Cinque Terre

Vernazza

Today we headed to the Cinque Terre which is along the northwest coast of Italy overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.  Cinque Terre means five lands, and it's a collection of five small towns that are set amongst the cliffs of what is now a national park.  The five towns in order from south to north are Manorola, Riomaggiore, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare.  The Cinque Terre is basically the southern portion of the Italian Riviera, but with picturesque workaday towns and not the splashy resorts that you find in the other parts of the Italian and French Riviera.

The only way to reach these towns is by train or boat.  While you can drive to near each town's entrance, cars are not allowed in the towns so it's not a very effective way to get there.  Because of the terrain, none of the towns except Monterosso have any sort of beach.  The water is very clear and you do catch locals sunning themselves on the rocks, paddle boarding, and jumping from various small cliffs into the sea.  We drove to La Spezia, about an hour and 15 minutes from the villa and took the 20 minute train ride to Vernazza.

Like Vernazza, Monterosso has stairways
for its side streets too.

Vernazza has one main street that starts at its train station and goes all the way down to the water.  The way the town was built through the years, the other "streets" are actually stairways that go up and down between and behind buildings and the doors open up right off of them.  We climbed to the old fort and tower that has a commanding view of the town.  It was originally used as a defense against pirates and other invaders, but now provides some of the best views of the town.

All of the towns are connected with hiking trails and the total distance between all five is about 7km.  Because it is a national park, you do pay a small fee to hike the trails.  Mona and I hiked a short distance from Vernazza towards Monterosso in order to photograph the town.  As you can see from the picture, it's quite colorful with a breathtaking view.  The locals farm the hillsides surrounding their towns a they have for centuries, growing grapes for wine and also olives.  The Cinque Terre is part of a region of Italy called Liguria, and this region is the home to two of my favorites -- pesto and focaccia bread.  We sampled both while we were here -- more than once.

Monterosso's beach

After spending our morning in Vernazza, we caught the train up to Monterosso al Mare.  Monterosso is the largest and most resort-y of the Cinque Terre towns.  The railroad sort of divides the original historic town center with its narrow streets from the newer section that features the beach and more modern accommodations.  We wandered the historic section for a while and stuck our feet in the water to say we had been in the Mediterranean.

More and more folks are discovering the Cinque Terre and it's getting a lot more tourists than it used to.  Because of the summer weather and the water, lots of folks were wandering around in swimsuits, giving it more of a beach vibe than a historic town vibe.  It was a lot warmer today than was forecast and because shade was harder to come by, we decided not to visit a third town.  We knew we couldn't visit them all anyway, so we chose the two most visited.  One thing we'll be sure to do if we make it back is bring our hiking boots.  I'd like to hike the entire route as we'll be rewarded with many breathtaking views.