The Cinque Terre

We left Lake Como and headed toward Milan, where we changed for a train to La Spezia.  They were both pleasant with good travel companions to chat with. 

When we got off the train in La Spezia to catch our final train to Corniglia, the town where we were staying, we noticed signs posted warning of a train strike for the coming Friday. Since we were flying out of Italy on Friday and had to take a train to the airport in Pisa, we were a little alarmed and ended up spending some time figuring out how we would get there before we could continue on our way.

The Cinque Terre region is beautiful. We got on a train that we hoped was stopping in Corniglia and drank in the views out the windows. We arrived at our destination and began the trek up to the village. The town of Corniglia is located on top of a large cliff, and the train station is at the bottom, which meant that we had a little bit of a hike to get there. We followed the road to town and were thankful to easily find the room where we were staying. After dropping off our bags, we set out to explore our newest home.

Not surprisingly, it didn't take us long to seek out some cold gelato. It also didn't take very long to walk around the little town, but we were in love. It was the most adorable place with spectacular views in every direction.

 

We ate dinner at a pizzeria looking out on the Mediterranean Sea, and then headed up to a terrace we had discovered earlier in the day to watch the sun set. This time of year, the sun does not go down until very late there, and I became convinced by the time we left that the locals never slept anyway.  We ended up spending the remainder of the evening watching England play Ukraine in the Europe Cup with several locals and some fellow Texans we had met earlier in the day. Even though the game ended late at night, the town remained wide awake as we walked back to our room to get some sleep.

We really enjoyed staying in Corniglia and would stay there again. It is the smallest and least touristy of the towns and it was a great base for us. There was a family across the alley from us that spent a great deal of time on their balcony. There were a couple of very little children in the house who were out on the balcony every morning and evening, playing, singing, and chatting away in Italian. The family's talking and laughing was the sweetest melody floating through our open window. We really enjoyed soaking in the town with men sitting around on the stairs talking every evening, women gathering around to chat in the afternoons while hanging clothes on the line or carrying groceries home, and kids playing soccer in the streets.

Justin at the front door of our little inn.

The stairway up to our home away from home

The view through one of our windows.

The next morning, we got up bright and early to begin our hike for the day. The Cinque Terre is made up of five towns: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso.  Since Corniglia is the town in the middle, we chose to hike one direction one day, and the other direction the next. This day we headed out towards Manarola and then on to Riomaggiore, camera and water in tow. The lower, easier path between Corniglia and Manarola was closed, so we took the high path between the towns. It was a beautiful, peaceful hike surrounded by vineyards, fruit trees, flowers, and stunning views of the sea and we very much enjoyed it. It was very hot even in the early morning hours, and we were thankful we had not waited until the afternoon to make the trek.

 

We climbed up many stairs....

... and "stairs."

 

 

 

We eventually arrived in Manarola, which was slightly busier than the quiet Corniglia, but still perfectly charming. We walked around town, grabbed some lunch from a little bakery, and marveled at the color of the beautiful blue water.

 

Justin picked up a little friend on our walk who followed  on his heels for quite a while! 

 

 

Having regained some energy, we set off for the shorter of the walks toward Riomaggiore through the Via dell'Amore. It was a pretty sharp contrast to our morning walk. Paved and packed with people, we walked through a large tunnel and down a road filled with various expressions of love - notes and initials carved in the plants or scratched into the rocks, pictures and names drawn and painted along the walls, locks attached to every conceivable space to represent undying devotion. Justin, not such a fan of the sudden claustrophobia, was especially relieved to arrive in Riomaggiore.

 

 

We walked around for quite a while, looking in shops at the soaps, olive oil, and wonderfully inexpensive wine before catching the train back to Corniglia.

We arrived at the train station, climbed the 300+ stairs up to the village, and almost immediately headed down to the water to swim.

Corniglia train station

The stairs.

"Congratulations! You have climbed 382 steps..." 

Getting there required walking down an abundance of stairs and then scaling many large rocks to get over to a place suitable for swimming, but it was worth it. The water was too cold for me, but Justin had been daydreaming about swimming for so long that he hopped in anyway and had a great time swimming in the Mediterranean Sea while I sat on a rock with my feet in the cool water watching him. One thing that we noticed about the region was that although the water is salt water, the air smells nothing like salt. Rather, the air is filled with the smells of fruit, flowers, and whatever delicious meal was being cooked nearby.

Our swimming spot

The little dot out there is Justin!

After a while, we climbed back over all of the rocks, up the stairs, and back to our room, where we showered and relaxed a little before heading up to our favorite terrace to gaze at the stunning views until our stomachs told us it was time to eat. We enjoyed a peaceful evening and headed to bed early to get some rest before our adventures the following day.

The next day, we headed the opposite direction toward Vernazza and then Monterosso. It was another beautiful hike and we really enjoyed it.

Vernazza was hit by massive flooding back in October and is still working to recover from the damage. We heard a local resident saying that the small town received the rain it typically sees in a year within 3 hours. It caused significant flooding, landslides, and damage. The town was clearly still in recovery mode, but after seeing pictures of the town immediately following the disaster, we were amazed at the progress they had made.  

 

Even with all of the construction going on, Vernazza remains a sweet, charming town and we could definitely see the draw to it. We bought lunch from a little take-away bakery and parked ourselves on some rocks above the water to eat, watching local children swim in the gentle waves and fisherman waiting for the fish to bite.

After a while, we continued our journey on to Monterosso, which turned out to be another really beautiful hike with amazing views. We had heard that Cinque Terre could get very crowded, but with the exception of the short walk along the Via dell'Amore, we had been spared from any overwhelming crowds. We passed only a few people on our hikes and really enjoyed the peacefulness of the towns.

Vernazza

 

Monterosso is where that changed. Packed with people and more resort-like than anything else, it didn't seem as though this town fit in with the other four at all. We didn't spend as much time here as we had in the other towns, and caught the train back to Corniglia to swim in a more peaceful place with less hustle and bustle.

Monterosso 

As with the previous day, we hiked up the stairs to town, dropped off our things, and headed down to the water. Sadly, the water was much rougher and much higher this time around, and after looking around for a little while at the people standing on the rocks or heading back up to town, we decided that if the locals weren't up for swimming in it, we probably shouldn't either.

We enjoyed our last night in Italy with a delicious dinner at an outdoor cafe looking out at the water before heading back to our room to pack. We were sad to go, but excited about our next stop!