Basically it's 5 small, colourful villages clinging to the cliffs, and connected by a 10km footpath all along the sea with stunning views the whole way. The route of our trip had us end up here kinda late in the season, and weather here has been hit or miss the whole time I've been looking so that was my main concern.
We decided to stay in the nearby city of La Spezia, as accommodation is a lot more reasonable outside of the tiny and touristy villages. Our hotel was great, not too expensive and right in the heart of the city. We were sent to an amazing seafood restaurant at the marina our first night with high quality catch of the day seafood in a cheap cafeteria style setting. It was an amazing break from pasta.
Last year the Cinque Terre was hit by heavy rain and mudslides devastated a couple of the villages and took out sections of the path. Some remained closed, with lengthy detours up into the hills. Then a couple weeks ago a group of Australian women were injured by some kind of slide, so by the time we got here all the coastal (ie. worthwhile) sections of the path were closed.
We were really looking forward to the hike, but since so much was closed we figured we'd still make the most of it and take trains to each village to explore what we could. On our first day there happened to be another train strike so that was out of the question as well.
We'd seen a few boat tours advertised at the marina and that seemed to be our only chance to see anything. We got one for €18 but for some reason they were only stopping at the last village, Monterosso, that day, as well as Portovenere, the 6th terre you could say. Obviously things weren't going our way here but it was the best we could do.
The weather held out for us and we got a great view of each village from the boat, as well as the beautiful path we should have been hiking. We saw a couple sections that had been washed out last year, and considering tourism is probably the vast majority of the economy in those villages it was strange there were no signs of repair. We overheard a German guy talking to an Italian about the same thing, he was saying in Germany it would get repaired immediately, and he was baffled they hadn't done anything for over a year. It was amusing and refreshing to hear someone from another country confused about how Italy operates.
The next day the trains were running and I was on a mission to see the villages. Unfortunately the weather wasn't having it, and Gen wasn't as keen on my rain soaked adventure so it was a solo mission. I did get about an hour break in the rain in Riomaggiore, but didn't end up stopping in the other 3 I'd missed. What we did see was really beautiful, similar to a lot of other coastal villages we've seen. They do love their clusters of colourful buildings stuck to the cliffs. The hike is something that will have to wait, if they ever get around to fixing the trail.
We're now on the train back to Milan where we fly to Barcelona for 6 nights. Italy has been incredible, and we'll post more on that, but I think we're both looking forward to a change. I can't wait to finally use this skateboard I've been dragging around the cobbled streets of Italy!
-Justin
sorry to hear about Cinque Terre. Hopefully they repair it soon and maybe you'll be able to go back to experience what I did.
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