Dave & Meredith's Travel Blog

If you are one of our faithful readers, you already know that after leaving Tuscany we went to the Cinque Terre. The Cinque Terre are a group of 5 towns (hence Cinque Terre, the Five Earths) along the northwestern coast of Italy. We stayed in the southernmost one: Riomaggiore, named for the river that used to run through the center of the town. The towns are very small, very colorful, very quaint, and almost all are built on a slope, clinging to cliffs that drop down to the sea. It all adds up to something very picturesque:

Above: Riomaggiore’s marina

The towns are beautiful and should be on everyone’s Italy itinerary but be warned that this was the first place we’ve been on our trip where we felt the presence of a lot of the young American crowd on a budget. That in itself isn’t so bad – good for them for traveling outside the USA – but to be honest, sometimes the attitudes that come with that bug me. There’s an interest in seeing the sights but not an (apparent) interest in having a local experience. In shops, they don’t start a purchase by bothering to try to speak Italian. While my own clothes are clearly “travel clothes,” their clothes are shorts, tank tops, flip-flops etc. which you just don’t see Italians wearing. I shouldn’t lump that entire category of people into one but there does seem to be a common profile.

One of the most common things people do when visiting the Cinque Terre is the coastal walk: a hiking trail that runs from Riomaggiore to Monterosso, the northernmost town. With Mer back at the room, I set off to hike this on my own. I got a late start so my plan was to hike only to the 4th town and then take a train back. It was a bleak day, starting out gray, drizzling after the second town, and raining a lot by the fourth town.

The section of trail between the first town, Riomaggiore, and the second town, Manarola, is especially well known and is called the Via d’Amore. I was by myself and it’s true, with a trail and scenery like this, I couldn’t help but fall in love with myself all over again:

Above: The Via d’Amore

These two towns are very close together. The walk was about 15 minutes and then I entered Manarola which is the smallest of the 5 towns. It was quaint and I took a quick 30-minute tour of the town including a path above town through the terraced vineyards:

Above: The vineyard trail above Manarola

As the trail loops back towards town, it has some very nice views of the part of town near the marina:

Above: a view of Manarola center from the vineyard trail.

After leaving Manarola, it started drizzling so it took about 30 minutes to get to the next town, Corniglia. Corniglia is the only Cinque Terre town without a marina/harbor. It’s built on top of its cliff and doesn’t run downward. This is the second smallest town in the Cinque Terre and I thought the least scenic. It was pleasant though and a walk up the main street ended in nice views. Along the way, I had great gelato at a place that has a flavor based on local honey. Not a common flavor here. Yum!

Above: A picture of Corniglia’s main square

After leaving Corniglia, I hiked the longest portion of my hike to the next town: Vernazza. This part of the trail is the most lush, and offers great views back to Corniglia;

Above: A picture looking south to Corniglia with Manarola in the background on the left (look closely).

This was slow going since it was rainy. Since this part of the trail has the most ups and downs and was somewhat muddy, it was a bit treacherous and took almost an hour to get to Vernazza. Even with the rain though, there were some nice scenes:

Above: A scene from the trail to Vernazza.

It was a relief to get to Vernazza, knowing I could dry off. The town is probably the nicest of the Cinque Terre and I think I would stay there next time I come. It’s the biggest of the four towns I saw: small enough to be nice but big enough to have some variety of stores and places to eat.

Above: The view of Vernazza seen from the trail above town.

My original plan was to walk all the way back to Riomaggiore but with the rain and muddy trails, it was nice to take the train back to Riomaggiore after spending some time in Vernazza. With the hours spent on the trail coming north, it took only ten minutes south to Riomaggiore. We left the Cinque Terre the next morning for Lake Como. And of course, that was the best weather we saw in the Cinque Terre. A clear day with vibrant blue seas. Oh well.

Above: a view of Riomaggiore from the road above as we drove away and on to Lake Como.

– Dave