Le Cinque Terre - Italy

Biasso

Italy. Moving through to “Le Cinque Terre”. Training from Switzerland to Italy, the countryside changes to look slightly more abandoned. The trees are no longer in neat clumps but are shaggy and a deeper green. Washing lines are hidden in Switzerland, but in Italy, they are displayed across roads and outside flats. It gives the cities an atmosphere that they are used and lived in rather than neatly displayed. There are less white and wooden houses and more flats of the terracotta colour that you associate with Italy. The people also start to speak louder and stylish sunglasses can be found on street cleaners.

The beginning of the hike

Via dell'Amore

The Cinque Terre lies on the north coast of Italy, about 2 hours South of Milan – about where the laces of the boot would be tied up. For those in the know – it’s between La Spezia and Genova.

This area of the coast is very touristy and very beautiful. The main reason for coming here is to hike between the 5 towns that line the coast and sit on the edges of cliffs and next to beaches.

View of La Spezia from Biasso

I arrived in La Spezia and asked the locals where to buy bus tickets and how to get to the station. Some very helpful people pointed me in the right direction. 1 x bus ticket later and finding my way about a kilometre from the train station, I caught the bus up to the tiny town I was staying in, Biasso. This is not one of the famous 5 towns, but is inland and in the middle of a forest. The bus to Biasso wended its way around numerous S bends at speed with very little road to play with. I was rather glad that when going through all the steep hair-pin bends that I was in a heavier vehicle than the on-coming cars.

Biasso has a couple dozen houses, a Catholic Church (obviously), one hostel, one bar and one pizzeria – which makes some of the worst pizzas I’ve had. But it’s beautifully quiet and really in the middle of no-where. I loved the location.

Via dell'Amore views

The hostel was nice enough, but there were some downsides to it though – the bathrooms were mixed gender and left a lot to be desired. There were 4 showers to our floor, 3 of which were in one room and had see-through doors. Not really a bright spark that designed this place. I think we can leave this to an educational experience. The breakfast was just weird – sweet pie, burnt coffee and a “croissant” that was stale and filled with apricot jam. Mmm… hence to say I only had it once.

I shared a dorm with 3 girls from America that had just graduated together. And I met Max and Avra who were from Canada. (I’m finding in the hostels out of the English speakers there are generally Aussies, Canadians and Americans. Other people are generally unusual. I’m really hoping that I won’t come back with an American twang cos of the amount of time I’m spending with those from North America!) These two were great and we ended up hiking between the cities the next day together which was a lot of fun. I’ve been really grateful that wherever I’ve gone, I’ve generally found people that want to hike too.

Avra in small alleys of Corniglia



Small alleys in Corrniglia

In the morning Max, Avra and I were dropped off in Riomaggiore – the first of the 5 towns. We took an easy saunter through to Manarola, the second town using a path known as the Via dell’Amore. This is the “love route”. There are hundreds of padlocks along the way that are either plain or have been inscribed with the names of couples and the date.

 

Corniglia

I believe that placing a padlock along the route is a symbol of the love that couples have for each other. Hence there were lots of people strolling hand in hand along this route. And lots of graffiti making up for those couples that could not find a padlock… The views were amazing and all the flora was in flower – spring is a lovely time to come visit this part of the world!

The hike between towns 2 and 3 was unfortunately closed because of a landslide and I only figured out on the last day that you could go partway along the trail in order to get some stunning photos of Manarola. We ended up going around the closed section via train, picking up the trail again in Corniglia, the 3^rd town.



Manarola

 The towns are tiny and worth exploring. As soon as you get into them you realise that the streets are more like alleyways. And the alleyways are made up of steep slopes and plenty of stairs. Ice-cream (gelatia) shops are hidden around corners along with clothing shops, postcards, crockery and of course terraces that open out with astounding views. There are also plenty of restaurants, cafes, general stores and churches hidden away around winding corners. Rather precious – and rather full of tourists, especially on the main streets.

View of Vernazza and in distance
Monterosso

The next part of the trail was the hike to Vernazza. It was a lot harder than the first section but was generally wide enough for two people with wooden railings in most of the more dangerous places. The trail was generally made up of stairs – up and down. The hot weather made the climbing sweaty work.

Vernazza

We stopped for some lunch (bread, cheese and apples) on the steps above Vernazza. The view as always was amazing and the fact that there was no crowd around made it even better. This town is particularly stunning with a little tower sticking up on the edge of the cliff. This I believe was part of a castle.

View from tower of Vernazza

How clear is the water?

View from the top of the tower

Climbing it you get a sense that you are on top of the world – away from the hustle of the tourists huddling in the shade of umbrellas at various cafes below and with a view stretching for miles. At this point, Max decided to take the train through to the last town, Monterosso, while Avra and I were keen to hike the most difficult section of the trail. The estimated time for the trail was 1h45 but we motored through all the stairs and really narrow bits in 1 hr. This is known as the difficult section of the trail mainly because it is so narrow. I would estimate that the path was generally about 40cm to half a meter wide with about a 2 – 2.5 meter drop down the one side and a cliff rising upwards on the other side.



On the beach at Monterosso



I can see why people find it difficult as passing others on the trail going the opposite direction would require some acrobatic skills. We were really fortunate that we only tended to meet traffic where there was a place to pass. On top of that, going toward Monterosso, the safe section was on the right which made us have right of way to press up against the cliff face while the others had to do contortions to get around us over the ledge.

Me, Avra and Max

 I think this made all the difference and this section quickly turned into my favourite part of the trail. Avra and I had a good chat along the way – she loves fantasy just as much as me and was also brought up on the Lord of the Rings and Narnia! It turned out that she was also the same level of fitness as me. It was great, especially after meeting Vic (who was so ultra fit) in the Alps, to realise that I actually could hike mountains without too many problems and could keep up! I have re-gained hope that I’ll be able to do the Inka trail when I get to Peru.

Hiking in such a beautiful area with such a stunning view is only second to having the Mediterranean Sea to dunk yourself in at the end. Monterosso is known for its beaches. We quickly found the free beach and jumped into the water – or rather waddled on sore feet as the gravel beach tried to eat our feet before we reached the water. The water was cool and clear and really deep. About 6 meters into the ocean I could not have touched the bottom if I dived down. There are no currents here and no waves and only very slight swells. The sea is so salty that it makes it easy to float. In South Africa I always like to keep my feet on the ground to prevent being tumbled. But here, there were no problems and I can now see why people like to bathe for hours at a time. There were plenty of burnt bodies lining the shore – some under orange and green beach umbrellas. Others had found the ice-cream shops and cafes just across the road. I found a lovely café here that served some of the best home-made ice-tea I’ve ever had. Yum!

Sunset over the coast

The beach at Monterosso

Max, Avra and I shared pastas for supper to round off the day. I was lifted back to the hostel at 20:30 and got to catch the sun-set over the ocean. It really was a perfect end to a lovely day. Thanks Avra and Max for letting me join you guys!

The next day I took at a slower pace but still did some hiking – about an hour and a half of stairs and slopes going up. The hike ws supposed to be a 30 minute easy walk to the point. and hour and a half later with steep slopes and stairs that has de-graded into shale and a storm coming in (lightning in the distance) I turned around - took a photo of the view and moved it back down the mountain. Hence to say, the storm never actually arrived.

I ended up spending the rest of the day in a small café sipping ice-tea and eating focaccia con formaggio e pesto. It seems that this area is the home of pesto and so having some is obviously obligatory. Again – yum!

View of the coast from my "30" minute easy hike