From Here to There

April 29, 2016.

Today I headed out on a self-guided day trip from Florence to Cinque Terre – which is Italian for “Five Towns”, and refers to five neighboring  villages that hang on the edges of the seaside cliffs along the northwestern coast of Italy.  Apparently Rick Steves “discovered” this area, much like a director discovers an actress who goes from obscurity to fame almost overnight.   I’ve read that they’ll now be limiting the number of people that can visit Cinque Terre in the near future (http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2016-02-17/italys-cinque-terre-to-begin-limiting-tourists).  Having been there, I can understand why.

The towns themselves are incredibly picturesque. Colorful buildings set against the green and brown  of the hills, overlooking the incredible turquoise color of the Mediterranean Sea.  They are a photographer’s dream come true.  But with nowhere else to build to accommodate the now overwhelming crowds, it seems a pity that masses of tourists are now descending upon these once quaint and quiet little towns.  Where  locals once sat in the piazza, you’ll now find hordes of people pushing their way into line to board the ferry.  Crowds of people are waiting on the platforms for the next train to arrive – a delight for the gypsies who are there to pick an unsuspecting pocket, and a nightmare for the police who are assigned to control activity at the depots.  Four gypsies were arrested for theft while I waited for a train at one station.  It’s not an uncommon occurrence.  Yet despite all that, I feel fortunate that I got to experience this beautiful area of Italy.

I headed to the train station in Florence early in the morning, and bought a return (round trip) ticket to La Spezia – the jumping off point for all things Cinque Terre.  At the  La Spezia station I purchased an “all day” pass (from the National Parks office) to ride the train that runs between the five towns, starting with Riomaggiore and then moving on (from south to north) to Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso.  I won’t go into detail on the history and nature of these little towns – there are dozens of travel blogs and articles that already exist to provide that information (Rick Steves does the area justice – including a great video on the area – on his website at https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/cinque-terre).

On the train to La Spezia I met two women aound my age, sisters from the US who were traveling through Europe, so we decided to spend the day exploring together.  First we took the train all they way up to Monterosso, with it’s wide beach and great views, and from there took the ferry down to Vernazza, where we stopped for an hour to have lunch along the water.

I recommend the ferry ride simply because it’s the only way to see the towns set agaist the hills.  You won’t be disappointed.  The ferry bypassed Corniglia, which is up on the hillside and therefore has no “port”.  It also bypassed Manarola, as they were doing some work in the harbor, so the ferry had no place to dock.  So we got off in Riomaggiore and took the train back up to Manarola, where we wandered up and down (literally) the streets.  A beautiful little village filled with colorful houses and boats, and lots of tourists.  We stopped for a glass of local wine as close to the water as we could get (some places will accommodate diners only).

As I said, there were crowds everywhere – which made this a less than perfect experience – but I’m very glad I went and grateful that I got the chance to experience this beautiful area.