Cinque Terre is an isolated area encompassing 20 km of Mediterrannean coastline. The terrain is mountainous with terraces dug into the sides of steep hillside, above the cliffs over the Ligurian sea. Despite the isolation or perhaps because of it, the villages have become very popular destinations for hiking and swimming. I (Chris) first read about Cinque Terre in Rick Steve’s guide book “Europe Through the Back Door” in the 1990’s (still have it somewhere). The area has become very well-known to American tourists, likely because of Rick Steve’s books, videos and podcasts that were published in the last 20 years.
If you like to join us on this epic road trip from the beginning in Switzerland, click here for the first post of the series.
The five villages that give the area its name are, from north to south: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. Access to the villages by car is limited. Given the likely hassle with finding parking, we decided to leave our car at the hotel in La Spezia, after our drive from Genoa (click to see earlier post). We took a city bus to the railway station and went by train to one of the five villages: Corniglia.
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Corniglia, the first village we visited is the only village that is not directly on the water, and it is situated in the middle among the string of five villages. The village is located on a cliff about 100 meters above the sea surrounded by vineyards built on terraces.
Our train from La Spezia runs just above the sea level with numerous tunnels, first stopping at Riomaggiore, Manarola, and then Corniglia. To reach the village from the station, one could climb a steep, long flight of stairs (380+ steps). Instead, like almost every one who got off the train, we waited under the sun for a minibus which was packed dangerously to what appeared to be ~150% of its capacity. We did not remember ever feeling so squeezed and hot in public transport since we arrived in Europe (10 years ago).
The village dates back to Roman times and had the tiniest town square in front of the church of San Pietro.
Because of its relative remoteness, it has been less popular with tourists, hence the village seemed calmer once we walked into the narrow streets. There are no hotels and few restaurants here. We were lucky to spot a tiny eatery and found a table with a pretty view of the terraces, and the sea in a distance.
The terraces grow grapes that are made into a sweet white dessert wine known to be expensive because of limited supply. Regarding the view, we could not help but make comparisons with the terraced vineyards at Lavaux (near where we lived) which is better maintained, and the setting much more scenic. The photo on the landing page of this web site was taken in Lavaux, Switzerland.
From the village square, we continued walking to the end of the “main street” and found a spectacular viewpoint – Santa Maria Belvedere. It was pleasantly surprising to be greeted with such a wide open vista over the blue sea. The cafe/bar with white sun umbrellas there reminded us of Greece.
Santa Maria Belvedere
Manarola is visible to the east draping over rocks – photos at different zoom levels. Click to see a larger-size photo.
Below the cliff, there is a small spot on the rocks for swimming and landing small boats. The water was so clear that the rocks near the shore were clearly visible.
The return trip by minibus to the train station was much more civilized. We suspected that many people decided to walk down the stairs, and some might have walked to the other villages.
We saw Corniglia again the next day on board a boat. The belvedere, marked by the big white sun umbrellas, may just be visible in the photo.
To help visualize how rugged is the terrain, we have included here a bird’s eye image of Corniglia from Google Earth.
On the right hand side of the image, near top corner is the railway station. The eatery where we had lunch overlooking the terraces was located on the left side of the village. If you squint, you could make out the white umbrellas on the Santa Maria Belvedere high above the cliffs.
Next post: Manarola, second of the five villages.
