Cinque Terre

As our final overnight excursion, we chose the region of Cinque Terre, on the west coast of Italy, between La Spezia (home to Italy's largest naval base) and Genoa.  The region consists of five towns (hence its name, "five lands") perched precariously on rocky cliffs and until the late 1800's when a rail line was built, was accessible only by steep, treacherous footpaths.  The footpaths are still there, fortunately in somewhat improved form, and hiking them between the towns (1 to 2 kilometers apart) provides the major tourist attraction in the area.  The other attraction is the sea itself, and one of the towns, Monterosso where we stayed, has a nice beach as well.  The scenery of the area is magnificent.  (We've used that word a lot, but it's all true.)  The rocks in the area have been tortuously folded and twisted by the mountain-making process in the collision of Africa and Europe.  Italy was caught in between.

On our way there by train we passed through Carrara, home of the famous marble.  As you can see, the mountains are white with it.

Here are slabs of marble waiting to be made into countertops or tombstones

And statues waiting to be liberated by future Michelangelos

Monterosso, where we stayed, is the most touristy of the five villages of Cinque Terre.  It actually has a nice sand and rock beach.  It was much more comfortable to walk if you had some shoes on your feet.

In the summer this beach is packed.

"Il Gigante", the statue holding up the terrace at the end of the beach is a local favorite.

The view of the beach from the other end of town

One feature of all the towns, and Monterosso was no exception, was that they are all built on hills that are too steep for most car traffic, so most rooms are reached on foot by going  up steep staircases.  We had rented an apartment that the agent assured us was "only a few steps from the shore".  A few turned out to be 143 stairs.  The agent did take pity on us and paid for a cab to take us and our suitcases up there.  The up side was we did have a great view.

The view from our apartment terrace

It was a full moon that evening, and the moon reflected off the water to make a romantic sight.

We took our bathing suits hoping that we'd get a swim or two. but the water was still too cold for us to do much more than wade.  The hearty Germans (of which there were an abundance) were braver, and even engaged in "clothing optional" bathing.  Two older guys took great joy in diving in, swimming out a short way and tossing their suits to their wives. 

Cinque Terre is noted for sea life; people made their living (before tourists) fishing, especially anchovies.  We had our own marine life experience: while wading we were attacked by a giant octopus!  Well, OK, it wasn't that giant, but the head must have been 6 or 8" across.  And we weren't exactly attacked, but it was surprisingly aggressive.  Theresa saw something in the water (the water is very clear there) and asked, "What is that? A star fish?"  It moved a bit, and it became clear it was an octopus.  Then it started moving toward us...  You could say we scurried rather quickly for shore, and it came right up to the water's edge, partially exposed.  Then, having established its territorial rights, it zipped away into deep water leaving us newly respectful of the creatures of the sea!

The next day Ken went on the ultimate Cinque Terre experience - hiking between towns - while Theresa relaxed. The 143 steps was what she considers a strenuous hike and enough of a workout.   Despite it only being 2 kilometers to the next town (Vernazza) the guide listed it as a 2 hr walk, and it took me every bit of that.  Not only was the trail quite steep, especially in the early part where it ascended to about 400-500 feet,

On the way up I passed steep hillsides covered with grape vines

The view back to Monterosso.  That's a piece of our trail hanging out over the cliff.

The view down - early in the climb!

In a few places they had these mini-cog railway "trains" to haul stuff up.  Some people actually live along these trails.

It was also quite narrow, barely one person wide and a shear drop down.

That's just about one foot wide!

And the trail was quite crowded, especially at the start, so you had to find a little niche in the hillside and squeeze into it to let oncoming traffic pass.  But the views were phenomenal.

Still looking back at Monterosso

And still looking back

And finally Vernazza pulled into view

And then Vernazza got closer

And there was an abundance of wildflowers everywhere.

One feature of the hike that couldn't be captured on film was the variety of languages heard.  In addition to Italian, there were a lot of Germans and French, as well as a few Brits and Americans.  People would be chatting in their own language as they approached, say "Buon giorno" or something comparable to you in Italian or English, and then resume their chatter in their language again.  It was quite a polyglot.

I had lunch in Vernazza and wandered about the town a bit.  It was a pretty town, and even hillier than Monterosso.

I decided to hike on a bit further to get some additional views of the town.

and the sea ahead

And then turned back (I wasn't up for another 2 hours to the next town!) and took the train back to Monterosso.

The following day we took a boat trip on the "ferry" that links the towns.

Again, more drop-dead gorgeous scenery unfolded.

The "cave" at the left is actually a connection to the train tunnel that runs along the coast here to connect the towns to civilization.

The little town of Corniglia perched way up the cliff never makes it down to the sea.  You can see how folded the rocks are.

And the town of Manarola

and finally, Riomagiore, where we disembarked

This was obviously a fishing town, by the boats lined up in the main square!

Unfortunately, Riomaggiore was so steep and riddled with stairs that we had a hard time getting around, so we took the train back to Monterosso and strolled around the older part of town there until it was time for our train back to Florence.

A typical street in old Monterosso

and the ever-present striped cathedral with rose window

Lovely trip and well worth the time getting there.