Buongiorno
Italia!
Everyone I’ve ever met or spoken to
about Cinque Terra has raved about it, and now we Travelling Woodies unreservedly
include ourselves in that group. This
collection of 5 little fishing villages perched at various heights along the cliff-front
on the Tuscan coast are a sight to behold – stunningly beautiful, quaint, and
just so interesting to visit. Normally
you can walk between the 5 towns however due to slips and other track damage, a
couple of the trails are temporarily inaccessible. However, walking between three towns was
plenty for us, especially as the train stops at all towns and large sections of
the track are very steep and a reasonably demanding hike.
Harvey’s parking place for the 4
nights we spent in this area was a campground not far from the town of Sestri Levanti,
about half an hour by train to the first of the villages but connected on the
same track to all 5. First stop on day one
was the town of Corniglia, the middle village and as you get off the train you
are greeted with the sight of a zig-zagging staircase up the side of the hill
containing no less than 377 steps to be climbed – welcome to Cinque Terra! A short walk from the top and you are in the
centre of town, stopping for a refuel of coffee & croissant before
commencing your day of exploring in earnest.
This is the most elevated of the 5 towns and, although it was an overcast
& hazy day, we were able to see the other 4 villages from the elevated lookout
point.
These little towns have been around
for something like 1000 years, in fact so long that no-one knows exactly who
built them or when. The same applies to
the walking tracks in between – the entire distance seems to be either steps, rock
retaining walls or both, the engineering of the track alone is quite incredible,
not to mention the towns themselves which are perched precariously on the cliff-top
or waterfront bedrock. Although it made
us huff and puff in places, the walks between these little towns were actually
a highlight in themselves with a multitude of breath-taking views.
So with a wander around town #1 done
it was time to take a deep breath and start the 4km or so walk to our next
destination, the town of Vernazza. This
delightful little hamlet is right at sea level and boasts a quaint little
harbour with many small craft tied up or stacked ashore. By the time we got there the weather had
become quite windy, chilly and drizzly however we were still able to eat our
packed lunch of fresh focaccia sandwiches, followed up by the most delicious gelato! There are no cars at all in Cinque Terra
which makes each town delightfully pedestrianised, at Vernazza the wide central
road is lined with all manner of shops including clothing boutiques, souvenirs
and of course plenty of food options to choose from.
The third and final town on day one
was Monterosso, 3.5km up and over the hill on the aforementioned walking track,
the town also largely being at sea level.
Towards the end of the walk we met and walked for a time with Chris and
Crystal, an American couple from Colorado.
By the time we arrived in Monterosso we were all parched so found a
little outdoor establishment where our stories were further exchanged and our
thirst was duly slaked. Our day
concluded with a lovely wander through the town, then back to the railway
station for our train ride back to Sestri Levanti.
You would think that after more than a
year on the road and having caught all types of public transport numerous times,
the Travelling Woodies would mainly be able to work a train timetable. Frustratingly at Cinque Terra this was not
the case on either day we visited, both times heading home we ended up on a
train that wasn’t stopping at our stop, then managed to get on the wrong train
back in the opposite direction, then eventually trudging the 1.5km or so up the
hill to our campsite to arrive back at Harvey somewhere around 9pm each evening. Although mightily frustrating at the time (especially
after having walked more than 25,000 steps in the day) it’s part of the ‘joy-’
of travel and it doesn’t take us long to be laughing at our own doofusness
rather than grumbling too much.
The last time we Woodies met up with
someone we already knew was back in December however we were super-happy when that
all changed the following day. After
reading our previous blog we got a message from our good friends Ant and Nicky
from NZ who were travelling with their 3 daughters and our schedules happy coincided
at Cinque Terra. We met for lunch at town
#4 for us, Manarola, and had an awesome catch up with our friends and the most
delightful seafood lunch while overlooking the town before exploring together. So great to catch up guys, hope the rest of
your trip is amazing!
It was later in the afternoon when we
boarded the train for our final village – Riomaggiore. For the first time in 2 days the sun actually
put in an appearance making the hues of the multi-coloured buildings really
come to life. The harbour entrance to
this town is very rocky and the ocean was quite rough so consequently all the
little fishing boats remained neatly stacked ashore and kept well out of harm’s
way. At our end-of-day refreshment we
had a lovely chat with a couple from Sydney as well as two American youngsters
who had just finished their studies and were off on their big OE. Such lovely people we have been encountering,
it’s such a pleasure to meet fellow travellers and exchange stories, people are
just so interesting!!
When the editor-in-chief comes to
proof read this blog, your author is expecting a mild scolding. “you can’t mess up the chronology like this”
she will say.
And my reply with be something like “if
you want to write the blog, you can make it as tidy and chronological as you
like, otherwise hard luck 😊”
The reason for your somewhat recalcitrant
correspondent’s lack of order and tidiness is that he found the few days either
side of Cinque Terra a little uninspiring.
This is probably because the French Riviera immediately preceded our
arrival into Italy and what could possibly compare favourably with such iconic
destinations as Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo?!
The towns of San Remo and Genoa (both of which were visited by train from
our base in Albenga) will therefore merit only a brief mention as they were, by
comparison quite ho-hum. Both have very
nice waterfront and marina areas, San Remo has a large and impressive casino
and Genoa has a bunch of 16th century stately homes or palaces. Anita loved these palazzos, complete with beautiful
frescoed ceilings and artworks by Rubens, Van Dyck, Caravaggio etc, and built
on the ruins of a 2nd century monastery, while your author was
content enough to wander around the marina and check out the boats.
Likewise I was similarly uninspired by
the town of Livorno - none of these cities has anything wrong with them, just
nothing particularly noteworthy or interesting.
However we are loving the food in
Italy!!! From piping hot pizza by the
slice to fresh focaccia, pasta drizzled with simple pesto, to gelato with
flavours like cinnamon or the classic lemon, we are eating like kings. Fortunately there is plenty of walking to
counteract the effects of all this deliciousness.
Following the Lonely Planet’s recommendation,
we ended up at a small restaurant in the market place in Livorno. Run by three sommeliers, one of whom we met,
we feasted on marinated anchovies, cod, fresh ravioli and clam linguine. This of course, all washed down with a glass
or two of perfectly paired local wine selected by our new sommelier friend.
On the coastal road just north of
Rome, we made a slight detour to check out Tarquinia, an Etruscan necropolis. This is essentially a city of the dead,
dating from the 3rd to 7th century BC. There are approximately 6,000 tombs
discovered since excavations began in 1489(!), of which we were able to enter about
20, many of which are painted with ancient frescoes. So amazing that these sights are preserved
for us to see 2,500 years later.
Our final destination for this blog
has been another absolute treat. Firstly
because the medieval hilltop village of Sperlonga is just delightful - a little
like Cinque Terra, it is perched on a clifftop overlooking the ocean and one
could easily get lost wandering the narrow, steep cobbled streets. But (and some of our regular readers may be
detecting a common theme here), it’s all about the people you meet. Those amongst you with good memories may
remember the Travelling Woodies making friends with a young Dutch couple who we
met in Southern Spain back in January. We’ve
stayed in touch with Hendrik and Jacqueline since then and happily, our paths
crossed again yesterday. They arrived at
the parking spot a little ahead of us and by the time we arrived, they were
already making friends with some Italian youngsters also parked up in their
motorhome. Shortly thereafter the 8 of us
wandered up the hill into town together and found the most unique spot to share
a refreshment. The tiny little bar we
selected was full however, right outside their door was the steps leading up to
a small church. Before we knew it, the bar
staff had put out several step-tables and cushions right there on the steps and
we were sitting down and chatting with our friends over a wine. On returning down the hill, 2 of the Italians
had to head home however the rest of us had pot-luck dinner in Harvey and had a
lovely evening becoming better acquainted – too much fun!!!
Some of you may be wondering why we’ve
essentially skirted around some of the most famous parts of Tuscany and stuck
only to the coast over the last couple of weeks. The reason is that we’ll have some visitors
joining us here in Italy for 10 days in June so we’ll be exploring the likes of
Rome, Florence, Siena, Pisa etc with them.
For now, we Travelling Woodies are heading south in search of warmth (the
temperatures haven’t really improved from what we experienced in winter on the
Iberian Peninsula), in the next week or 2 we’ll be visiting Naples (including
Pompei etc) before Amalfi Coast and then a ferry over for a week or 2 exploring
Sicily.
So with that we shall bid you another
fond and cheery farewell, thanks again for keeping us company and we look
forward to updating you again soon.
Much love as always
The Travelling Woodies
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We're in Italy - let's have pizza!
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| the waterfront at Genoa with a street food vendor doing a brisk trade from the back of his boat! |
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| market shopping is always a treat |
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| inside the Palazzo Reale, Genova |
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| Inside Palazzo Rosso #1 |
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Inside Palazzo Rosso #2
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| driving the Italian Riviera with Genoa in the background |
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| welcome to Cinque Terra - this is the town of Corniglia |
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