After an 18K Hike a couple bottles of Cinque Terre sounds good...

Stephen King says that if you want to be a writer, you must never use the prhase: "It was indescribable" - or something to the effect where one doesn't have the adequate vocabulary to accurately describe something. Good thing I am not planning on writing novels for a living becuase I am definately lacking the words to the beauty that is attributable to Le Cinque Terre.

Cinque Terre (Five Lands) is a succession of five coastal villages that are connected by an 18km hiking trail in addition to the train that runs through each town. From the naked eye, each village looks like a carbon copy of the other; which is a main boulevard running uphill that is lined with pastel colored buildings that encase not only residences for locals, but hostels, restaurants, markets, and souveneir shops alike. But from up-close, each village has its own flair.

The first stop off of the train from La Spezia is Riomaggiore. This village sits quietly in an understated ravine that winds up into the hills of Liguria. Mostly quiet during the day, the village is not much more than a quaint place to stay and enjoy the beautiful blue skies and sea breeze. At night, however, live music brings the sole Piazza in town to life with locals and tourists blending together dancing and enjoying the entertainment.

The next village, Manarola, is connected to Riomaggiore by an open air tunnel called Via dell' Amore (The Street of Love), aptly named after the paintings and drawings on the walls of the tunnel. Many other pledges of love and signs of promises of the heart can be seen as you walk through this tunnel. Manarola is also located in a ravine, however, part of the village is visable from afar as it is partially elevated onto a cliff.

Hiking to Corniglia is a bit more arduous. In the last leg of the trail, you are welcomed into town with a series of 368 steps. Corniglia is known for their wine and is the only village not located directly on the water. Instead, the village rests on a promontory that affords some of the best views of the Adriatic Sea.

The trail gets steeper as you progress onto Vernazza. However, the toil is made worthy when you enter a town, which, in my humble opinion has the best proportion of amenities for tourists to originality and quaintness. The village has a small protected harbor which has a tiny beach that many Italian and foreign tourists swim at. If you are a competant swimmer, there is a quay that wraps around a precipice where you can jump off and swim accross to another cliff. There you can jump or dive about 8 meters into an area of deep water. Just make sure there are no jellyfish first!

After one more trail, you reach Monterosso, by far the most resort-like of all the villages. The hike to Monterosso winds its way through vinyards and orchards and is very steep and very narrow at times. Since views that are just as good can be seen from the trail between Vernazza and Corniglia, I would only recommend this hike to be able to say you hiked through all five towns. Monterosso is bordered by an umbrella covered beach that costs a few Euro for an entry fee.

I thought this pic was pretty cool.

The steps leading up to Corniglia

View of the train tracks from the top of the steps.


Liguria is home to Pesto alla Genovese, the original and best pesto, great wines, and delicious foccacia. If you ever have the chance to visit the area, stop by Cinque Terre. You won't regret it.

Ciao!
-Teo