Cinque Terre, Liguria, Italy
Up early as we had a rather big day planned. Off the the Cinque Terre National Park (established about 20 years ago), in the northern most part of the Tuscan Region. Now before you jump to conclusions, about Fred and Parno “turning green”, let me explain. The national park covers a thin coastal area and encompasses a marine park as well. The major attraction for us, was the 5 villages that exist in this area.
Cinque Terre is a major tourist attraction and is UNESCO listed.
Some drive however: approximately 140 kilometres north of Colleoli along some major roads: the ultimate being the A12 which cost us the princely sum of 10.70 euro to travel on. This road taking us through many long tunnels at high speed. Our GPS and navigator (that’s Fred if you haven’t been paying attention to this point), doing an excellent job to get us to Levanto at the northern end of the region.
Generally, many people start their Cinque Terre experience at a more southern location, La Spezia however, our research indicated we undertook the better option, especially for parking and access to the region.
As noted earlier, our focus was to concentrate on the villages: many others use the walkways and paths to walk between these.
The 5 villages from north to south are:
- Monterosso al Mare
- Vernazza
- Corniglia
- Manarola
- Riomaggiore
All were originally forts, built to deter the invading Turks.
All have their own distinctive features but all are compact and perched on cliff faces that over look the coastline. Amazing where these houses are built: all with their own “Mediterranean” style mini harbour. Thousands flock to Cinque Terre each day.
From our location the access needed to be by local train from Levanto. A quick chat with a lady in an information centre (by now Fred and I had become quite fluent in Italian........ combined we could say approximately 10 words) and we then plotted our course. Speaking the local language has been somewhat an easy task for us.
“Youa justa usa youra handsa”, with your fingers held by your thumb: add a few speech inflexions and vary your intensity and it becomes easy peasy. Then you just throw in a few words like arriveaderci, buonacera, spaghetti, pizza, margherita etc and then you’re done. Enough about mastery linguistics for the time being.
Manarola was to be our choice: it was the 4th village from our point, some 15 minutes in the train. In our journey, Fred gave 3 cute American children (travelling with their parents), some of her Aussie pencils brought along as souvenirs. They were not sharpened: a point I made to her quite bluntly.
No reaction other than to say, I guess they could be used to make some blunt points !!
Our arrival to Manarola station was greeted with a stazione message of “beware of pick pockets on or near the station. Apparently, such activity is very common in this area. A warning to heed and fortunately on this occasion, no issue prevailed.
The village is perched on the side of a volcanic hillside. Houses are just built along narrow streets onto and / or into the hillside. Streets are usually steps: climbing up the steep incline. I guess if you were a furniture removalist in Manarola (and any of the other villages for that matter), you would have the biggest “pecks” and a well formed “six pack”. Also, advertising for employees to assist with your business, probably wouldn’t end up with a rush of applicants. The houses are very small and 2-3 storeys: embellished with the typical Italian verandah. I guess the pictures would tell a better story that I could.
Only service vehicles are allowed into the village outside of operating hours.
There were many boats left in the main Via: it appeared that fishing is a major activity here. The small harbour at the end of the street also had many small row boats. The restaurant scene as you could imagine was well patronised: mostly offering pizza, seafood and gelati. I guess we are in Italy: bellissimo!! Found next to the station entrance was a defibrillator: perhaps a necessary tool given the compact and steep nature of the area. Given this, I am sure that the locals would be rather fit.
As normal, we brought a picnic lunch, Italian style. Fred and I sat down on the harbour wall and ate our cheeses and meats with crusty bread: all washed down with a Tuscan Chianti.
It was rather humorous to watch the many people come down to the wall and pose for pictures or even take selfies. Some taking many pictures over many minutes. One particular Asian couple were totally dissatisfied with approx 100 photos and tended to give up: both walking off with what appeared to be in the midst of a domestic. Funny days.
Fred and I just continued to sit there and watch the small boats prepare for the afternoon’s fishing, annoy the pigeons that had sought us out along with chatting with a few people who identified that we were doing it tough.
Following lunch, Fred wanted to do some window shopping. I told her that it wouldn’t be a good idea as we already had enough windows. Surprisingly, she ignored my rather appropriate enquiry. I wonder if we could buy some seeds and take them back to Australia ? Knowing our custom restrictions, we probably wouldn’t be allowed.
Subsequently, we walked back to the stazione to get back to Levanto. Here, Fred caught up with a few Americans that we had chatted with when we were having lunch. The obvious topic came up: yep Trump. They were very strong supporters (in the absolute minority as we found on our travels). They predicted that he would get re-elected. They were quite vocal and were highly critical of those who opposed him. Our brief chat was careful and deliberate: no jokes here as I feel that they would have taken things the wrong way.
Back to the car and then onto a medieval town , Lucca. The centre of which is referred to as Porta San Donato. It was on our way back to Colleoli. Lucca was established to serve as a service centre along the holy pathway between Rome and Canterbury in England.
Lucca is a walled city and full of rather narrow streets and seems to be a cultural hub where many Museo (museums), all related to the arts. Music and artworks featuring.
Fred was hanging out for a good Americano coffee, so we sat in the caffe Ninci and ate the district’s speciality: Torte Di Rosi. All washed down with ...... coffee of course. We had run out of Chianti !!
Our cultural experience around Lucca concluded and we then drove back to our villa. Again, thanks to our GPS as the adventure we had today, would not have been possible without it.
Dinner was to be in the ristorante down the road from our villa; the Pizzeria l’Tigli. Many ristorantes are found in this area: were are fortunate that this is found just 100 metres from our villa. Many others in the district, just appear along the roadside. they seem popular though.
It was at the l’Tigli that I had the best spaghetti ever “spaghetti allo soglio”. A local seafood pasta. Plenty of it and very tasty indeed: heaven had arrived. And you guessed it, washed down with a local Chianti from a vineyard a few kilometres away.
This was the best wine we had tasted in our time in Tuscany. All made from Sangiovese grapes (2016): which according to the local appellation rigours, has to be at least 60%. this one was 100%.
The spaghetti must have been fresh, so I asked Fred to ask the “Nona” that cooked it, where could we find the spaghetti tree from which it was picked. This she declined: I was rather disappointed, as I wanted to photograph a spaghetti tree. Anybody seen one ? Fred also commented on her meal, “ravidi burro salvia”; real Italian Tuscan food. Hard to beat.
It was here that we met up with David and Shiela (our Scottish friends from Borgo Di Colleoli), again.
We both left as happy-chappies.
Ciao
Kathii
2019-04-07
The Cinque Terre is arguably one of the most beautiful areas in Italy. I am not surprised you enjoyed it so much. Sounds like you are immersing yourselves in Italian culture (enjoying the local vino, cheeses & olives); certainly your Italian is improving! Bravissimo!
Jilliann (eldest daughter)
2019-04-07
Just a thought. If mum gave those American children her pencils they would have been able to have lead their family down the write path showing they would have been the sharpest tools in their shed. hahahahahaahhahaahahahaha
Jacquie
2019-04-25
After much research, I found a joke that you could use when next you meet Trump supporters; How does Trump change a light bulb? He holds it and waits for the world to revolve around him.