Cinque Terre in Italy can be described with one word, WOW! There are five fishing villages set amid the most dramatic coastal scenery I’ve ever seen. The paths that link the villages together are dirt tracks winding around the cliff faces. Or you can catch the train like I did at one point between towns.
We drove to the first town from Chianti in Tuscany to Riomaggiore. The first walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola is easy and takes 20 minutes. Then the next leg to Corniglia is an hour but it was closed due to a landslide. From there to Vernazza took Al and I only 45 minutes but usually takes 1 and half hours, oh yeah we are getting fit having no car in Italy. Then on the last track my knee was playing up and I took the train while Al ran the last leg, the map said 2 hours to walk and he did it in 47 minutes! He dropped his water 5 minutes after leaving me at the train station and by the time he reached me at Monterosso al Mare his face was swollen and he was a little sore and red. It’s surprisingly hot here in Italy and on this day it would have been around 35 – 40 degrees.
The towns are so cute that you can’t help but fall in love with them. The last town it is famous for their anchovies straight from the sea, served with fried or raw with lemon juice and pickled in brine. Well who would have thought after all those years of making my mum take anchovies off her pizza that I would actually enjoy that dish? One of the other towns sells fresh basil pesto, which in Italy seems to be sold everywhere but hey we bought some as they said it was the best in the world. Mmmm, that’s what the bartender said about his mojito two nights ago that lead to our killer hangovers! Best in the world, yeah right.
After our huge day we were going to drive back home to Riva del Garda as it was late at night, but 5 hours was too much for us. We drove to Santa Margherita & Portofino instead and found a great little hotel ‘Anita’ for the bargain price of $90 a night. Hotels are not cheap in Italy even when you check in late. We tend not to book accommodation when we travel because we never know where we will end up. When we go away we try and get the most out of the trip and really push ourselves so sleep is not an option! Na, we had 6 hours sleep before getting up and walking around Portofino. It took a few hours to walk around the headland but was well worth it. Santa Margherita is the perfect seaside promenade; with elegant hotels and million dollar yachts but unlike Portofino you don’t have to be a millionaire to stay here. Portofino is a small fishing village yet attracts the rich and the super rich.
They hang out at the restaurants around the small marina sipping their cocktails or cappuccinos. It’s funny walking around such a small town and seeing labels like Gucci and Prada in the old shops that have been renovated over the years. We were home late afternoon and always manage to buy some groceries before going back to the house. It’s so much easier when we have the car rather than carrying it up the hill after catching buses from Arco (next town over).