Cinque Terre
Trip Start
Apr 08, 2007
1
45
67
Trip End
Dec 22, 2007
Cinque Terre, Italy
Monday, August 6, 2007
Cinque Terre is one of Italy's main drawcards, and is famous for the five small villages that are perched on the cliffs of a small stretch of coastline in the west of Italy. Cliffside villages and campgrounds don't go together that well, so we stayed at the next town further west, Levanto.
We went down to the local beach and were surprised to see 20 guys sitting in the water surfing (sort of) 1 foot waves. I couldn't bring myself to join them even though I would kill for a surf. There was also 5000 of their friends sitting shoulder to shoulder on the beach having a great time. We would have liked a swim but there was no room on the beach...at all. We physically couldn't see a space for the two of us to lie down. August is busy all over Europe, but Italy has taken busy to a whole new level. The whole country is on holidays and half of Germany and the Netherlands are here as well.
We decided to visit the village closest to us, Montorosso, that same afternoon. We walked along the beach until being told we couldn't walk any further as it is now a private beach. Didn't look very private, there were just as many people there as there was on the public part. What a stupid concept.
Montorosso is split in two by a small headland. The eastern section had lots of small cobble stone alleys with shops and restaurants lining them. We had dinner and managed not to have pizza, instead we had pannini breads filled with toppings you would usually put on a pizza. One step at a time...
We decided to walk down to the train station the next morning to catch the train into the villages of Cinque Terre. It took about 25 minutes walking down a track through the bush, then along the narrow roadway, keeping a close eye on all the Valentino Rossi's on their vespa's. The train ride is not all that scenic as most of the journey is spent inside tunnels that burrow through the mountains between the villages. Our plan was to start at the far end and work our way back. The walk from the furthest village Riomaggiore to the next Manarola took us 30 minutes and hugged the cliff edge all the way. We were feeling pretty energetic so decided to walk on to the next village Corniglia. I went in for a swim about halfway along off the rocks. As we approached the train station we noticed that Corniglia sat at the top of the next hill. Countless stairs zigzagged up the hill in front of us. We thought we might skip that one and head straight for Vernazia by train.
Vernazia was one of the more lively towns with music playing and restaurants and Gelato stores lining the main street which wound its way down to a small harbour and beach that was packed with people swimming and enjoying the perfect summer weather. I went swimming again off the front of the harbour off the rocks.
Surprisingly we decided to have pizza for lunch. After our active morning we were starving so ordered two pizzas. When they came out they were massive. We thought there was no way we were going to get through them, but sure enough within 20 minutes our plates were clean. Geez, Mandy can eat these days!!!
We caught the train home and stumbled our way back up the track to our campsite, and arrived exhausted after our big day. A few beers to celebrate a great day and then off to bed.... At 9 o'clock, still daylight.
