vernazza and the four other protected towns gave new meaning to the words "twisting one lane road hugging a mountaintop"Vernazza is one of the five small towns on the Mediterranean south of Genoa that is part of a national protected area - one of the best examples of taking an improvished area and making a eco-tourist destination. There is about 18km of coastline that you can hike - and being able to walk is important, since no cars are allowed in the area. We hoofed about 2km to get to our hotel.
Our original plans were to use Vernazza as a base to visit towns out to northern Italy, but after realizing how hard it was to get to - we opted to cut our trip short in Vernazza and head out in a big loop.
