We have just returned from a 2 day visit to Cinque Terre, a UNESCO heritage site and Italy's answer to the Grouse Grind. Cinque Terre is a park that includes 5 beautiful villages along a rugged coastline, connected by railway, ferry and a series of hiking trails. We had planned to visit Cinque Terre later in the month (i.e. not the day after our return from Spain) however hotels in this area fill up months in advance and we were limited in the days when we could find an available room.
The 5 Cinque Terra villages (North to South) are Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. Here is a map for the visually inclined:
The train runs from Levanto (North of 5T) to La Spezia (South of 5T). Tourists typically park at either Levanto or La Spezia and then take the train into 5T. So, based on a recommendation by "Experienced Traveler" on tripadvisor.com ("Levanto is much less busy than La Spezia and there is lots of parking near the train station") we decided to drive the extra 30 minutes to Levanto. We planned to then take the train into Monterosso, hike into Corniglia (where we had found a room for the night) and then hike the rest of the way the next day. "Experienced Traveler" would probably have checked the trail reviews before heading out but we just threw caution to the wind and lots of food and beer into our backpacks.
If we had read the reviews (which we did afterwards) we would have known that the trails from Monterosso to Corniglia were the most challenging in 5T, and rated medium/difficult. It was recommended to hike these trails in the spring or fall (not in August, as we were doing) and if hiking in the summer, to hike early in the morning or late in the afternoon, to avoid the worst heat of the day. We did pretty much all of our hiking between noon and 4 PM, the hottest part of the day. However the trails weren't (quite) as bad as we would have been lead to believe (if we had read the reviews), and the views from these trails were pretty spectacular:
Monterroso, a disappointing tourist trap.
You can see our next stop, Vernazza, in the distance. You can also get an idea of how high the trail climbs between the Terre's.
In sight of our lunch!
From a distance the towns are bright and cheerful, but close up a bit run down.
The second leg of our first day - Vernazza to Coniglia.
That's Coniglia in the distance. The closer town is also "Coniglia" (according to Google maps) but the trail skirts around it.
Getting close to our destination (and dinner!).
Our room in Corniglia was also pretty spectacular. Not so much for the room itself (a couple of sofa beds, no wi fi, etc), but the view!
Although I suspect every room in each of the Cinque Terra towns would have just as spectacular of a view. You can see Monterroso off in the distance, and we had a spectacular sunset!
The next day we took an "alternate" trail to the next town, Manarola. (The main trail, "trail 2", runs along the waterfront, and is the main hiking trail in the 5T. This is the one you have to actually pay to use, and the one we took from Monterossa to Corniglia. However due to flooding and landslides in the past few years, this trail is closed from Corniglia to Riomaggiore, the "easy" parts.) So we took trails "7a" and "6d" to hike, via Volastra (a small town in the hills which is not an official "5T" town, and which I believe you can actually drive to), to Manarola. This in my opinion was the best of the trails. The first 40 minutes or so were pretty much straight up (as were the 2 trails we did on the first day) however the remainder was mainly along old terraces, so was pretty much flat, and the views were spectacular!
Enjoying a beer and a picnic. Strangely we didn't see anyone else lolly-gagging around on the trail with drinks and snacks. I guess it's a North American thing ...
Corniglia in the background.
Hiking along the terraces.
Our destination - Manarola, and lunch!
(An aside on the terraces. You can see from the fotos that a lot of the terraces are overgrown and out of use. Our landlady in Corniglia explained to us that most of the residents are now supporting the tourist industry by renting out apartments, running restaurants, etc, and not many folks are maintaining the traditional industries - running vineyards, growing olives, etc. In fact the population of Corniglia in the off-season is only about a hundred souls. The remainder move into their apartments in the city.)
The descent into Manarola was one of the highlights of the trek:
As was our Manarola lunch:
Some kind of pasta with pesto, grilled seafood, steak and chips. Yum!
We planned to take the ferry back to Levanto, however due to bad timing (I'm sure "Experienced Traveler" has never had this kind of bad timing) we just missed the 4 PM ferry and there wasn't another scheduled until 6 PM. So we took the train back to Levanto, had a short nap, and made a pact with ourselves: "No more hikes until we get back to Canada".
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