Cinque Terre (CHIN-kweh TEH-reh, "five lands") is a famously scenic group of five villages along the coast of Liguria in northwest Italy. Last Friday a five of us, one for each
terra, took a midday train there for the weekend. We stayed in La Spezia, a town not officially a part of the region, and bought two-day passes for unlimited access to the trails and trains between the villages. The first day we walked the trails to the first three villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, and Corniglia. It was a dreary day, but the views were very nice and the walking was more or less easy. I did manage to break my umbrella though, so it now only extends halfway.
We crossed a particularly treacherous bridge at one point.
We ate in Corniglia (another weekend of great seafood!) and trained back to La Spezia. That night we went out to the nearby "Tavern del Metallo," which I only mention because it was lit by nearly 50% candlelight, and had Viking helmets and crossbows on the walls. Metal indeed.
The next day we took the train to the last town, Monterosso al Mare, and worked our way to Vernazza and back to Corniglia. Now, I've been craving a good hike for the last few months, and Bologna isn't the most outdoorsy city on the peninsula. The two paths to Vernazza and Corniglia absolutely satisfied this need. There was a light drizzle in the morning, but since it was so humid and we were doing so much climbing, it was a welcome refreshment.
The views from these trails were absolutely amazing. To get an idea of the sort of hiking we were doing, consider that the town in the picture above was in fact the destination at the end of the trail, and we had to wind along those hillsides to get from town to town. In a lot of places, the trails were only one-person wide and unfenced along fairly steep cliffs. Those among us with a distaste for heights wavered between the awe of never wanting to leave and the AHH of guys-let's-go-please-stop-taking-pictures-because-I-can't-look.
The trail from Vernazza to Corniglia was a bit safer, but much more vertical. The sun came out just as I ran out of water, and we were begging for the rain to come back by the end.
At the end of that trail, two others hiked down to a beach they saw signs for while the rest of us played it safe and went back to Monterosso for the beach. The other two ended up at a nude beach, so I think we won out that time.
The next day, those of us that stayed the second night went to the La Spezia maritime museum.
After learning all we could about boats, we took the train back to Bologna.
If you like hiking, I can't recommend Cinque Terre enough. It's definitely feasible to do the whole thing in a day if you start early in the morning and hike all day, but we gave ourselves enough time to take it easy the whole way and really enjoy the scenery. Definitely a top trip. I mean, seriously, I took this picture:
I think that speaks for itself.
Pompeii/Naples this weekend?
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