Cinque Terre, Italy

Cinque Terre - the UNESCO World Heritage listed stretch of coastline has 'five villages' painted with Starburst lolly colours. This trip was made over the Easter break where we had a couple of days to visit the sites and another day to explore the maritime city of Genoa (detailed in a separate blog post). We visited Cinque Terre knowing that it would offer the best parts of a holiday in the one place - great food and wine, pretty laneways to explore artwork, seaside and scenery. However we did luck out with the weather. The rain arrived and didn't clear up until our last day. But besides the need to wear bright plastic ponchos all the time we had an amazing trip.

Day 1 - London to Genoa
We flew with British Airways to Genoa in the early hours of Good Friday. The airport was buzzing with like-minded people escaping London for the Bank holiday weekend. On arrival at Genoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (named after the city's most famous resident), we looked for transport options to the Cinque Terre region. The bus option involved an extensive queue and a complicated ticket system that only took coins. The train ticket machine in the first instance did not appear cooperative but Olie coaxed it into providing us with tickets to Monterosso al Mare (our first destination) with a changeover in Genoa's central station (Genova Brignole).

Journey to Genova Brignole
Pre-purchasing tickets at the airport was perhaps a rash decision as we only had an estimated idea of where the train station nearest to the airport was located - Stazione di Genova Sestri Ponente Aeroporto. Google maps showed us in theory that it was located only a 'short' distance away. However this ended up being via a less than scenic path across an industrial estate. With the pressure of a specific arrival time of the train that we had to catch, we ran for part of the journey until we found the train tracks and not long after the station. We promised ourselves that in future we would allow plenty of time to reach public transport connections; however as examples show in this blog - we rarely heed our own advice.

Sitting on the top level of the train, it was difficult to keep track of which station we had arrived at. In our limited Italian vocabulary (and probably worse pronunciation) we attempted to converse with two teenagers sitting in the next seat. They looked very puzzled by what we were trying to say, so when we showed them the destination on the ticket, they explained in English - it was the next stop.

Travelling to Cinque Terre
Our connecting train from Genova Brignole to Monterosso al Mare was tightly packed with tourists. Although we had reserved seating, it was difficult to navigate our way through the train to find the right carriage. Instead we found a couple of pull down seats in the main corridor of the train, facing the more comfortable six-seater compartments and stalking any opportunity for a free seat. Most of the travelers disembarked at Portofino and soon it was only us and travellers armed with walking sticks that continued on down the Ligurian coastline.

Artwork capturing four of the five villages

Village 1 - Monterosso al Mare
We arrived at Monterosso al Mare around mid afternoon. This was the first Cinque Terre town when approaching from Genoa and it was also the largest. We had booked our accommodation here as a base for travelling to the other villages. The station is quite small and faces a strip of beachfront with a few umbrellas. Monterosso is split into two sides - Old Town and New Town (Fegina) connected by a tunnel for cars and pedestrians or you can take the long route around the hill of San Cristoforo.

View of the Old Town from the hill of San Cristoforo

Hotel - Affittacamere La Villa Degli Argentieri
We located our hotel after walking about 10 minutes down the road from the station. The receptionist spoke English and the front desk had a number of brochures available about the Cinque Terre trails, including the very important train timetable. Our room was decorated with a pretty assortment of fish and sea-life paintings that would make an aquarium proud - even the toothbrush holder and toilet seat reflected the theme. The room was located on the second floor with a window facing the side courtyard. This allowed us to gauge the ferocity of the rain and whether we needed to poncho-ready ourselves before we headed out.

Entrance of our hotel

Cinque Terre Trail and Pass
We did a bit of research before this trip and had planned to buy the Cinque Terre Card - a pass that allows you access to shuttle buses and the main trails in the park. However when we approached the Tourist Board at the station, they advised against buying the pass for the day, as many of the trails were closed due to bad weather. Instead they recommended taking the train to each village. There is the option of buying a ticket that allows unlimited travel or you can purchase point-to-point tickets.

Cinque Terre Train 

If you are thinking of spending an entire day sightseeing between the different villages it is important to get a copy of the train timetable that is applicable for the season (trains run more frequently in peak season). Check the train schedule for the day of week that you are travelling, paying attention to the train number and whether it goes express (bypassing some villages) or stops all stations. There are small screens near the station that announce the next service or inform you of any delays.

When purchasing tickets from the Trenitalia self-service machines, make sure you have sufficient time to spare before your train arrives to allow for: 

- long queues, usually there are only a couple of ticket machines

- delays due to people attempting to operate the machine without converting the instructions into a language that they understand - multi-language selector is on the Home screen

- ticket machine taking its sweet time in processing your request

Card payments are easier than cash unless you have exact change in coins but beware that some European ticket machines that don't accept prepaid debit cards even with chip/pin validation.

The platform to visit the other Cinque Terre villages

Due to the wet weather, we rescheduled our plans so that for the rest of the Friday, we would just visit Vernazza and then consider whether the path back to Monterosso would be viable. Saturday would include sightseeing from La Spezia and then making our way to Riomaggiore, Manarola and Corniglia. The terrain between the villages varies, as displayed by the map at the start of the trail at Monterosso.

Map showing the trails and heights of the villages

An alternative method to walking to each village or taking the train, is to catch the ferry. However, as the weather was quite poor we didn't fancy sitting on a boat that was struggling in the rough sea. 

Watching the ferry come into port

Village 2 - Vernazza

We caught the train to Vernazza, a mere five minutes away. Near the station, there are a number of signs that highlight the damage that was inflicted on the town by the floods of October 2011. The town and the tourism industry has now recovered and when we arrived the streets were decorated with paper lanterns.

Narrow lane-ways with supports set up for the lanterns

A pretty paper lantern

In order to keep our sugar levels up for all the walking around, we stopped at the Gelateria Vernazza for an ice-cream and a bakery for focaccia - one that contained large green olives and another decorated in the colours of the Italian flag, full of pesto and tomato paste. 

Historically, Vernazza was the only village with a natural harbour so it prospered from trade with the Republic of Genoa and other countries. The harbour area has the Church of Santa Margarita d'Antiochia on one side and the round tower of the Doria Castle on the other. 

View from the boat ramp

View from the harbour back to the village

Doria Castle

The castle on top of the hill has a lookout tower that was used to sight pirates and Saracen invaders. To access the tower, there are signs from the harbour and a climb of a few flights of stairs. At the castle, you pay a small fee (not covered by the Cinque Terre pass) and you climb more stairs to reach the main landing and then further stairs to ascend the tower.

View of Vernazza from the tower

Vernazza to Monterosso Trail

The only hiking achieved on this trip was the route back from Vernazza to Monterosso. We left Vernazza in the late afternoon and then walked for almost two hours in fading light  - the thought of stumbling around in darkness did encourage us to walk faster. The path is in fairly good condition - there were areas where you had to watch your step due to rain making the stones slippery and at one point a lot of stone stairs. The view of Vernazza from the first hill after the town was picture perfect.

The beautiful town of Vernazza

Lots of vineyards

Spotting the town of Corniglia in the distance

Ristorante Belvedere

After the long walk, we were fairly hungry and had the option of either: a) going back to our hotel to get changed and then finding a restaurant for dinner; or b) just walking into the first restaurant we saw. We went for option b) and walked into the Ristorante Belvedere, famished and ready for a meal. The menu focused on local dishes and served wine from the Cinque Terre region. We ordered fried mixed seafood, anchovies, pesto linguine (one of the best pasta dishes we have ever eaten) and veal. The meal was finished by a very creamy tiramisu and the local dessert wine, Sciacchetrà.

Anchovies from the Ligurian coastline

Pesto - one of the specialties of the region

Veal with lemon - an Italian favourite

Tiramisu

Sciacchetrà - only produced in the Cinque Terre region

Day 2 - Exploring the Villages

As Saturday would be a day of sightseeing, we skipped breakfast at the hotel for pizza from the bakery next door - Il Fornaio Di Monterosso and a espresso for our caffeine hit. 

Yum - pizza for breakfast

Great way to start the day

La Spezia
We arrived at Stazione La Spezia Centrale after catching the express train from Monterosso. La Spezia is a city and is a common launch point for touring the Cinque Terre region. We only wanted to have a quick look around and in the pouring rain, wandered around the streets, eventually finding ourselves at the market that was busy with Saturday morning traders.

Looking at the fish

Stairs to somewhere

Village 3 - Riomaggiore

After a couple of hours in La Spezia, we caught the next train to Riomaggiore and by coincidence as we were exiting the train, we saw four friends from London getting on. We only had a chance to wave hello as they were swept up in the crowd of people. Riomaggiore is split in half by the railway line. One side is the marina; the other is the steep main street where restaurants are located.

We visited the marina area first, taking a lot of photos with the pretty buildings in the background.

Then we headed back into the center of the town where we picked up some fried seafood treats at the El Pescato Cucinato, a takeaway shop that served up cones of fried anchovies and calamari.

Fried seafood for lunch

Seeking out something slightly more substantial, we found a fresh pasta shop that also served takeaway boxes of pasta cooked to order in five minutes.

Village 4 - Manarola 

Unfortunately for us, the famous Lover's Walk (Via dell'Amore) was closed and we had to board the train to the next village, Manarola. The rain was quite heavy and we stopped for coffee at the restaurant, Da Aristide whilst we waited for the weather to improve.

When things cleared up, we walked up a short flight of stairs to a central square that overlooked the street leading to the harbour. We have found that a lot of the laneways in the Cinque Terre region are decorated with interesting street art, drawing some attention away from the colourful buildings.

It is difficult to determine which village was prettier - Manarola or Vernazza - the decision is yours. However when we walked up the short laneway that would lead to the next village of Corniglia (although the path is closed due to landslides) we bumped into our four friends from London - Yvonne, Jason, Wendy and Will and joined them on visiting the next village where they were staying for the night.

Pretty Manarola

Village 5 - Corniglia

Catching a train to Corniglia is only half the journey, as the walk from the station to the village involves climbing 377 stairs. There are shuttle buses available if you want the easier way up.

View of the train station from the top of the stairs

After reaching the village, our friends checked into their hotels and we decided to relax with a beer - Birra Moretti from the local supermarket and checked out one of the squares outside a church with its interesting sculpture. 

There was also a panoramic lookout at the end of the laneway where you can take photos of the neighbouring villages, just follow the signs.

Torro Rosso - Wine bar

This is what we think the name of the wine bar was - although our only reference point is the photo of the sign out the front. The staff were incredibly friendly and when we bought two bottles of wine, they gave us a large amount of free food to go with it.

The Wine Bar near the main square

Someones cute garden near the Wine Bar

Drinking more local wine

Train from Corniglia to Vernazza 
Before we headed out for dinner, we started climbing the trail that would lead to the village of Vernazza and this gave us great picturesque views of Corniglia.

View of the village

Hello Olie from the bridge

Restaurant - A Cantina De Mananan
We joined our friends for dinner at this popular restaurant that had good reviews on TripAdvisor. More wine and the simplicity of pasta with a great sauce - either pesto or the pomodoro (tomato based).

As we had to catch the train back to Monterosso, dessert was a gelati from the Gelateria Artigianale, and then we had the long walk back to the station. We noticed two British tourists waiting at the bus stop near the stairs and we let them know that the last bus had already gone and ended up guiding them down to the station, hearing all about their travels in Italy.

Cinque Terre region is also known for growing lemons

Day 3 - Exploring Monterosso

Our final day in Cinque Terre, we decided to explore Monterosso before catching the train back to Genoa where we would stay for another night. The weather decided to clear up and we took a walk up the narrow laneways, passing by the Church of San Giovanni Battista with its green and white striped marble facade; a council building and a number of restaurants suited for al fresco dining.

Tempting to sit in the sun and people watch

Pretty flowers on the window sills

An old house decorated with paintings of old ships

With some blue sky in the background, we were able to see why the Ligurian coast is a favourite beach holiday destination for hikers and celebrities. Pretty picture perfect in our opinion.

The new town

The morning by the beach

Goodbye Cinque Terre

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