Cinque Terre

  The beautiful Unesco listed World Heritage Site of the Cinque Terre is a place everyone must put on their bucket list. I've had the good fortune to be there a few times on tours that I've run but with the only down point being that I had to stay in La Spezia those times!(La Spezia is , to be honest, a bit of a "hole"! Home to the Italian Navy and also quite an industrial area it's really not a place I would be using as a base for the Cinque Terre further around the coast!) Not so this time, being based in beautiful Portovenere meant that the first island of Riomaggiore was a mere 25 minutes by boat which left about 40m from the front of my hotel!

Starting point, Portovenere

Portovenere bottom right off the map and Cinque Terre villages
lead westward up the coast from there

   Now there are a few ways one can access the "CT". Firstly you can in fact drive into a couple of them but then parking is VERY restricted,costly and the roads to get down to the villages pretty treacherous - i've down the road down into Monterosso in a 13m coach and that was pretty hair-raising having to sound the horn on almost every corner as we needed the whole road to get around it! Secondly by train, there is a (for Italy!) very efficient train service that runs up and down the coast here and a really simple way to "village" hop is to simply train it. Problem is the train spends most of its time in tunnels(as one would expect here!) so views are almost non-existant (that is unless you have some pre-disposition to the interiors of tunnels!) The third way is you can walk between the villages. this however has become very restrictive due to landslides destroying some of the walkways that hug the cliffs so not much of an option anymore. Finally, the most attractive and (relatively!) relaxing way is of course by local boat! Now unless you own one of those luxury "ships" that are moored up in Portofino or further up around the French Riviera then the local boat service is not too bad even though they certainly don't run on Swiss timing!

The church in the old fortress at Portovenere

  So without spending much time talking about these charming little villages that cling to their rocky cliffs like clams or mussels to their rocks at the sea, I will let some pictures do the talking. The order of the islands from east to west is Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterossa. the last being the only one with any sort of decent beach, the others having rocky harbours from which people dive into the clear azure waters of the Mediterranean. Corniglia is the only one at which the large tourist boats don't stop. Keep your eyes open at the end of these pics for my new 6th village!

Approaching Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore

"Via dell'Amore" begins here

Via dell'Amore

Writing "Love letters" on Via dell'Amore

Via dell'Amore

"Love" padlocks

The latest craze on Via dell'Amore (and in Paris!) and Manarola
in the background

Arriving by foot into Manarola

Manarola, one of the prettiest villages

How the locals kill time in Manarola!

Manarola from the water

Corniglia

And Corniglia again, the boats don't stop here!

Vernazza

Vernazza "Harbour"

Arriving at the smaller beach at Monterosso

Monterosso main beach from the lookout

St Francis overlooking Monterosso harbour

Main beach at Monterosso

  I have a plan to add a sixth village to the Cinque Terre to make it the "Sei" Terre - It's a small village just nearby that I've bought. I know it's not much as yet and it needs a nice pastel coat of paint but it has great potential. Remember, location, location, location.........

The "Sei" Terre!!

   So a full day cruising between the villages and then battling the crowds on the main beach at Monterosso is usually enough for most people! There are many walking trails around the area for those who are more adventurous but as mentioned a few of the more popular ones have been closed down due to major landslides! After a full day exploring it was time to head back to Portovenere and enjoy some more of the local seafood specialties of the area. (I think at some stage there will be a blog of just some of the amazing food that one can enjoy around Europe!)

  Next stop , hitting the road to the home of the those teenage mutant ninja turtles - Leonardo, Rafaello, Donatello and Michelangelo - Florence of course! Will pop in and see if the tower of Pisa is still leaning along the way (and do the "Pisa Gauntlet" - to be explained!) as well as lunch in pretty Lucca, home to Pinocchio!
 
  Arrivederci!