Cinque Terre: the 5 LandsJul 23, 2011
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| A bunch of girls from my program were going to Cinque Terre on Friday, and I was going to have to miss it because I had train tickets to go to Venice that day. Then the train strike happened, and they had to reschedule to Saturday. So I actually lucked out and was able to do both trips. We met at the train station at 7am and spent about 3 hours traveling there. It could have been shorter but we had to change trains a couple of times. Cinque Terre is a series of 5 small coastal towns in Northern Italy. They have very old origins and were quite isolated up until the recent onset of tourism - now they're famous for their beauty and peaceful, lazy atmosphere. One can hike between the 5 towns, or you can take ferries or trains. We hiked between the first and second, and since we read that the third town was nothing special, we took a train right to the fourth. Unfortunately the ferries weren't running due to choppy water. The plan was to hike from the 4th to 5th town, allegedly the hardest hike, but around when we planned to do that storm clouds were rolling in and we were afraid that during the 1.5 hour hike we might get caught in rain. So, we took the train also to the 5th town. Our train back to Florence left from there. The first town, Riomaggiore, was really pretty. The buildings are all brightly colored in the colors of a sunset: red, orange, pink, and yellow. The coastline is rocky with many cliffs, reminding me of the Amalfi Coast that I had visited last month. Like in Amalfi, every direction I looked led to a beautiful sight. The water was so blue, even when the sky was overcast at times throughout the day (weather.com lied when it said it would be sunny all day). It's hard to write about the visit to Cinque Terre because it's not what we did that was exciting; it's what we saw. The "hike" to the second town, Manarola, was actually really easy. It's just a corridor on the edge of a cliff, so you get a constant view of the water. Easiest hike I've ever done. Manarola led to more great views. We walked up some stairs to a small garden area that had a monument with 5 stone pillars arranged in a circle. At noon, their shadows are supposed to come together, representing the unification of the 5 towns (not politically, just in spirit I think). We walked some of the path to the 3rd town, but just to get a good view of it. The path itself was blocked off by a landslide, so walking that part wasn't even an option. The train to the 4th town, Vernazza, was insane. A huge mob of people were literally pushing each other to fight their way onto the train when it finally arrived after a long wait. There weren't enough seats for everyone, so the fighting was understandable, but they weren't even polite enough to let people get off the train before trying to cram on. The crowded train ride was fast enough though, and soon we were in my favorite of the 4 towns - Vernazza. We got lunch there at this small restaurant on the harbor that Rick Steves recommended (my friend had his ebook on her ipod). I should have gotten the trofie al pesto - a dish famous from Cinque Terre - but I went for a ravioli in a walnut sauce because it seemed so unique. It was alright, but I liked the trofie that my friend got better. Trofie is a special kind of homemade pasta that's thick and chewy, made especially to go with pesto. As an afternoon snack later on, I got onion focaccia bread - another thing Cinque Terre is famous for. We saw bakeries that were dedicated to focaccia bread - Focaccierias. It was delicious. We had decided not to hike to the 5th town, but we did climb up part of the path to the top of a hill so we could get the great views that the hike would have offered. It was once again amazing. The town below was so colorful and small, jutting out into the bright blue water with cliffs in the background. We had time to kill before the train to town #5 came, so we went to the part of the harbor where large rocks stick out into the water. There was no real beach in this town, but plenty of people were hanging out or tanning on these rocks. We picked a few close to the water and just sat there talking, watching waves crashing onto the giant rocks below us. It was one of my favorite parts of the day. Town 5, Monterosso, was nice, but we didn't have much time to spend there because we had to catch our train back to Florence. Monterosso is the beach town. It has a long coastline, resorts, and a wide walkway full of tourists. I realized, after seeing them, that I liked the previous towns much more because they didn't have as many crowds. On a nicer day I would have wanted to stay and swim, but the sky was overcast anyway. Plus, Rick Steves (a guidebook writer) had said that it's not uncommon to step on sea urchins or come across jellyfish. Still, as in the other towns, the views along the shoreline were beautiful. Basically, if you get a chance to visit Cinque Terre, do it. There isn't much to do in terms of activities, but there are countless breathtaking views. The people who live there have to put up with tourists, small town life (Vernazza only has a population of 500), and many steep hills daily, but the bright side is they get to live next to magnificent cliffs and shorelines and eat delicious focaccia bread every day. |
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