AT LAST - THE CINQUE TERRE

While living in Italy we always wanted to visit the Cinque Terre.  Somehow we just never made it, so for our six week adventure in the fall of 2010 this was at the top of our 'must see' list.  We left Umbria early on a Sunday morning and stopped by Carrara on the way.  I wrote about our stop in Carrara in THIS POST, and it really was well worth the time. 

As we headed up the coast, catching glimpses of the ocean along the way, I was fascinated by the mountains.  Not surprisingly the mountains get more and more impressive the further north you drive even though the Alps were still a good distance away.
For our three night visit we'd decided to base ourselves in Levanto, mainly based on what I'd read about it on the SLOW TRAVEL MESSAGE BOARD.  Not including our stop at Carrara, the drive from Umbria to Levanto took about four hours. 

As usual price was a big factor in our decision of where to stay and we decided upon  a very simple bed and breakfast place on the outskirts of town.  L’Erba Persa was about a five minute walk from the train station and it was only another 5 minutes into town. The price, €25 per person per night included breakfast and a shared bathroom.   We were pleased with our accomodations but I do have to note that there are two rather steep flights of stairs at L’Erba Persa. You have to walk up a flight of stairs on the outside of the house to enter it, and to get to the bedrooms there is another flight of stairs. There is an enclosed parking area on the property so we put everything we needed into one suitcase rather than lugging everything up those two flights of stairs.
 
That first evening we walked into town, strolled along the beach, watching surfers and enjoying the sunset.  We found a place to eat, one recommended by our hosts at L’Erba Persa.  Of course I had to try something with pesto - this is Liguria, home of pesto!  I'm sure that had we eaten in a private home the pesto would have been every bit as good as mine, but while the restaurant pesto certainly wasn't bad, I have to say that I still prefer my own!
 
The next morning we walked to the train station under VERY threatening skies.  There are regional trains that connect Levanto to the five towns of the Cinque Terre, and we headed to the southernmost town, Riomaggiore.  The train was crowded with lots of serious hikers and plenty of more casual tourists like us.  After a stroll through Riomaggiore we took the paved trail that leads north from there to the next town, Manarola.  This is the easiest and shortest walk of all, although when we were there part of the pathway was closed.  I'm not sure if the heavy rains of the past few days had anything to do with the closing - I suspect they did. 


We were able to walk up to where lovers are now attaching locks to the fence as a symbol of love - is this something from the "Twilight" series of books?  Wherever it started it seems to be a very popular trend and local hardware stores now make sure to have plenty of locks on hand.

Eventually we walked back into town and took the train to Manarola.  The weather was still threatening but we had umbrellas and warm jackets and weren't too inconvenienced by the occasional sprinkles. 

On another, nicer day we bravely (and naively) set off on the trail from Vernazza to Monterosso, the northernmost town of the Cinque Terre.  We knew it would be up up up, but wow!  We went up rocky steps literally carved into the hillside, then we went up more - and more - and even more!  Every time we thought we must be at the top we'd round a bend and find yet another series of steps!  Of course the trail has to follow the coastline, and in this part of Italy the coastline zigzags in and out and in and out, making our walk far longer than we had anticipated!  There were maybe three spots on the trail where I seriously doubted the wisdom of this walk, but of course by that time we were too far in to give up!  Once we had to jump quite a distance to avoid a rushing stream that was covering the trail.  Later we walked down a very long and rather steep set of stairs that was also serving as a running creek bed - which was made worse because there was nothing on either side of the stairs to hold on to.  Yeah, I know we're old and out of shape, but on this day, due to the recent rains, this trail was very, very slippery, muddy and challenging!  We both breathed a sigh of relief when we spotted Manarola - and then walked some more as it would come in and out of our view, just teasing us.  The good thing about the day we chose to do the walk was that it wasn't too hot - I can't imagine making this walk in the summer heat!

I've posted our photos of the Cinque Terre on our Flickr page in two separate albums - one when it was very dark and cloudy, the other from another day when the sun did manage to peek through on more than one occasion.  Here are the pictures from the cloudy day:

(Don't forget, once you hit the "Play" arrow you'll be able to click on the small box in the lower right hand corner to expand to full screen)





And here are the photos with a little bit of sunshine:

GENOA

Genoa was a surprise in many ways.  The first surprise was that we were even going there, but logistically it made the most sense.  I booked one night in a hotel that was recommended to me on the ST message board. I really didn't do a lot of research about Genoa because we were only staying one night. I did find out that the oldest part of Genoa is an amazing place to explore, and also read that Genoa has worked hard to clean up its image. Being a port town means that you have a lot of people coming and going, along with a lot of merchandise - obviously some of those people, and probably some of that merchandise, is less than desirable. For this reason port towns can be a little rowdier, but also a little more open and forward-thinking. I wasn't sure what to expect, but Genoa was a very pleasant surprise.

After FINALLY finding our hotel (I hatehatehate driving in unfamiliar cities!!!), the Hotel Bel Soggiorno, we set out on foot to wander through the old part of town.  Many of the huge mansions built by the wealthy merchants of Genoa now house banks or have been converted into museums, so it's still possible to walk down the street surrounded by the oppulence of an earlier time. 

Eventually we made our way down to the port, and the area was beautiful with large open spaces, a new aquarium (the largest in Europe I think), a biosphere, and of course boats from all over the world.  We found an open-top bus tour and decided it would allow us to see the most of the city during our limited time. 
I could have easily spent another full day in Genoa, maybe even two full days - there are lots of museums to visit, plus the aquarium and biosphere.  We just missed the last sightseeing boat of the day, but I'd put this on my list of things to do too - I think seeing the city from the sea would be interesting.  Good food, especially seafood, is easy to find here too.

For those of you interested in costs, the Hotel Bel Soggiorno cost €75.  Our room was small but adequate, with an ensuite bathroom.  The rate included a very nice breakfast buffet, and parking was an additional €12 by special arrangement with the parking garage for a large department store.  We found out the hard way that just because we'd requested parking didn't necessarily mean there was a spot reserved for us.  The garage was tiny and we were lucky to find a narrow spot we could squeeze our car into!  Later in the evening when we returned to the car to retrieve something we were able to move the car to a better location with more than a few inches on each side!
 

Here's a slideshow with all our photos from Genoa: