Italy - Cinque Terre

Our home for two days was the town of La Spezia located in the northwest curve of the Italian peninsula.  This is a popular base for travelers on their way to visit the Cinque Terre close by.  Based on my limited knowledge of the local language, Cinque Terre loosely translated means, “Tourist, you will never live anywhere as cool as me, ever.”  Until we started planning this trip, I was unfamiliar with this area of Italy, but I had seen posters and paintings in home stores over the years showing the colorful houses perched along steep cliffs.  The history of the area dates back a thousand years as its inhabitants gradually built five villages along the rocky coastline, supporting themselves by growing grapes and olives.  The area was almost completely isolated until the late nineteenth century when a rail line was installed.  Due to the small size of the area combined wth the huge views of the Mediterranean, Cinque Terre is popular with travelers and hikers who complete a trek between all five towns in the region in a single day, and for those young and hardy souls, it’s a fun activity.  God made express trains for the rest of us, and we chose that efficient mode of transport for our day in the area. 

We left our apartment early and walked about one kilometer in the cool morning air to the La Spezia train station and purchased our first set of tickets of the day, entitling us to a non-stop ride to the northernmost village, Monterosso al Mare.  The trains run efficiently between the five towns all day, and the fare is four euro per-person-per trip.  One can purchase a card for unlimited rides, but we decided not to buy a pass since we had planned to visit only three of the five towns, and we hoped to ride the ferry between two of them.  The travel time between towns is about ten minutes mostly through tunnels, so we were kept in suspense while waiting for our first view of the Cinque Terre.  We arrived in Monterosso, walked down from the platform, turned around, and in less than a second, understood what all the fuss is about.  This place is beautiful.  We bumbled into the narrow streets of the town already in a daze from looking at the stacks of colorful villas twisting up the rocky cliff sides looking out over the Mediterranean. At mid-morning, the sun was shining full blast in a cloudless, deep blue sky, and the humidity-free, seventy-degree air deepened the azure color of the sea on one side and sharpened the natural and man-made lines on the other.  After severe thunderstorms the night before, we were thankful for the perfect weather as we set off up the hill.

The streets of Monterosso were steep and lined with small shops and cafes at the base of buildings several stories high with residences occupying the upper floors.  The walls of every structure were stucco, color washed with rose, siena, and ochre tinted lime, all in various stages of fading which created a visual crush of variation.  Many of the stucco facades were cracked on corners exposing crumbling orange brick beneath.  Even at 10:00 in the morning, the pungent smell of sautéed garlic filled the air as restaurants were preparing for the lunchtime rush.  We wandered into an old chapel along a side street and discovered a centuries-old frieze running along the top of the orange painted walls decorated with skeletons, which I assumed to be a caution to worshippers and visitors prone to wasting the days in worldly pursuits.  After spending enough time in town, we made our way out to the seashore and stayed for a long time enjoying the sound of the small waves lapping up on the beach filled with smooth stones and tiny bits of sea glass that kept me busy collecting for a while.  We had planned to eat lunch in the next town on our itinerary, so we made our way back to the train station, bought tickets at the automated machine, and after a ten-minute ride, disembarked in the beautiful village of Vernazza.  

This town was larger and more colorful than the last, and the cliffs containing the villas soared even higher in the Italian sky.  The bases of the cliff, which were more visible in this area, were a dark gray undulation of layers left over from an ancient lava flow.  There was a small harbor at the edge of the village where we purchased passes for a ferry ride later in the afternoon.  With a couple of hours to spare, we hit the streets to explore and scout out a place to secure lunch and quickly found a small eatery offering fresh, warm slices of focaccia bread smothered with tangy sauce, creamy cheese and the rich pesto for which the Cinque Terre is famous.  We took our bags of food and some cold Cokes back down to the harbor and enjoyed our delicious lunch looking out on the Mediterranean where small fishing boats set out to sea.  Curiously, there was an old foosball table placed outside near our bench, and we risked a euro in the slot to see if we could play.  Ten balls dropped into the tray enabling Deena and me to defeat and demoralize our children in a dominant performance.  We had hoped to do a little hiking in the area after lunch, and nearby were the stairs winding up to Castella Dora, the old defense tower, offering vast panoramic views of the town.  There was a small charge to ascend the hill which we didn’t feel like shelling out, so we wandered around town until we found the trailhead leading to the next town.  We hiked steadily up for a while until coming to an astounding vista point with a commanding view of the town, the sea, and the old tower with its admission fee, so I guess it can be said that we won the Cinque Terre.  

Foosball with a view

With time running tight, we descended the hill down to the harbor and boarded our 2:15 ferry bound for Manarola, which is considered by many to be the most picturesque town of the lot.  The boat sailed out into a wide semi-circle around a jutting cliff, and as we rounded the rocky coastline, every camera on board was aimed at the high cliffs containing colorful villas built along every contour.  This was the view of Cinque Terre from all the posters and paintings, and it was spectacular.  We disembarked and walked along the slippery rocks away from the harbor with the Mediterranean surf surging all around us, and made our way higher into the village where we spent another hour hiking and exploring.  With our energy almost spent from walking and sensory overload, we located a gelateria and directed the proprietor as he loaded two cups with six flavors of this Italian treat.  There are establishments back in the States that claim to sell authentic gelato, but we’ve never found one that comes close to the real thing.  We savored our ice cream looking out over the Mediterranean from a long balcony high above the rocky shore, the bright buildings of Manarola towering behind us.  It was difficult to say goodbye to this completely unique part of the world; we took our last train ride of the day back to La Spezia knowing that we had seen some special places together on this day.  Back at the apartment, we shared a tasty supper of lasagne and crusty bread and began planning our departure for Rome the next morning, stopping every now and then to look at the Cinque Terre pictures one more time.