Cinque Terre

On Friday we caught a high speed train from Bologna to Florence, and then regional trains to Manarola in Cinque Terre, via Pisa and La Spezia. So far we'd only used high speed trains for which we had pre-booked tickets, so using regional trains was new to us: getting the tickets, validating them, trying to find a seat, etc.

Cinque Terre is a national park on the northwest coast of Italy, in which isolated, beautiful, colourful towns sit like gems nestled in the cliffs, terraced vineyards, and olive groves of the steep, green shoreline. There are five main towns, from south to north they are: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterossa. Here is a picture of Riomaggiore.

An interesting thing about the train to Cinque Terre is that the train spends much of the time going through tunnels. Even the towns have pedestrian tunnels connecting one part to the other.

Upon arriving in Manarola, I was a bit shocked at the sheer density of the crowds of tourists. Just getting off the train platform took a long time since so many people had to funnel through a tiny exit. 

We found our hotel and after settling in we walked down the main street of the town to the water. There is a rocky protected cove where lots of people were swimming. I went into the water for a bit because it was so hot and humid. We then found a place for dinner. The view up the road gives a good idea of the scale of the place.

There is a ferry that goes to most of the towns (except Corniglia which is on a cliff above the water) and beyond. 

The next day we took the ferry to Vernazza.

Near the dock there was a group of people painting watercolours of the town so I joined them and did a sketch.

There are hiking trails connecting all the towns, and we did the hike from Vernazza to Monterossa. It was quite a hot day for a hike, about 30 degrees C, and the first half was all uphill. The trail went through olive groves and, dry Mediterranean shrubbery and huge aloe verra plants. It was sometimes dirt and sometimes very narrow stone steps. 

It was great to get a view of Monterossa with its large beach.

After a dip in the water we went for a drink and a bite to eat, walked around a bit, and then caught the ferry back to Manarola. Here is a view of both Corniglia and Manarola from the water.

After cleaning up at the hotel, we found a very nice restaurant up on the side of the hill for dinner, and a great view of the town at night.