Watch Your Step in the Cinque Terre

---

Four hours of intercity train travel from Rome - the magnificence and vagaries of the Italian rail system warrant a posting in their own right but I shall desist other than to say that the UN should give up on world peace and direct its energies to making the man and his little refreshment cart with its bicycle bell a mandatory onboard feature of train travel everywhere in the world - and an 8 minute journey on a regionale service from La Spezzia and we step onto the platform of Riomaggiore and are arrested by the sight that greets us. Right at our feet, through a jumble of wildflowers and bushes that cap a precipitous drop, the Mediterranean crashes onto jagged rocks while to our left a narrow path snakes its way across the face of cliffs that rise sharply above us. Now this really adds meaning to the precautionary train warning “Mind the Gap”. What has acted to enhance the sight is the fact that only few of the train carriages are outside the tunnels that flank the station, and so one emerges from a section of the platform that lies inside a tunnel and into the open to be confronted by this scene. It certainly stopped me in my tracks.

Our accommodation is situated in the upper part of the town, which means a steep slog up the hill with our bags. The effects of the steepness are immediately banished on our arrival by the friendly greeting we receive from Enrico the owner of Locanda_del_Sole and the view we have over the town (including a sea glimpse) from our flower laden terrace. (A BIG thank you to Sam for recommending this place to us.) Down in the port that evening we have the best fried anchovies I have tried since we were in Spain's Andalusia region in 1994, together with a simply grilled fish and a local ravioli specialty with a sublime sage butter.

Fortified by such a dinner and a good night's sleep - the town is almost too quiet after Rome; not a single siren to be heard, although church bells are never absent - our first walk in the region is along the coastal trail that links the five towns that give rise to the name Cinque (5) Terre. The walk starts along the romantically named Via dell'Amore, a very well manicured section of path that runs for 1.5 kilometres toward the next town, Manarola, and is accessible from right outside the Riomaggiore rail station. Accordingly it tends to be very heavily trafficked with tourists sporting the whole range of clothing types, from the gung ho walkers - I haven't felt so naked by not having a nordic walking stick (actually having two is almost mandatory) since I was in Santiago de Compostella two years ago) - to matrons out for a toddle dressed up to the nines in their high heels. However despite its rather tame nature, the trail still embodies all the features of this landscape - sheer cliffs, the sea crashing at their foot (the Mediterranean is still quite wild today and the air is misty with salt sea spray), and plants and flowers that somehow manage to insinuate themselves into the smallest cracks in the rock to flourish despite the harshness of the environment. And high above our heads local human existence echoes the tenacity of the plant kingdom with narrow terraces etched into the steep hillsides, where handkerchief pockets of land support trellised grapes, lemon trees, and vegetable patches. This is hard scrabble farming.

The end of the Via dell'Amore also means a deterioration in the trail, which as we pass through the ensuing towns - Corniglia, the town on the top of the hill rather than down on the seafront, with 372 steps to get you up to it, and Vernazza with Doria Castle and its circular watchtower - becomes progressively rougher and the scenery inversely more spectacular. Two weeks on the cobble stones of Rome have been a great preparation for this trail. And all the way in contrast to the harshness of the landscape flowers and bushes blossom everywhere - irises, roses, and a myriad of native plants. On the final leg from Vernazza to Monterosso the path evens out again, and in response the terraces open out more and are filled with the brightness of ripe oranges and the vibrant greens of newly leafed grape vines. And Monterosso too echoes this change, the biggest and busiest of the towns, with a substantial harbour and many more tourist facilities than our modest Riomaggiore, but we are very pleased with our choice of town in which to stay.

In contrast with the harshness of the coastal walk our walk the next day takes us steeply up out of Riomaggiore, away from the sea and into the soft coolness of a maritime pine forest on the mountains surrounding the town. What is the same however is the spectacular nature of the views along the coast, and today out onto a Mediterranean that is extremely blue and extremely calm. And again terraces squeezed into seemingly impossible places, filled with grapes, fruit trees, flowers and vegetables. Bellisima! And in an echo of this our meal this evening very much reflects the fact that we are by the sea with a fine octopus carpaccio, a mix of hot and cold seafood, including calamari and stuffed mussels with a twist, and a delicious seafood risotto, accompanied by a very good locally produced white wine. A very fitting end note to our time in the Cinque Terre.

And now it is away from the coast and into Tuscany as we head for Lucca and then finally to Florence where the emphasis will be on field and mountain rather than the sea. But that will be the stuff of our next posting. Ciao amici.

---

Photos

Mind the Gap
Welcome to Riomaggiore Railway station

First Glimpse of Manarola
Train tunnels punch through these mountains to link the 5 towns

As Above So Below
The larger landscape echoed in miniature on the cliff face

Vernazza & its Watchtower
The only thing assailing the town today is the ocean and tourists

Cinque Terre Superhighway
Narrow becomes a relative term in the Cinque Terre

Bright Lights of Monterosso
Oranges and new vine leaves shine in the afternoon sun

Comments

[Steve Rossiter]

cinque terre
Thanks for bringing back some great memories of this lovely part of the world. It really is beautiful there. Liz, Jacob and I walked between the villages a couple of years ago and I still find my mind drifting back there occasionally. Love the blog.

[Kate]

Your descriptions are so detailed that I almost feel like I am there.