A Day in Cinque Terre

Trip Start Jan 12, 2008
1
19
22
Trip End Jun 18, 2008


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Italy  , Italian Riviera,
Sunday, May 4, 2008

This past Friday, I took a day trip with my study abroad program (expenses paid!) down to the Italian Riviera, a place called Cinque Terre. We left Milan on a bus practically at the crack of dawn, and after a 3 hr. bus ride, we arrived on the coast. It was a holiday weekend in Italy (Ascension Thursday), so it was packed!

Cinque Terre is a part of the Italian Riviera (near France) that actually consists of 5 small towns connected only by railroad or hiking trail - the cliffs are too steep for roads! We started off in Porto Venere and took a boat ride up the coast to Monterosso, the northern most of the 5 towns. The boat ride was beautiful - although it was about 75 degrees, there was a great breeze out at sea, and we could see every town.  After a quick lunch/sit on the beach in Monterosso, we started on the hike!
"What's under the water?" - informative..
"What's under the water?" - informative..
Now, I've never been on a hike, and I'm not exactly the most outdoors-y girl, but I put on my non-athletic sneakers and gave it my best shot. The views from the top of the cliffs were beautiful, except I couldn't really stop to stare too often, because I had to keep all concentration on where I was stepping! The "trail" (if you can even call it that" was about 3 ft. wide at best, and the huge holiday crowd here headed in both directions. Very often I found myself clinging onto a complete stranger for dear life! Not to mention the fact that apparently the thing to do when hiking is bring your ski poles to use as walking sticks, which made it even harder to pass people. At one point the path was muddy, and I slipped, attempted to grab the wall for support, and sliced my finger. But I'm happy that that was my greatest injury. And the good news was that every so often there was an old Italian man selling lemons for €0.50, which you eat whole (my favorite!), and when you could stop to take a breather, the view was amazing.

When we arrived in the next town, Vernazza, sweaty and tired, and got a well-deserved gelato. After another nice rest on the beach (which, by the way, were crowded with sunbathers and swimmers - it must be summer!), we got the train back to La Spezia, and caught the bus home. And I slept like a baby that night, believe me. (Some people hike between all 5 towns, I only did two!)

Maybe I only did due of the cinque terre, but those I did see were really great.
Slideshow Print this entry Rome hotels