The Cinque Terre towns are connected by a trail system.  The best known and shortest route between towns is the Sentiero Azzurro (Blue Trail).  We decided to walk the blue trail from our home base of Vernazza to Corniglia today.  It’s a good 2 mile hike with lots of up and down sections and flights of stone stairs.

The hike took us about 2 1/2 hours but that included lots of stops along the way to take in the grand views and catch our breath.  The trail climbs steeply out of Vernazza with nice photo opportunities looking back at the town and the sea.

Along the way we saw lots of cactus, a variety of flowers and shrubs and butterflies (yellow/green).  We always consider butterflies to be a sign of good luck so they were a welcome sight.

Once past the half way point we started to get good views of our destination.  Corniglia is perched high up on sea cliffs with no harbor and is primarily a destination for day hikers.

We reached Corniglia just in time for a late lunch and with an earned appetite.  Our timing was perfect as a nice table quickly became available in the covered, open air sitting section upstairs with a wonderful view.  All certainly due to a bit good luck after sighting the butterflies.