Cinque Terre

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22 May 2008

A magnificent day’s walking along the Cinque Terre (Five Lands), probably one of the most well known and scenic coastal routes in Europe. It connects five villages which are difficult to get to by road but all have a rail link. For the entire length mountains which are terraced for growing vines, drop steeply into the sea and the path cuts across the slopes and drops down into each village. It’s12k long although it seemed more than that due to the amount of ascent and descent involved.

Unfortunately, I lost my camera at the bar we had our lunchtime stop. However this was no great disaster as I had planned to replace it when we got home, the only pictures on it were those taken that morning and I had my phone with me and could continue snapping with that.

To get to the start of the walk, Riamaggiore, we took the train from Levanto, a half hour trip, most of which is in tunnels below the mountains with the only exposed sections being for stations.

We had a look around the harbour and main street of Riamaggiore all of which were crowded with guided parties and then started on the walk, a well made flat path called the Via dell’Amore which led in half an hour to the next village, Manarola. The wide path continued from here along a disused railway and then by 382 steps to Corniglia which is situated in an elevated position overlooking the sea.

After lunch we did the really spectacular section of the walk on a rough, progressively narrower path and up and down what seemed like thousands of steps many of which were quite slippery from the recent rain. In some sections the way was very exposed, dropping down straight to the sea and with few protective barriers, so we progressed with great care. On route we came across a helicopter rescue of an Australian lady who had slipped and broken her ankle.

We passed through Vernazza which is built on a promontory and we thought was the most attractive of the villages. At about 6.15 we finally arrived at Monterosso, the finish of the path and caught the train back to Levanto.

A great day was concluded by with an excellent meal at one of the local restaurants.

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