Cinque Terre,
Italian Riviera,
Italy
Monday, June 30, 2008
Cinque Terre, the five villages, are a cluster of five brightly colored fishing villages that cling to the coast in Italian Rivera. Not really Tuscany, I know, but since I made it in a day trip from Florence, might as well tell you here. A UNESCO world heritage site, it is popular. The local train arrive packed with visitors like rush hour New York subway, seriously, all aisles are filled with standing people. But once you hit the trail that connect the five villages, you leave the majority of people behind. It's a beautiful walk, winding through terranced vineyards, accompanied by plenty of wildflowers and chirping birds. The continous open view of the bring blue sea, the flowering cactus, both feel eerily tropical and reminds me of the hike we once took along the Napali coast in Hawaii. There are other fun diversions, like a super friendly, contaginously happy Dutch couple who voluteered to take a pic for me, a sign advertising free nude beach if you would follow the next little path down hill, and a platform designed for people to leave food for stray cats. Sure enough, a big fat cat sits by and waits.
As for the villages, some boast small beaches and are the most popular. Still, they handle the tourists well and stay charming- where else would you see elderly villagers walking around in swimming shorts, the tight type, or witness the entire content of family laundry on display outside their windows, on3 teired drying racks? As I chew on some delicous tomato foccacia for lunch (cannot go wrong with Italian tomatos!), I realized that Cinque Terre comes pretty close to the perfect recipe for a summer vacation spot: plenty of sunshine, dry heat to keep people in shade and stay cool, clean, colorful houses, good meals, and optionally a tiny beach.
