Italy: Cinque Terre – 2021

September 26, 2021

The Cinque Terre are famous for their amazing natural landscape and colourful fishing villages perched on dramatic cliffs. UNESCO added the Cinque Terre to its list of World Heritage Sites because of their cultural landscape of great scenic and cultural value. The five towns that make up the Cinque Terre - Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso - began life as medieval fortified settlements, each protected by a castle overlooking the sea guarding against Saracen raiders. You can walk the entire route in about six hours, if you take short breaks—although many hikers prefer to spread the route out over a few days at a strolling pace, stopping to enjoy the towns along the way. You can start from either direction (Monterosso, heading south, or Riomaggiore, heading north).

🙂 Landscape! Pesto!

🙁 Traffic! Constrained by boat times.

25 September 2021 to 3 October 2021

We were dropped at Portovenere which is a fantastic base to explore Cinque Terre and the Gulf of Poets. From here we took the ferry to explore neighbouring areas.

Riomaggiore is the nearest of the Cinque Terre, is a short boat ride away or you can also reach it by hiking along a panoramic trail. It is known for its colourful stone houses that seem stacked on top of one another and its harbour filled with traditional fishing boats, Riomaggiore is part of the string of five villages that make up the Cinque Terre, a UNESCO Heritage Site. It’s also one of Italy’s most sought-after travel destinations and is the southern-most of the five communities. Climbing up from the sea, it is best known for its Via dell’ Amore (Lover’s Path) walking path to Manarola, The train runs through town, with iconic coastal views to one side of the tracks and the bustling little village to the other. The main street, Via Colombo, is a steep climb brimming with shops, cafes and restaurants and from which many carruggi (narrow lanes and alleys) run throughout the town.

We wondered around the cobbled streets and then sat down to enjoy a delicious lunch. We enjoyed Cinque de Terre’s Ligurian Trofie al Pesto, which is a delicious crescent shaped pasta tossed with an easy basil pesto sauce. The Cinque Terre Costa de Sera is a DOC wine whose production is allowed in a part of the territory of Riomaggiore has a dry, savoury taste and intense aroma. Desert was cake with the sweet Sciacchetrà wine found only in the Cinque Terre. DIVINE!