Italy in Ten Days Part III: Cinque Terre.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I had the time of my life on a ten day trip in Italy with a darling friend.

We walked till we nearly dropped, ate to our heart’s content and swam in the Mediterranean Sea – and lived to tell the tale!

Cinque Terre was the third stop on our list and by far the most gorgeous!

Just thinking about the cool calm sea and clear blue sky’s enough to make me wanna hop on a one way ticket there and not come back until I’m burnt to a crisp.

Like Isak Dinesen once said, the cure of anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.

The one thing everyone in Florence told us when they heard we were off to Cinque Terre next was that it was gorgeous. And really, with a name like Cinque Terre (which incidentally means five villages in Italian, because it’s, well, made up of five villages, how wrong could it go?

Our accommodation

Having left Florence quite late, it was past noon by the time we arrived at La Spezia, the main town accessible by regional trains. Thankfully for us, inspite of our doubts, our accommodation was literally right outside the train station as advertised. So it was a quick check in, swoon over the room and the airconditioning (a huge upgrade from Florence!) and head off to explore what all the fuss over Cinque Terre was about!

Hopping on the local train

With all five villages situated along a beautiful, rugged coastline, we had the option of either hiking along the coastline (a five hour hike, specifically) or hopping on a local train that stopped at each village. Given that we only had a couple hours to cover the villages before the sun set, we- quite gladly, after our bike tour in Florence the day before- took the easy way out.

En route

Monterosso

Our first glimpse at the beautiful coastline

Catching a quick bite after a dip in the sea

Monterosso, the first village we made a stop at, was by far the most touristy village, with the beach packed with tourists happily baking in the sun and frolicking in the sea. The coastline really was quite gorgeous, offering specular views of cliffs, castles and villages in the distance.

Vernazza

A small beach in Vernazza

Corniglia

Manarola

A gorgeous, small pier

Quite quickly, thanks to the relatively frequent trains, we covered most of Cinque Terre within the next few hours. While each village certainly had its own quirks and charm, my favourite was definitely Manarola.

Upon arrival in the village, we had to walk through a little street filled with shops and uneven paved, colourful buildings and then make our way down a long tunnel before we were greeted with a sight of the most gorgeous, little pier.

The water proved too irresistible as we quickly found ourselves in the sea, admiring the view of sunset just beyond the cliff, only reluctantly dragging ourselves out of the water for some much needed food.

Dinner at Manarola, deep fried calamari

Fettuccine vongole, fried seafood

We had dinner in a really packed restaurant, overlooking the pier. What is it honestly about having seafood by the sea that makes it so damned appealing? I usually wouldn’t touch fried seafood with a ten feet role but this really wasn’t half bad- must be something about the fresh, salty air.

So seemingly just as quickly as we had arrived, we were soon back on the train all bleary eyed early the following morning.

Next up, the beautiful Venice!

Posted by thecoffeesnob on August 5, 2010

http://eatandbehappy.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/italy-in-ten-days-part-iii-cinque-terre/