ITALY 4 CINQUE TERRE

Our last long stop in Italy was to visit Cinque Terre. Visiting here has been in my bucket for quite a while, but now, here we are. We stayed in a caravan park in Sestri Levante a town with hills not so steep as those further south. The caravan park is quite unusual as it constitutes several fields of an unused Olive Farm clinging to the side of a rocky hill and which are now used as a camping area. From the reception area we go out the gate and further up the steep hill passing 3 other sites until we reach the top field which has a lovely flat area and room for 6 caravans, motorhomes or tents. The other campers are Dutch so we all speak English. We got the free camp bus which takes us into town. Today it is hot, the umbrellas are all open and the beach is crowded. I daydream of blue ocean, white sand and the Fremantle doctor and can’t imagine calling this, “going to the beach”.

The Cinque Terre is a rugged part of coastline and is composed of five villages: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. The coastline, the villages and the steep hills are World Heritage listed. A hiking trail joins all of the villages and they are accessible by boat and train.

 I always wanted to do the walk along the hills and down into the villages but common sense is getting the better of me and because my hips are giving me trouble, because there have been landslides and because it is very hot,  for our first day we caught the boat down the coast of the Cinque Terre. It stops in each town to drop off those who are staying there and a short stop for tourists to look around before moving on to the next village. 

The landslides of 2011 can still be seen in places.

The boat stops Monterosso for a short while. It is the only town with a sandy beach which of course lined with umbrellas. 

We stayed for 30 minutes and then onto Vernazza where we stop for an hour and a half. Vernazza is a jewel. There is a tiny harbour at the bottom of a cliff which has a fort on the very top and is surrounded by terraced land. As we wondered how they picked the grapes on such steep slopes we saw this photo in town of how they do it.

We land on the rocks and wobble off the boat ramp onto the rocks.

The harbour is surrounded by colourful apartments.

It was time for coffee and a snack. The Pizza place looked interesting.

But we decided to go up to the restaurant on top to enjoy the view. The stairs and paths wind between the apartments and houses to the top of the cliff. When they say balcony don’t assume you will have a view.

As we walked up between the houses it becomes obvious that if you are staying here your suitcase needs to be very light and you have to be careful where your rented room is situated. The view from the top across the village, the olive terraces and vineyards is fabulous.

This is the view down to the boat landing .

We joined the boat again to cruise further south. As we leave Vernazza we have a great view of the terraces. And the little beach.

We bypass the village of Corniglia as it does not have a port. It looks really beautiful perched up on top of the cliff. We were told it is a steep 362 steps down to the water if you want a swim.

We call into Manarola and Riomaggiore to let people off . We will come back tomorrow by train so we can spend more time here. You can see the motorway in the background. Mostly the journey by car is through tunnels.

We go onto Porto Venere,  this town isn’t a Cinque town  but it is really delightful and worth a visit.

The laying about the beach getting a suntan was a bit hard on the bones You can see the Carrara Marble mountains in the background.

After a very relaxing day we headed back to Harry to recharge for tomorrow when we take the train down to Riomaggiore and start our slow train trip back to Sestri Levante.

The train line follows the coast inside concrete tunnels right on the water line, then through tunnels in the rocky hills.  The stations are as close to the towns as it is possible to get, but they do mean quite a bit of walking and climbing at times. A good timetable lists train arrivals and departures so you know how long you can stay in each town.

We travel straight down to Riomaggiore. The station is on one side of the town and we walk through the tunnel into town.

The shops are clustered around the tunnel town entrance on some relatively flat land.

Then we head down the hill to the water. These towns were fishing villages and there are boats everywhere and I am not sure if these ones ever see the water.

Finally we make it down to the little harbour and it is time for an icecream.

The view back up to the top is really lovely but the icecream is sitting heavily in my stomach as I see how far back up we have to go to catch the train.

We get out at Manarola station and climb again into the village.

Then down to the harbour for a late lunch. 

This view of Manarola from the top down and from the bottom up is breathtaking.

Back on the train and back to Harry. 

Tomorrow we drive out of Italy. I wont be sorry to leave the frantic traffic. Driving here is like driving through a plague of locusts with scooter drivers approaching and passing from 20 different directions. No one here stays in the line of traffic if they can squeeze through somewhere.