Days 25 and 26 - Santa Margherita (Cinque Terre day trip)
Visiting Cinque Terre
A number of factors came together this morning that led me to decide, spontaneously, to visit Cinque Terre today. Having made the decision, I organised my train travel, collected my wits, and headed out. I’m still learning the ropes with the trains but managed to get a seat on the train I wanted, in spite of only deciding an hour or so beforehand. The other thing that I learned through the ticket-purchase process is that Cinque Terre is a district, not a single place. One cannot buy a ticket to Cinque Terre, one must select one of the “five lands” to visit (first). I chose Monterosso (at random) and went there. Happenstance made that a good choice, as it turned out.
On the train trip down the coast, I read up on Cinque Terre on Lonely Planet; something that I should have done before setting out! Anyway, what I discovered was that each of the five towns along the Cinque Terre coast had their own attractions, noting that they were all small villages so they only had one or two attractions each, apart from the gorgeous setting on the Italian coast that they all shared. Also, Lonely Planet warned that Cinque Terre is very popular with tourists and that all the villages would be crowded with them.
In due course, I arrived at Monterosso. As you arrive at the station, there’s a small group of buildings and a beachfront. But if you follow the road around the little headland, past the castle on the point, you quickly discover a charming town with a beach nestled in a small cove. Monterosso is the only one of the five villages with a beach. I walked down to the main village square (overarched by the train line on an elevated trackway) and noted that Lonely Planet’s comment about tourism was certainly true. The place was heaving with tourists, in tour groups, and smaller parties.
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One of the things that I’d discovered as I was entering Monterosso was that I could see the next village down the coast from there. Between Google Maps guidance and finding some signage, I determined that one can walk between the villages. Monterosso to Vernazza is about 2 km and was estimated to take about an hour and a half. I (naively) thought that I could probably do it a bit quicker than that and thought that the coast walk might be the ideal way to soak up the Cinque Terre ‘vibe’ without having to suffer too much of the tourist crush. Having looked around Monterosso a bit, I headed off on that plan.
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It was a good decision to make, but was poorly made. I’d made the timing estimate on the basis of ‘mostly flat’ walks I’d done elsewhere at Google’s direction, where I had usually beaten the time by a small margin, in spite of stopping to take photos, etc. Google hadn’t marked this walk as ‘mostly flat’ (I should have been suspicious) and it was definitely not. Just like my experience in Austria, today was going to be another heart-challenging day of climbing stairs (and just rocky paths), all in the beating sun.
The first hurdle to overcome was being stopped at the official beginning of the walk/climb by a park warden (I guess) who explained that “legally” the path was closed at the moment because of yesterday’s heavy rain. They had yet to verify that the path was safe/intact. The warden couldn’t stop me going on but I was going to do so at my own risk. I acknowledged that risk and pressed on regardless. I’d seen others leave as I arrived and figured they could blaze the trail (and take the fall) for me. I was only walking for about 15 minutes before I met someone coming the other way and they said the track was fine.
The next hurdle was just the effort of climbing up the ridges that make up the coastline along Cinque Terre. The views along the path are spectacular, but you pay a physical price to get to them. And then, as you’re muttering to yourself about all this climbing, you come across a small house and terraced farm, perched on the slopes. The people who live here must have unbelievable cardiovascular capacity from walking up and down these slopes all day. Many of the houses are not near the road that runs between the villages at the top of the ridges and so going to and fro to town would be a real workout. Just working your farm would inevitably involve lots of hill climbs and descents. I noted as the walk went on that most farms that were vineyards (many of them) had little rail lines installed for bringing the harvest back to the house. I’m not sure what happened to it after that.
Note the stairs are the path |
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The walk certainly provided magnificent views of Cinque Terre as it unfolded. Some of the views of the towns were particularly enchanting. Also, the views of the terraced farms dotted along the coast seemingly at random were pretty special. And always, the Mediterranean was sparkling away filling the scene. One thing that I’d noticed today was that the harbour where SML (and Portofino) is located is very protected. Here, all along Cinque Terre (and indeed further north as I’d been coming in by train – first photo, above), the Mediterranean was actually pushing waves up onto the coast.
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In due course, I stumbled into Vernazza. Google’s estimate of the time was pretty good. It was really hot, especially while doing all this difficult walking, and I was ready for lunch (already past 1 pm). Vernazza was even more busy than Monterosso (probably because it has a noticeably smaller footprint). I found a place to eat on Google that looked ‘out of the way’ and headed there. Of course, that meant more stair-climbing, didn’t it. That’s a characteristic of these villages, they’re very vertical. Most of the ‘roads’ are actually staircases or steeply sloping lanes. All of the buildings are 4-5 storeys high. They are desparately charming, but it’s a lot of up and down.
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| ‘Street’ scenes in Vernazza | ||
Gianni’s Deck was empty when I got there – a blessed relief – and I had a lovely foccacia and a glass of wine (which came with the obligatory olives, bread, and peanuts). The view was amazing out over the Mediterranean. I had to keep moving back in the building to get enough shade it was that sunny and hot.
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After lunch, I visited the castello in Vernazza but decided that I didn’t need to climb the last tower. (So. Many. Stairs.) You can see why the castello was built there. It has commanding views along the coast of Cinque Terra and overlooking its own small harbour. And would have been virtually impregnable built on a rocky spur right at the end of a ridge. Its only vulnerability when originally built would have been a seige. There’s nowhere to grow food or draw water at the top there.
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| Views of Vernazza from the castello | ||
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I trekked down again from the peak at the castello and then headed off on the walk across to Corniglia, the next village along. Again, about a 2 km walk along the ridge line expected to take about an hour and a half. And the first bit was, of course, a significant stair climb to get up to the main walking track. By now, I was starting to feel foot-sore and leg-weary. And it was hot! I’d put on a long sleeve knitted cotton top in the morning when assessing the weather as mid-teens, but by now it was easily in the low-20s and I was operating in high cardio regions for (what felt like) prolonged periods. I eventually took the top off and walked most of the ridge line bare-chested in the sun. Fortunately, there were not as many walkers on this stretch so I wasn’t frightening children most of the way. And I put the shirt back on when I got to about 200m out from Corniglia. I’d seen some other guys with no shirt (all much younger than me) going in the other direction, so I was pretty sure I wasn’t breaking any actual decency laws.
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Halfway along this walk, there is a cluster of houses who trade as cafes/bars and they were very busy. There’s no doubt that they are well-located to catch weary/thirsty walkers, and the views out to the Mediterranean were genuinely unbeatable.
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| Corniglia getting bigger and bigger | ||
Arrival at Corniglia was, frankly, a welcome relief. I didn’t have my actual walking shoes on today, rather I was wearing my trainers. My feet were definitely of the view that I’d walked enough.
The right-hand wall is a house |
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Corniglia is smaller, again, than Vernazza and, importantly, is nowhere near the water. Another very vertical village with one trafficable road passing through it. The walk in led directly past a huge church, which I visited. It was quite humble compared to some of the other big churches I’ve visited recently, but that is completely fitting for church for such a small village. I walked down from the church to the road in the centre of town and then climbed up again to the other side of the village, looking for the view that I’d read about. Apparently, one can see the whole of Cinque Terra from Corniglia. A bit of ‘follow your nose’ navigation finally revealed the spot where that view could be achieved. And it was pretty impressive.
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Having captured the view, I decided I would head home directly. I was certainly not going to be doing any more walking, if I could help it. You’ve probably already guessed that the train station is a bit out of town (because of the geography of the place) and, importantly, requires a long, steep descent. That was plenty of additional walking for me.
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Getting a ticket for the train home was not as smooth as I wished. There’s a system in Cinque Terre where, if you by a Cinque Terre pass you can go on all the walks and you can ride on the trains between the villages without further payment. The trains run between the villages every 15 minutes and it takes 3-5 mins between each stop. Very convenient for tourists. I’d bought the non-rail version as I was only doing the walks. When I went to buy a seat on a train back to Santa Margherita, the only ticket office was a guy who dealt with the Cinque Terre tickets. It took a while for me to realise that the pass he was talking about was the Cinque Terre pass and not my Eurail pass. When I finally made it clear that I wanted to buy a seat for my Eurail pass, he said “I’m not Trenitalia; I can’t help.” I was going to have to risk getting a seat for a connecting train in Monterosso, where I would change. The anxious traveller spent the next 30 minutes worrying about how late he was going to actually get home.
In the end, it was all pretty smooth. The Trenitalia staff in Monterosso was very helpful and efficient. I got home on my planned train in good time. When I got home, I immediately had a shower and changed. It had been a long, hot day. I then went down to the restaurant that is literally next door – L’Insolita Zuppa – and had a lovely (if quite expensive) dinner. I thought of it as a treat and reward for all my hard work during the day.
| Daily facts: Location: Santa Margherita Ligure (Cinque Terre day trip) Temp: 19-22 Weather: Sunny and warm |
Day 25 - Santa Margherita Ligure
Definitely a low-power day today, not least because it rained for most of the morning and again during the mid-afternoon. I snuck at during a break in the rain over lunch time to get a bite to eat. While finding a new cafe/bar, I went past a couple of real estate agent windows and photographed the offerings to see what living here would involve. The option in the top-right of this window – in San Massimo – is a ten room (three storey) building on a 7,000m2 block. The listing claims that it could be renovated/sub-divided for apartments. The building was constructed in 1900! Frankly, at €380,000 (approx. AUD800k) it’s a pretty good deal, I reckon, if you are willing to take on the unimaginable risk (and cost) of renovating a 125-year-old stone building in the Italian hills. IDK, could be fun.
| Daily facts: Location: Santa Margherita Ligure Temp: 16 Weather: Rain; heavy overcast |
Wow! Those photos are stunning! Well worth all that walking and stair climbing. The “reward for effort” ratio is nearly off the scale
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely worth it, especially because it was a perfect day, so all the photography (and the enjoyment in the moment) was at its peak.
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