April 9, 2010
We planned a trip to The Cinque Terre (the 5 villages) over a 3-day weekend. We have seen friend's pictures and heard of their travels, but nothing could have prepared us for such a relaxing weekend. The Cinque Terre is made up of five villages: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso.
La Spezia is a seafront town with an Italian naval force. You can see a few of the boats below with the Apuan Alps in the background. We had gorgeous weather on Friday.
On one of the windy roads leading to Riomaggiore, we passed this Hotel Ristorante which hangs over one of the cliffs. The name is Due Gemelli or the two twins so we snapped a photo.
View from the car as we made a hairpin turn on the road to Riomaggiore. Even our good camera just cannot do the view justice.
We arrived in Riomaggiore and checked in to our little apartment with Edi's Rooms. We had a little balcony overlooking the main street below and had this nice little view of the Mediterranean.
The popular mode of transportation in the CT is your two legs: hiking. There is also a train to take you back and forth in case your legs need a break. We decided on Friday, since we arrived in the early afternoon, that we would make it walking from Riomaggiore to Manarola. We started out and the first trail along the water is named Via dell'Amore or the Path of Love. It is an easy hike with breathtaking views.
Below is some of the cacti and flowers along the route. The second picture is about 1/3 of the way through the hike looking back towards Riomaggiore which is where the jetty is located.
Evan at the beginning of our hike.
Me about 2/3 of the way through Via dell'Amore.
The via dell'amore draws attention because of the thousands of locks along the path. Locks around the fencing, on the netting next to the cliffs, hanging from trees, but the majority of them are located here.
We made it to Manarola and grabbed some focaccia bread for which this area is famous for. Then we walked a little past the town on the path to Corniglia for some photo ops.
Corniglia is behind us.
Manarola is behind us.
We walked around Manarola and relaxed on some of the benches carved in the rock, then we caught the train back to Riomaggiore. We descended towards the water to a bar along the water. This picture is looking back towards Riomaggiore.
We met up with Jamie and Brian Faughn for some appetizers and drinks while we watched the sunset. Funny enough they were playing Johnny Cash over the radio...this bar wasn't geared towards tourists or anything!
A perfect sunset on a perfect day. We ended the night with dinner with the Faughns. The area is known for focaccia, pesto, spaghetti frutti di mare, and sardines. I got pasta with pesto that had green beans mixed in it. Evan got pizza frutta di mare--pizza with all sorts of seafood: shrimp, mussels, calamari, and clams.
Our view Saturday morning from our balcony. The air was a little crisp but clear for a nice day of hiking.
I have to disclaim that we would have hiked to all five towns had it not been for the belly. I am pretty slow lately and we hiked a lot despite my speed, but we knew that the longer and steeper hikes between Corniglia and Monterosso were probably not the best idea. So we trained it to Monterosso to start our day. This is just past the train station. Perfect right?
A black and white of some of the bushes on the cliff. The other black and white is now the backdrop to our blog up top. Evan took the picture and I think it looks like a postcard photo.
Monterosso was a popular Nazi officer vacation spot and below is one of their turrets.
More of the beach. Had we been a little more prepared, our bathing suits would have been with us instead of back in our room.
Church of St. John the Baptist dating back to 1307.
You can see the high-water mark near the top, just under the windows, from the 1966 flood.
It was early in the morning and the delivery trucks were dropping off the day's catch to restaurants. Below there were just a few mussels being unloaded.
Looking back over the old town section of Monterosso.
Monterosso.
Evan with the new town in the background.
A kid on a bike was nice enough to snap this photo of us.
We hopped on the train to Vernazza and immediately ate lunch. Pizza with pesto.
We walked towards the water and dipped our toes in the Mediterranean. It was chilly but we surely could have spent an entire afternoon relaxing in the sun near the water.
We walked out a little further to the breakwater to hang our feet over the edge.
This is a view of the trail from Vernazza to Monterosso.
We decided to hike up to the cemetery on top of town. Evan is up the first part of the hill.
The path got progressively steeper and it was easier for me to hike up backwards. There were two Italian women behind me talking about me going into labor--not yet ladies.
This is up the steepest part of the path overlooking the sea town.
We made it to the cemetery and took some pictures that looked like the belly overtaking the town.
We hiked down back to the main part of town and took the train to Corniglia. This is the quietest of the five towns. It is the only one not on the water. There are 400 stairs leading to the town--we chose the less than safe shuttle bus. Crazy Italian driver! We stopped at a wine bar Enoteca Il Pirun--named for the oddly shaped wine pitcher. Then to an overlook for some pictures.
We decided the hike from Corniglia to Manarola was doable so we started out slow and steady. More flowers and cacti along the trail and a view of Corniglia.
There were various spots for pictures or just relaxing along the trail. As I made my pose on the left Evan almost had a heart attack and I'm surprised the picture even turned out as he turned into my dad and told me never to do that again. Evan was coaxed into doing the same thing but I had to show that we had plenty of room between us and going over the edge.
We purchased a lock to put on the via dell'amore. The idea is for the lovers to return again to this spot and see if their lock is still there.
The one thing Evan would not allow me to do is go out on the rocks. So we went down a few rocks on the way back to Riomaggiore, and Evan decided to go all the way down to the water.
At this point, he is still pretty close to me.
Now, he's getting closer to the water.
Where's Evan? He's at the bottom of the picture. See the tiny person on the rock?
About to jump.
Airborne.
Much further away.
A close-up view.
Taking in the view close-up.
The unzoomed version.
We made it back to our little bar on the water for another sunset. Evan ordered the sardine plate since it's what the area is known for. Add enough olive oil and combine it with tomatoes and basil and it's bearable.
Another sunset on another perfect day. After a late dinner of pasta for me and flaming spaghetti al mare for Evan, it was bedtime after a long day. We woke up to a rainy day in Riomaggiore. We drove home and look forward to another trip--next time with bathing suits and babies.
