Cinque Terre.

We said arrivederci to Midnite and our beautiful Tuscan Villa on a sparkling autumn morning and drove a few hours north to La Spezia.

Cinque Terre is a group of five towns along the northern Italian coast linked by 9 kilometres of sometimes rugged footpaths. It was a favourite haunt for writers and poets in years gone by as they daydreamed between the blue skies and the even bluer seas.

We parked at La Spezia and took the train through the mountains to the most southern town of Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore.

From the station at Riomaggiore there was a short walk through the tunnel of love, Via dell’ Amore, to get to the little town.  There was a Romanian clarinet player setting up for his day of busking, he added to the romance of the place and we waltzed through the tunnel to his warm up routine. Then, the first of a series of footpaths that hugs the coastline to the next town. This first walk was the shortest and most of it was clinging to the edge of the cliff. We stopped for a lunch of anchovies prepared in a variety of ways. Mmmmmm, buonissimo.

From Manarola the next section of the path was closed due to a landslide so we caught the train to Corniglia. Each of these little towns once survived on fishing and the olive and grape crops they grew on the terraced fields around but today they seem to flourish on tourism. The paths and towns were overrun with tourists from all over the world and they had lost their small town charm. The colourful little houses were stacked precariously on the cliff edge and the narrow streets were full of walkers in a hurry. At least though there was no sign of corporate development as this is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and access to the towns is only by train, boat or foot.

Manarola

We walked the next 4 kilometres to Vernazza in the midday heat. The track was not very well kept for the number of tourists using it and paying 10 euro each to do so. At Vernazza we headed straight down to the tiny harbour and the girls could not resist jumping in even though the water was icy cold.

The last town in the chain of five is Monterossa and we heard it was the most touristy of all so we decided to give it a miss and catch the train back to La Spezia. That night we stayed at a lovely little town at the northern end of Cinque Terre called Moneglia.

Vernazza

MeanderingLee