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Published: October 26th 2006
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Riomaggiore
View from port Cinque Terre. Five Towns. A UNESCO protected national park along Italy's northwestern coastline. We arrived to this rolling, green hillside from Florence leaving the rain and cold weather to be welcomed by warm, bright sun and blue skies. The train took us through tunnels along the coastline until we arrived at a village in the hills. Literally in the hills.
Riomaggiore is the first of five towns that make up Cinque Terre, and it also served as our home for three days. As mentioned, we arrived to gorgeous weather and hiked through the tunnel and up, up and up to our hostel (basically our own apartment shared with five others) where we were shaken daily by the train roaring beneath us in the tunnel. The town itself was quite impressive. At sea level is a port with a miniature marina for the small fishing boats. It has a path along the cliff lining the coast and opposite that, houses climbing the hillside. With one main road that ascends the hillside up to the road connecting the five towns, one can find all the town has to offer in a short stroll...miniature grocery markets, pizzarias, gelato shops and a few souvenir
shops. The buildings are all various shades of pastels with green or red or brown doors. Clothes dotted the landscape as they hang to dry on the countless lines out the windows. The village park is literally a slab of concrete making a spacious square on top of the train tunnel. In the afternoons it was filled with parents and children, strollers, dogs, etc. The hilltops are kissed by the clouds, and it's overall just a special place. In the evenings, Riomaggiore was glowing in lights and looked beautiful from the waterfront.
One of the main attractions of Cinque Terre is "Lovers' Lane," the hiking trail connecting all five towns along the coast. Unfortunately, due to rain and poor weather the days before we arrived and our second day there, the trails were closed from Riomaggiore to Monterosso (the fifth town). There was actually a gate blocking the trail in our town, so we decided to take the train to Monterosso to see what was offered there.
When we exited the train station, we were welcomed by a small beach in a little bay lined by cliffs and filled with the most beautiful water (clear and turquoise)...too bad
Monterosso
Vineyards and the village it was grey and gloomy, otherwise it would have been completely incredible. We walked through the town looking for some good, Italian pizza, only to find that the village looked somewhat of a ghost town. Many of the shops and restaurants were closed, and not many people were around other than the two or three groups of tourists from Norwegian Cruise Lines. We eventually found a nice place, ate too much, and then decided to try and tackle Lovers' Lane.
Forunate for us, there was no gate to stop us from hiking the trail, so that's exactly what we did. We hiked up, up, and up some more. I thought the stairs were never going to end. The stairs cut through vineyards that covered the hillsides. Once we finally got to the top, the view of Monterosso was breathtaking. We continued to hike the trail up, down, and around, and only occasionally coming upon a slight erosion problem or mud puddles in the trail, but other than that, we weren't quite sure why the trail was "closed." About an hour and fifteen minutes into it, we spotted Vernazza (town 4) in the distance, set down near the harbor, and
Vernazza
View from the plaza it, too, was also a village scaling the hillside.
Upon descent into Vernazza, we found our way to the harbor where we took some pictures and relaxed before venturing to the train station to make our way back to the homefront.
The following day we were unable to hike anymore of the trail due to poor weather conditions, but we train hopped and were at least able to see Manorola (town 2) and Corniglia (town 3). All five towns were quite similar in their layout spreading up the hillside and their fishing ports at sea level. The buildings are all old and run down....years of salt water getting the best of them. The streets were all dotted with pizzarias, panini and gelato joints, and saddened tourists wanting, but unable, to hike Lovers' Lane. We enjoyed the peacefulness and the time to relax. We would have liked some better weather, but we made do with what we were faced with and made the best of it.
Next Up: Rome, Italy; Oct 25, 2006
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Linds
non-member comment
Bummer
It is so weird that I was there! See the white building coming up from the boat ramp - I was 3 or 4 buildings up the hill - crazy. When I was there, however, it was sunny and we we able to experience the beach -'european' style. And while we were hiking along the trail, there was an old naked man wading in the water throwing rocks. Too bad you missed him! P.s. someone is a great photographer!