Cinque Terre, Italian Riviera

Cinqe Terre is Italian for 5 lands, in this case 5 towns along the Italian Riviera. I stayed in Riomaggiore the southern most of the 5 towns. It is also one of the smallest of the towns, which makes it easy to get to know. You could say it is easy to get around, you either go up or down.

This is the view of part of the harbor. The train station is at the bottom of the hill,. Once you get off you walk through a long tunnel to get to the street that goes up the middle of the town. This is the main road and there only a few others. It is closed to automobiles most of the day, but early in the morning it is filed with delivery trucks bringing in supplies.

This photo shows a bit of the road as it winds through town. My room is in the building on the right just past where the road is hidden. The hotel office was across the way and the breakfast room was down a side passage and up another walkway. Doesn’t make any sense until you realize these buildings have been here forever and hotels often have rooms more than one building. There were 8 in my building but there were also apartments mixed in as well. You do get to know your neighbors a bit, at least enough to say “buon giorno” in the morning and “buona sera” in the evening.

Behind me in this photo is the castle. It’s mostly a tower with a clock but has a great view of the ocean. The walk up there is pretty too. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good photos of a sunset.

If you don’t walk through the tunnel you come out on the North side of Riomaggiore. More vineyards than homes and you can see a portion of the Cinque Terre trail, on the cliff just above the ocean. Unfortunately the trail was closed from Riomaggiore through Manarola to Corniglia.

I did hike the trail from Monterossa to Vernazza. Stopped to take a lot of photos and with the heat and humidity I was extremely glad I had brought along 2 bottles of water. The first part of the trail is a long staircase carved out of the rocks. Carved by someone with longer legs than mine! Good news is now I know I can handle the stairmaster at the gym no problem. Bad news, I leak like a sieve in the humidity, had to put a hat on to keep the sweat out of my eyes. The views were all worth it. You are hiking through lemon and olive groves and vineyards. Every now and then you come across a home.

This is a view of the trail looking up hill.

This Monterossa after you have gone over the first ridge.

This is a house and vineyards going up to the first ridge.

These are vineyards and homes above Vernazza, as you are coming down from the second ridge.

This is Vernazza as you are arriving on the trail.

For as small as it was Riomaggiore has a lot of good restaurants, didn’t eat at the same one twice. They also have a lot of small markets that I raided daily for the fresh fruit. I have a new breakfast favorite, melon with Parma ham. Also found out that they like to serve dessert with breakfast, usually a fruit tart but sometimes a chocolate tart. Have definitely decided to go native!