This is the last post of the Cinque Terre series. We explored Corniglia and Manarola by train on our first day, followed by boat on the second day to Riomaggiore, Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare. 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.
After Vernazza, we caught the next boat on the schedule and continued onto the northernmost village of Monterosso al Mare. It is the largest of the five and the most developed.
If you have followed us on this trip to the Italian Riviera, you would have seen our photos of the seaside towns from Genoa to Camogli and Portofino. Frankly, Monterosso with its rental umbrellas on the beach is not that much different from the other picturesque Riviera resort towns, unlike the other four villages of the Cinque Terre which are set in outstandingly wilder and dramatic landscape.
Since we arrived by sea, our exploration was limited to the old town (… we were feeling lazy). The train station is located in the new town of Fegina tucked behind a headland where the boat was moored.
By the beach, we saw the most ingeniously-designed freshwater shower disguised as an entombed octopus or emerging octopus (depending on your inclination). The parts of the octopus are made of separate pieces of ceramics. There are bathrooms behind the stone wall.
On the far right end of the beach is the pink Hotel Porto Roca. Nearby is a concrete bunker left behind by the Nazi’s from World War II. Remember that Italy was under fascists’ rule between 1922 and 1943, and La Spezia (where we came from by boat) was an Axis naval base which was heavily bombed by the Allies.
Monterosso is one of the other Cinque Terre village that was devastated by a flash flood on October 25, 2011. See earlier post on Vernazza for more information and a link to a video.
In the old town, we came across the Church of St John the Baptist (Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista) which dates from 1307, and has a delicate-looking stone work rose window.
The black-and-white stripes on the facade is typical of the Romanesque styled churches in the region (see Porto Venere’s San Pietro and Florence’s Duomo). The white marble came from Carrara (where Michaelangelo sourced its marble for the David) and the dark green-black marble from Punta Mesco. We read that the marble strips on the exterior get narrower near the top, thus creating an illusion that the church is taller than it really is. Take a look yourself (photo above). Sneaky architect.
Next to the church is a building – Oratory of the Dead (Oratorio dei Neri) which houses a religious club for the “Confraternitas”. The organization were founded in the 16th and early 17th centuries to oppose the Protestant Reformation and to reform the Catholic church.
Well, this post concludes our series of posts on Cinque Terre. In our opinion, Manarola is the most interesting village and Vernazza the most hospitable. One thing that we would like to do is to return to Cinque Terre in the spring or autumn, and walk the trails that connect the villages. August was just too busy and hot for us. We did not want to spend excessive time under the sun, dodging people on narrow trails.
Also, rather than staying at La Spezia, Porto Venere would have been a more picturesque place to find lodgings, and a trip to Isola Palmaria would be fun. Our last recommendation is a nearby village that is most like Cinque Terre but without the crowds. Tellaro is the hidden gem of the area.
Since Rick Steve is a contributor at Huffpost, there are a lot of news articles about Cinque Terre by him and other writers on that site. Click here to access them.
At this point in our road trip, we finished our tour of the Italian Riviera at Cinque Terre. The next segment of the road trip took us to Florence (Firenze). If you like to follow us on this epic Italian road trip, click here for the next post. Subscribe to get a notice when we post fresh content.
Google Earth generated this image of Monterosso al Mare.
