We visited two villages in Cinque Terre on our first day in the region.
If you like to join us on this epic road trip to Tuscany from the beginning in Switzerland, click here for the first post of the series.
After Corniglia, we caught the train heading back towards La Spezia and got off at Manarola, the second smallest of the five villages. It was already late afternoon.
The train station is separated from the village by a headland. The village can be reached on foot by a tunnel. Turning right at the end of the tunnel takes one “uptown” where we saw more homes and the church of San Lorenzo.
We walked downhill and arrived at a tiny harbor. There were noticeably more restaurants and shops here than Corniglia.
< Notice the boats parked on the main street of Manorola.
The harbor area is ringed by compact pastel-colored houses.
As one can see, Manarola’s primary businesses have traditionally been fishing, and wine-making from grapes growing on terraces above the village.
Unlike Corniglia which is a hilltown on top of the cliff, Manorola literally drapes over and clings onto the cliffs 70 meters above the sea.
From the terrace, we watched people clambering to find a spot on the rocks to hop into the deep water. The cliff jumpers offered much distraction and entertainment while Italian tourists (the majority) alternated between sunbathing on the slipway for launching boats and swimming in the sea.
Like an amusement park feature, people were lining up to leap and plunge 30 feet down to the deep blue water. A guy went up to the top and hesitated there for more than five minutes, checking the height and adjusting his foothold. It was comical to see how many times he visibly plucked up his courage, stepped towards the edge and then changed his mind. We gave up waiting for him and wondered whether he finally made the plunge.
I (Chris) ventured off down a well-paved section of the footpath heading towards Corniglia. Looking back from the footpath, I was afforded a magnificent panoramic view of Manarola which is iconic of the region.
A ferry that hops between the villages was dropping off passengers near a breakwater using a simple gangway. We can understand why we were told that the service stops running when the sea is only just a little bit rough.
The breakwater was built in the 2010’s and provides more spaces for people to access the water (albeit more precariously).
While waiting for me to return, Sue ordered a drink from the terrace of the Bar-Caffetteria La Plancia at the end of the main street.
< I stole a view of the sunset on water from the bar.
The sun was setting as we headed back to the train station for our ride back to La Spezia.
If you like to follow us on this mini series on Cinque Terre, click here for the next post.
Google Earth image of Manarola. The train station is visible at the bottom right corner of the image.
