Portovenere/Cinque Terre

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After seeing the Cinque Terre on Getaway and hearing from some friends say how wonderful it is we were so excited to get here. We weren’t disappointed! The Cinque Terre (5 lands in Italian) is a series of 5 little villages along the rugged north-west coast of Italy. There is a famous walk which links the 5 towns. We didn’t have time to do any walking with the contiki trip but did go back on our own (Cinque Terre part 2 to come later!). We arrived by bus to Portovenere and had a little while to walk up to an amazing church (it almost looks like a ruin) and lookout before boarding a ferry which took us along the Cinque Terre. The ocean was crystal clear and luckily not too rough, although some passengers got a bit seasick.

The 5 towns are very picturesque. They’re all tiny and have colourful buildings perched right on the cliffs. We took in the view past the first 3 towns (Riomaggiore, Manarola and Corniglia) and then stopped off in Vernazza and had an explore. This is a really cute town with a lovely little bay, shops and church right by the water. We then boarded the boat again and went to Monterosso (the last town of the Cinque Terre) for lunch. We enjoyed a delicious lunch of antipasto, seafood and wine with some of our contiki friends (happy birthday to Kate!). We didn’t have much time to explore Monterosso but the towns are so tiny you don’t need a lot of time! We caught the train back through the Cinque Terre where Genaro (our bus driver)was waiting to take us to Milan.

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