Cinque Terre

We flew from Malta to Genova back to the north of Italy for our last Italian adventure.

The plan was to change planes in Rome but for a number of reasons we didn’t make the connecting flight (the connecting flight didn’t exist even though we had paid for it and had seat allocation). A Lebanese business man on the shuttle bus across the tarmac told us that every Alitalia flight has a story. “You know what Alitalia stands for? Always Late In Take-off Always Late in Arrival”.

Once we got to Genova we had a Taxi driver who is in a ZZ Top cover band. With the heavy metal of ZZ Top blaring and the lyrics sitting next to him on the passengers seat for practice, we headed to the train station bound for the Cinque Terre.

The five towns of the Cinque Terre – from Monerosso to Riomaggiore. We also spent a night in both Levanto and Portovenere, while not technically in the Cinque Terra. Portovenere was our favourite of them all.

The second of our two walks organised by Oxford based company ATG was on the Cinque Terre.

The Cinque Terre consists of five tiny, pretty pastel-painted coastal villages in Liguria, between Genoa and Pisa.

We began our walk in Levanto, walking to Monterosso.

On the path we met Leo, Danish but living these days in Zurich. As we climbed we got to quite a high spot which included a rock with a plaque to a German Professor from Freiburg. Rob and Leo perched themselves on the rock for a better view and then on the way down Leo translated the German “Professor… died at this spot”. Alex is insisting he fell to his death.

Leo and Rob getting a better view, note plaque on Rock

Rob calls this “Sloanie skipping along” (Sloanie says “it’s bloody tough going downhill)

It was lightly raining as we walked into Monterosso

Back on the track Monterosso to Venazza.

Mountain bikers on the path. When we asked them how much cycling they were getting in: “10% cycling, 90% carrying”

Venazza – pretty as a post card at a distance, as the ferries come in

Pretty crowded on arrival – and this isn’t even peak season yet

All five towns are on the rail line, and also served by ferries which drop thousands of visitors each day into the villages

In 2016 there was an article in London’s broadsheet Telegraph newspaper:

“Today, from April to October, the villages, while still beautiful as a distant prospect from the ferries that ply the coast, are a heaving and thoroughly unpleasant experience at close quarters. Each village’s handful of streets — all too small for cars, bar a few in the most northerly village, Monterosso – teem with people. Every restaurant is packed, every bar jammed.

The Cinque Terre are cheek-by-jowl at the best of times, and barely have the room or facilities for their own inhabitants, let alone a flood of visitors: there’s just a few shops, a handful of restaurants, some rooms for rent, and the odd hotel, none of which, except in Monterosso, have more than a dozen or so beds.”

This is pretty much our experience. In fact once we got to Venazza we jumped on the train to Riomaggiore, so we missed Corniglia and Manarola. While the Telegraph review is referring to the huge crowds in the towns, it’s really busy on the walking track too. Some complete idiots, including one guy in bare feet.

We had done our fair share of hiking so on the last day we gave ourselves a break by catching the ferry and had a wonderful day in Portovenere, just wandering around without being completely exhausted.