Cinque Terre

My great friend Jen - who will soon be leaving me to head off on a new adventure in Canada - and I recently headed off for a weekend in Cinque Terre seeking sun, wine and laughs. We found all of these, in abundance.

Cinque Terre is a coastal region on the Italian Riviera. Its name translates into "Five Lands" and consists of the villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso. Cinque Terre is a UNESCO World Heritage. We picked to stay in Riomaggiore, following the advice of friends.

To get there, we flew into Pisa, then took a somewhat convoluted train route from the airport to Pisa Central, then to Spezia Station, which links the local Cinque Terre trains to the main line. We left Amsterdam at lunchtime on Friday, and were sweating it out in our little sundresses and drinking Prosecco by 7 pm.

Being that it was July, we were expecting to be swarmed by tourists and were pleasantly surprised to find the towns relatively quiet. There were tourists, of course, mainly from the U.S. and Australia and also lots of Italian tourists, with a dryheave-inducing spattering of Dutch (though to be fair, the one Dutch couple we actually had an interaction with, albeit brief, was quite pleasant and polite).

The weather was hot, hot, hot and we loved every second of it. Except when we found ourselves hiking across 4 villages, in our flip flops and bikinis - then were sweating profusely and had to disrobe slightly. We were unprepared for how difficult the hike would get. It wouldn't be exactly difficult if you were expecting to hike - and some were, given the many hiking boots, spandex shorts and walking sticks we saw - but again, bikinis and flip flops do not a proper hiking outfit make. We were expecting a leisurely stroll, with stops for wine and dips in the sea. This was pretty much the case until we reached Corniglia. From that point, things got steep, and dusty and tiring and sweaty. Oh, and did I mention I got stung by a bee? Luckily we had many laughs to keep us going! When we finally reached Vernazza, we treated ourselves to leisurely lunch on a seaside terrace, then spread our towells out on the rocks for some serious people-watching (and judging).

The towns were all quite similar - small, with a few seaside-type shops and wonderfully authentic Italian trattorias. I would certainly recommend a stop if doing a southern Italy trip - but anything much more than a weekend here might be excessive. The vistas were wonderful, and the accomodations very basic (mostly apartments). Vernazza and Monterosso were pretty clearly the most touristy of the towns, more built up and with more options of places to stay and eat. We were happy with our choice of Riomaggiore.

We capped off the trip with a stop at Pisa old town on our way to the airport. Somehow I was more impressed with the tower the second time around - the first time it didn't look to be as lean-y. I think it really depends on the angle you see it at. It is pretty ridiculous that the tower is still standing, but even more ridiculous were the tourists around the tower taking photos of themselves that made it look like they were holding up the tower - so we took photos of them instead.