Europe Tour Day 3: Cinque Terre, Italy

At a lookout point in Corniglia

Monday morning, March 17, we left Varazze and headed to La Spezia. From there, we bought a day train pass to the cities of Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre means "Five Lands" in reference to the five towns of tightly packed buildings along this stretch of rugged coastline. While there are a few rough roads by which the towns can be reached, the best way to reach them is by train. The railway lines were first built there in the 1870s. The first cities of Cinque Terre sprang up during the 11th century as fishing settlements. Fishermen colored their houses in bright colors so they could distinguish them while they were out fishing. People also farmed along the terraced hillsides they created along the cost. Now Cinque Terre is a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In addition to the trains, people can go between the cities by boat or trail. Unfortunately, in October 2011 torrential rains hit the area causing flooding and mudslides that took out the lower trails between the towns and caused a great deal of damage to the cities. The lower trails are still closed or we would have loved to take one or two of them.

We first stopped in Corniglia, which is the middle city. This city is set higher up in the hill and further from the sea than the other cities. In order to reach it from the train station you must follow a steep trail with 382 steps up to it or ride a bus. Since the bus was included in our ticket, we took the bus up.

The streets in the cities of Cinque Terre are often incredibly narrow and steep. Many of them have stairs all over the place, which made going slow with Austin and the stroller. The streets of Corniglia seemed especially narrow. We were therefore surprised when we saw a construction truck driving back and forth down one of these streets, which we had thought were only accessible to pedestrians. The truck completely filled all available space, and people on the road had to duck into shops for it to get by. I wish I had managed to video its progress, but I did get a picture of it making what seemed to be an impossibly tight turn off the narrow street, scraping the corner of the building as it went. (I still don't know if the picture captures just how crazy it was though; I was standing right against the wall to take it.)

We grabbed some lunch here and then headed partway out along the trail going down for a better view. I am glad we did, because it was absolutely beautiful! We stopped to eat our lunch along the way and then continued down a little further before heading back up.

Here is a picture of Austin and Nate heading back up the trail. As you can see, there were a lot of steps. Due to the high quantity of steps during our visit, we often ended up leaving the stroller somewhere along the way as we went along stair lined streets and trails.

Corniglia is surrounded on three sides by terraced vineyards.

After reaching the top, we caught the bus back down to the train and headed to Monterosso al Mare, the largest and northernmost city. This city had a beach, where Austin and Nate enjoyed playing in the waves.

Also along the beach is the concrete Monterosso Giant, which is a representation of Neptune, the god of the sea. It was built in the beginning of the 1900s.

We went out a little ways onto the trail here before it got too rough. From our vantage point there, we could see all other cities of Cinque Terre, though they were pretty hazy in the distance.

Vernazza

After returning from the trail, we grabbed a gelato in Monterosso before catching the train again to another town. Unfortunately, we timed the trains wrong and were waiting for quite some time in the station there.

Next we stopped at Vernazza. This town received the brunt of the damage from the 2011 storm. We walked further up the hill here until we had a pretty good overview of most of the town.

The Doria Castle built next to the boat harbor here served as a lookout tower to protect the village from pirates during the 15th century. Pirates were a continual threat to the area through much of its history.

After coming back down and eating some dinner, we watched the sunset from the harbor. It was beautiful. Our picture really didn't capture it well; the sun was actually a blazing red color.

Above is the boat harbor of Vernazza, and the church seen here with its yellow tower is the Church of Santa Margherita d'Antiochia.

We didn't have time to visit any other cities after seeing Vernazza, so we took the train back to La Spezia, returned to our car, and drove to Florence to spend the night there.