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To explore Italy’s famous Cinque Terre – literally translated as “five lands” – we based ourselves in the quaint oceanside enclave of Riva Trigoso on the Italian Riviera. Our little hotel was owned and run by the church, so we enjoyed breakfast each morning of freshly baked pastries intermingled with a nun or two. It was a great location: we could walk to the town’s main beach –Riva di Ponente – in under five minutes and were also only a few minutes walk to a handful of beachside restaurants, bars and foccacerias. The Ever Green bar deserves special mention: a small hut on the esplanade run by a local surfer and his mum, it offered a range of excellent cocktails at 6€ a pop and ice cold beers for 3€. We found ourselves wandering to Ever Green either before or after dinner (or both!) on most nights we were in town, Lisa chatting with the proprietor in Spanish (their common language) about everything from wine to surfing towns around the world. A great spot to watch the world go by and enjoy the beautiful weather we had whilst in town. We also very much enjoyed one of the local restaurants – Le Gardenie – where we actually ended up eating every night. Fantastic pasta, great pizza and Max was in love with their mixed seafood platter. Looking back, given the throngs of tourists in Cinque Terre proper, we were actually much better off staying in the relaxed little seaside community of Riva Trigoso. Was a great spot!
Cinque Terre is a collection of five incredibly picturesque villages located along the cliffs of the Ligurian Sea in Italy’s La Spezia province. Settled in the eleventh century, the towns are most easily accessed by hiking between them on some very steep but exceptionally beautiful trails that traverse the rugged, terraced mountains of the area. Lisa visited Cinque Terre with her mum and Gail back in 1995 and at the time swore to return with a boyfriend (I guess I still fit that category…), so it was a must do for her on our travels through Europe.
It’s certainly doable to hike between all five towns in a single day, but we decided to break it up over two so as not to completely wipe out the kids. We also wanted to allow some time to enjoy each of the five villages along the way, as they all have a unique character of their own and we also needed some time to cool off in the ocean after hiking through the mountains. All five of the Cinque Terre towns are easily accessed by train, it was a short trip from Riva Trigoso each day, much more straightforward on the train than tackling the steep mountain roads accessing each village. The train rides were actually quite picturesque themselves as the tracks traveled along the edge of the rocky coastline of the Italian Riviera. So many great swimming spots in the towns to the north of Cinque Terre proper, no wonder the area is such a summertime favorite for Italians living in the mountains to the north.
We tackled the Corniglia to Monterosso al Mare leg on one of our days in the area, it was a strenuous 6.5 mile/10.5 kilometer hike with 1477 feet/450 meters of elevation gain along the way. Fortunately temperatures were quite mild for our time in Cinque Terre, but even so, with the humidity we were all completely drenched in sweat by the time we reached each ridge line. I lost count of how much water we all drank – multiple liters each – but it was such a fantastic hike. The views were incredible and exploring each town along the way was such fun. Each of the southern towns hosted a market of some kind each morning, often with delicious local fruits and vegetables on offer as well as a range of local artwork. We were lucky to be visiting at a prime time for local stone fruit, the four of us devoured so many peaches, nectarines and apricots on our stops in each village’s market during our hikes.
Vernazza – the middle town of our Corniglia to Monterosso al Mare hike – was a favorite with the kids. The focacceria in the village served some exceptional food for lunch and the ledge at the end of the harbor dropping off into the Ligurian Sea was a favorite swimming spot with both Lilia and Max (and me!). It took a little cajoling to get both kids to take a running jump and plummet off into the swells, but once they did it the first time they couldn’t get enough. Even Lisa joined in after a serious case of FOMO (and convincing herself that she wasn’t going to die)!
When Lisa visited the area in 1995 at a similar time of year she remembered Cinque Terre being somewhat of a sleepy seaside enclave. With the advent of social media, the recent release of Disney’s Luca and publications like the Lonely Planet, Cinque Terre is sleepy no more: there was an incredible influx of tourists when we visited, thousands upon thousands of bathers packed the beaches of Monterosso al Mare and the trains accessing each of the five villages were full to the gills. So much hustle and bustle. While very picturesque, Monterosso al Mare was probably our least favorite of the five towns: there were only some minuscule strips of sand for public bathing – the rest of the beaches were reserved for private resorts – and the ocean was nowhere near as beautiful as the deep waters off Corniglia and Vernazza. It was still fun to visit, though, and the kids honed in on a gelateria on the main esplanade, a great reward for all the climbing in the humidity. No way they were going to let us get away without their first gelati in Italy after such a slog. Lisa’s phone tracked our adventures for the day at 10.6 miles/17 kilometers of walking and 149 flights of stairs!
We also tackled the Riomaggiore to Manarola hike one day, usually a very moderate stroll along a paved trail between the two towns but due to a landslide we had to hike over the mountains on an alternate route. The climb out of Riomaggiore had all our lungs burning and bodies drenched in sweat, the trail a collection of thousands of steep stone steps hewn into the rugged hillsides. The terraced vineyards along the way were like nothing I’ve ever seen, so incredibly steep they’re harvested with the assistance of miniature cog-wheel monorails that have been painstakingly installed to haul grapes down the hillsides. I can only imagine the backbreaking work it would have taken to get the monorails and terraces built. To the left of the bright red building perched atop the rocks right on the ocean in the first photo below is where Lisa stayed with her mum and Gail 26 years ago when they visited Riomaggiore.
After the climb out of Riomaggiore, the turquoise water of the Ligurian Sea had us all yearning for a swim as we descended into Manarola. But we all needed to refuel before taking a dip and stumbled upon an exceptional little Italian restaurant along Manarola’s main street that served bruschetta for 5€ a pop. The pickled seafood and pesto offerings were absolutely delicious! There’s no beach in Manarola, but the town’s boat ramp made for an ideal sunbathing spot for the throngs of tourists and locals alike, and the kids were in their element with the deep water on the edge of the town’s small port. There was some great snorkeling amongst the rocks right below the restaurants and plenty of great ledges for all of us to launch off into the sea. We swam for hours before catching the train back to Riva Trigoso, both kids opining that Manarola was their favorite of the five villages along the coast.
All I can say is, “Thank you Carol!” for taking Lisa to Cinque Terre all those years ago, because otherwise it probably wouldn’t have been so high on our list of spots to visit in Europe.
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