 Days 4, 5 & 6 - all spectacular! Each day offered beautiful trails and stunning panoramic views. They also had a lot of stairs. A. Lot. But by now our legs were used to the ups and downs into and out of the village valleys that make the area so rich and beautiful.
Italy is such a beautiful country and as I write this I'm struggling to understand that only a month after our trip parts of the country have been devastated by extreme weather - from heavy rain, to extraordinary heat, to baseball-sized hail, to a tornado in Milan to ravaging wildfires. It's truly shocking. My hope is that when you read this you'll get inspired to go to Italy when you can, to support the local tourism and the economy (hello shoe shopping!) and to hike its incredible mountains. Catch up on part two of my hike along the stunning Cinque Terre and the incredible Ligurian coast.
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 Part of the deal I made with my sister when she said she'd hike Kilimanjaro with me last year, was that she could pick the destination for our next trip. Next on her list just so happened to be the Cinque Terre coastal trails.
This trip checked all the boxes: beautiful scenery, ridge-hugging trails, delightful seaside villages, Italian food (fresh mozzarella cheese, olive oil, fresh pasta, parmesan cheese, pesto, fresh-from-the-boat fish - basically all of my favourite foods), wine and Aperol spritz, luggage transfer - it didn't take a whole lot of convincing to say yes. Tack on an impromptu Italian cooking class along with a few days in Florence and Tuscany with one day in Milan for a shoe shopping spree, (when in Milan!) and it was a (near*) perfect Italian adventure. 6/24/2020 0 Comments TRAIL Tale – CAMINO DE SANTIAGO
 When you think of Costa Rica, the images that come to mind are of lush green rainforests, tropical temperatures, and blue waters. Take a hike to the Rio Celeste in the Tenorio Volcano National Park and you get all three.
It was on a recent trip to Costa Rica this March – before we fled home amid Covid-19 fears – that we headed north from our temporary home base of Playa del Coco to see if the water in Rio Celeste was as aqua blue as the postcard-perfect pictures we’d seen. The drive from the dessert coastal area up to the rain forest took us about 1.5 hours. As we turned north off Highway 1, we saw the rain clouds hugging the mountain where we were headed.  Breathtaking views. Stunning coastline. Soaring cliffs. Turquoise ocean. Endless blue skies. That is the Seven Hanging Valleys trail in Portugal’s Algarve coast.
Southern Portugal offers a lovely selection of hiking trails but this is a stand-out one. It’s a remarkable gem of a trail that has recently been named ‘Best Hiking Destination in Europe’. It’s easy to see why. The Seven Hanging Valleys trail is not a particularly long hike or vigorous one but I recommend wearing shoes with a good tread as the terrain is a bit sandy and rocky. You won’t find much shelter on the trail because of the openness of the cliffside. Be sure to take extra precautions with sun, wind and rain.  Even though it was a while ago (October 2016), there’s one short half-day hike that I loved so much I have to share it – it’s when I went through the window in Kotor, Montenegro’s Sveti Ivan Fortress (St. John’s Fortress) and found a sun-kissed valley of ruins, a crumbling chapel, and one solitary cow.
Just navigating the narrow streets and alleys of Kotor is an adventure. The cobble stone streets glisten and the green shuttered buildings are picture perfect. It’s like a living postcard. As you wind your way through the streets, you arrive at an archway – the entrance to the walk up to the fortress. Thankfully there is a handy map of what’s to come on the wall. I recall we had to pay a small fee but it was nominal – just 3 Euros at the time.  I admit it, I’m a wimp when it comes to rainy weather while I’m at home. If it’s raining at home I’m less than enthused to go outside for a walk. You might even (almost always) hear me say “ugh, it’s raining.”
And, I have a dog that shares my sentiments – why go outside when the inside is cozy and dry? My stubborn, cheeky dog sometimes (almost always) won’t go beyond the front step if it’s raining. It’s battle of wills and fierce negotiation about how long we need to be outside (he wins most of the time, naturally). But truly, I don’t blame him for not wanting to get rain soaked. That said, I’m not one to let rain stop me on a hike. In fact, I love the challenge of hiking in the rain – now that is.  One of the questions I get asked a lot is whether I prefer to hike alone or with a group or a friend and my answer is – it depends. It depends on the type of hike, whether you’re looking for an experience of a lifetime with a friend, or a solo adventure and in the end, it depends on the cost.
The first thing to think about when choosing your hiking companion is to realize that you will be spending 24 hours a day together for the duration of the hike. 24 HOURS TOGETHER. FOR REAL. I’ve hiked with my sister and my mom on separate hikes and I’ve done a group hike because I wanted to go by myself but didn’t want to hike by myself, if that makes sense. |
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