Cinque Terre

The day after I finished mid-term exams I headed off to the Cinque Terre with 5 German friends from Bocconi: Nina and Anne (from my language class), Nina's housemate Hannah, and two other friends, Christine and Eva. The Cinque Terre are 5 very small villages, set along the beautiful coastline south of Genoa. 'Cinque Terre' means 5 lands. The area's a relatively famous part of Italy for its beautiful scenery; the villages are also classically Italian, and there is a walking path from one end to the other which a lot of people from all over Europe do.

My housemate Cristina and her brother dropped me at the station at quarter to 7 in the morning as they were going to meet their parents there - che fortuna! The seemingly interminable train ride (4 hours - we could have done it in two but it's always cheaper to take the slower trains in Italy) took us to Monterosso, the closest of the Cinque Terre to Genova. The first part of the walk, from Monterosso to Vernazza, is definitely the hardest, and involved a lot of clambouring over rocks and heaps of steps. The path is fairly well maintained but gets very narrow at times - we were all surprised (but I think this is quite common in Italy) that there is no railing, fences or anything to stop you falling if you happened to fall off the path! Quite often there was nothing but a 6-foot drop down into grape vines below. It's nice to be free of public liability paranoia - Italy (probably more through laziness than decision) is very sane with things like that.

Stopped for lunch in Vernazza, a town with a beautiful harbour, and we climbed up to the ruins of the castle at the top of the town, looking right over the water, for some great views. The next leg, to Corniglia, wasn't quite as tough but still involved plenty of steps (and the Germans set a cracking pace!). Most of the walking is through or around the vineyards, which have been cut as layers, each about 5 feet high, into the hills.

We got to the town in the middle, Corniglia, by about 6pm, and mindful of having to be in La Spezia (a town further down the coast than the Cinque Terre), to check into our hotel by 8pm we decided to leave it there and get a train to La Spezia. Wandering around La Spezia that night, we had no idea where to go to get dinner, so Nina decided to ask some policemen we came across - I think they were quite flattered, not only did they chat with us for a bit but they rang ahead to a restaurant to make sure there would be room for the 6 of us! (Even though they hadn't heard us speak English they automatically assumed we were Americans - a very common thing for Italians to do (even though there were heaps of French and German tourists doing the Cinque Terre). I found it quite funny because if I hadn't been there the whole group would be German - not even speaking English!) That turned out to be a very good choice, the food was great and we shared a nutella pizza for desert! (not as bad as it sounds - actually really nice!). We were all pretty tired after an early start and lots of exercise!

We started off our second day with a wander around La Spezia, taking in the harbour, and then headed to Riomaggiore, the closest of the Cinque Terre to La Spezia. April 25th is also a public holiday for the Italians - Liberation Day (from the fascists) - and we heard on the morning radio a mention it also being "l'ANZAC day" in Australia and New Zealand! The whole area was packed with tourists. The walk goes past lots of paths leading down the to the rocks by the sea (actual beaches are virtually non-existent, the whole area is lots of cliffs!). There were lots of people sunbaking and having picnics, it would be a great place to spend a sunny day!

The walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola is Via dell'Amore, famous for having lots of names of couples and love messages scratched into the wall, the rocks or even the cacti. When Italian couples get married it is a tradition to write the names of the husband and wife on a padlock and chain it somewhere (e.g. to a bridge). There are hundreds of padlocks along Via dell'Amore.

Manarola was packed with tourists so we paused for gelati and then headed off again on the last part of the walk. Ended up at Corniglia train station again, where we ended the day before, and with an hour to spare we decided to climb the 382 steps up to the town for a snack and coffee!

We all really enjoyed wandering through the little towns in the Cinque Terre. Common local produce (much like Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast) was lemon stuff (particularly Limoncello, a typical Italian after-dinner drink), crockery and cooking products (always with lots of decoration and ceramic work). We came across a shop in Corniglia selling all that as well as beer and wine variously named after Che, Marx, Lenin and various other left-wing figures, as well as Mussolini and Hitler and others on the right! I found it pretty funny but the Germans couldn't believe it - apparently you could never sell anything like that in Germany. They were a bit offended, I think, and even though they all liked the stuff in the rest of the shop they all agreed they would never buy anything there. Typical I think of the kind of German 'residual guilt'.

The Germans headed back to Milan that evening and I left them in Genova and headed to the HI hostel there, up in the hills looking over the port.