We left the Amalfi Coast and were headed to Cinque Terre, part of the Italian Riviera…our next stop! Moving from pretty far south in Italy all up along the coast to Cinque Terre took about 7 hours on train. We are really digging how awesome the train system is in Italy. After riding on buses tearing through the narrow cliff roads and watching crazy Italian drivers plow into anything in their way, we were thrilled to not be driving anywhere in Italy.
Manarolo- first village over from ours as we hiked
We arrived in Riomaggiore, one of the five villages of Cinque Terre and the furthest east of the five. We checked into our hotel and were very happy to learn it was right in the middle of the town and overlooked the main street. One of the main activities in Cinque Terre is the famous hike on a coastside trail connecting all five villages. They're all very small villages on the coast, stacked on top of each other and a lot smaller than the villages on the Amalfi Coast.
We devoted day one to the hike. The estimated time to hike through all five villages was about 5 hours, with no stops. We planned to stop along the way to take lots of pictures and eat of course! We left in the morning and it was already pretty hot out. Luckily, most of the hike is on a trail along the coast so we did get some breeze throughout the day. The first part of the hike was Riomaggiore to Manorola. This was a short, flat, landscaped section with lots of people on it. It is called the Via del Amore or the Walk of Love. We were just trying to power walk past all the people. Manarola was very small and had a very small harbor on the beach. Manarola to Corniglia was a little steeper and a little longer but still nothing too hard. Corniglia is perched up high on a cliff and doesn’t have a beach. We walked through the village, bought some fruit, took some pictures and kept hiking.
Corniglia
The stretch from Corniglia to Vernaza was long and steeper and took about an hour and 40 minutes. It was hot too but we were working for our lunch so we powered through. Vernazza was probably the prettiest of the villages. It was a little bigger than the other villages and there were tons of people walking around. Overall, we found the Cinque Terre area to be more crowded than Amalfi, but still not too bad. We found a lunch spot on the water and rested up for the last part of the hike.
Vernazza
Our reward at the end of the hike was Monterosso, which had the biggest and best beach. The last stretch was the longest and took us almost 2 hours. It was the least crowded too. There were some pretty steep parts along the way and I can see why the chicks in flip flops dropped out at about village #2. There were some pretty rugged, narrow parts of the trail and by this point there was very little upkeep on the trail. We got into Monterosso and beelined it into the ocean. We rented two lounge chairs and peeled off our clothes and jumped in. The water felt great and we could see all the way to the bottom it was so clear. Monterosso was interesting. The whole village is along the water and there is a handful of restaurants and hotels. It had the most touristy vibe to us. Luckily, we didn’t have to do the hike again back to our village and hopped on the train back.
view of 4 villages behind Karl during the hike to the last village
Riomaggiore was definitely our favorite of all the villages so we were happy to be staying there. It had a nice beach and was the most authentic and not overrun totally by tourists. The Cinque Terre area is known for their dry, white wine they produce. We liked it a lot and had it at dinner every night. The area is also known for their homemade pesto (amazing!) and their Buffalo Mozzarella which was great in risotto . We had the most amazing homemade gnocchi with fresh pesto sauce in Riomaggiore.
Riomaggiore...our favorite
The next day we grabbed some fruit at the outdoor market and headed to our beach to swim and relax. Apparently, it just got warm enough to swim a week before we arrived. There weren’t too many people at our beach either, which was nice. As we were watching the sunset from the rocks at our harbor, we watched a guy reach into the water and pull out an octopus with his bare hands. He was so proud showing everyone and taking pictures with it. It was sad when he got out a clear plastic bag, stuck it in and walked to the local restaurant to sell it. We didn't want to leave Cinque Terre. What a unique, awesome place. But, on to our next stop....The next day we left for Florence to meet up with Carolyn and Hugh before our bike ride.
....see more of our Cinque Terre pictures here.
No comments:
Post a Comment