The Hills of the Cinque Terre

I am ashamed to admit that I knew nothing of Liguria and the Cinque Terre until watching a Gino     D 'Acampo TV show about it in his Hidden Italy series. That and a jet 2 competition win giving us one free flight was enough to persuade us to go for a week! In truth our experience showed it is not very well hidden. The Cinque Terre National park, a UNESCO site, is now well on the tourist beaten track and towns were busy with cruisers and hikers at weekends. If you go avoid July and August as it must be hell. For us it was perfect. Great weather - maybe too hot as the week wore on, great light and great colour.
After the usual hassle of picking up the hire car ( we never have it run smoothly ) we were off in our Toyota Aygo  from Pisa airport headed towards Vernazza. A car more unsuited to the hills/ mountains/ dirt tracks in the Cinque Terre you could not choose. I was so glad we were not in ours! Often in 1st and 2nd gear negotiating super hairpin bends it was always challenging on some of the most stunning roads of views I`ve ever driven. Not a drop of alcohol touched my lips throughout when driving!
Our apartment in a hamlet of farm buildings just above Vernazza was a challenge in itself. 3 flights of stone stairs to get up with luggage but offering the most fantastic views you could wish for in idyllic surroundings.

Sue on her last flight of steps down from apartment

View from balcony

Neighbourhood dog

Scrabble on the balcony

Looking down to vernazza

It was soon clear  that this was hiking land!If the way to our apartment had not given a clue then we found that access to Vernazza was just as big an issue. A 5 minute drive down took us to a paying car park (2E an hour or 15E all day!) from where we could walk for 20 minutes down to a car free Vernazza. The best, quickest and most economical way to get to the other 4 towns of the Cinque Terre is to walk or use the Cinque Terre card for train and footpaths. There is a 7.50 E charge to access the hiking trails on the cliff edges. Following landslides in 2011 and repair works only 2 of the trails were open and we managed a little of the Vernazza to Corniglia route offering great views and more steps and hills! Vernazza was the first of the Cinque Terre towns we visited and is beautiful. The light and colour on this coast is an artists and photographer`s dream!

The walk into town took us past numerous huts like this ruined by landslides

The Water Mill House

Vernazza station is in the centre of town

The beach area was delightful in Vernazza

Fishing with bread - it worked too!

We never made it to this hill top restaurant which is the priciest in town too

We made it frequently to this gelateria recommended by Gino D'Acampo

The breakfast message was clear

Next day we bought a Cinque Terre day card and headed for the other 4 towns of the Cinque Terre. We started at the end of the line in Riomaggiore. Stunning place!

Each town has a main street or 2 and then loads of little alleyways with steep flights of stairs to the next.

A jump onto a crowded train took us to Manarola. Loads of Americans touring the area onboard but we found them OK for once ;-). Not so the Japanese who seem to ignore all etiquette when it comes to queueing or indeed not walking straight through you if you happened to be in their way. No matter how rude I was I never managed to evoke a reply or even a look of shame - what gives? The other comical sight seemingly unique to the modern Japanese tourist is the need to walk around town / crowded trains with a small compact camera stuck on top of a fully extended tripod ready for that magical selfie! They were everywhere and why I didn`t get a picture I don`t know! Still Manarola was lovely too.

Lovely view of it from the mountain pathway

Here we tried a typical lunch snack of focaccia and pizza from one of the many focaccerias

Then it was back on the train to Corniglia which was the nearest Cinque Terre town to our base of Vernazza.

The railway runs through tunnels right next to the sea

A longer train ride next to Monterosso, the northernmost Cinque Terre town and another treasure to behold. It`s something of a bigger beach type resort.

Having achieved our aim of seeing the smaller figurehead towns of the Cinque Terre we were keen to drive up even more winding , mountainous hills to other destinations of the Italian Riviera. Our first destination was one of our favourites of the trip - Portovenere. Same routing of parking at the top of a hill to walk into a car free town and we even managed to avoid a 1E return bus from the car park by trusting in a visiting Australian and her Italian friends who assured us the other way was a short cut! It wasn`t!

We ate in a backstreet restaurant and had the best meal of our holiday

Chestnut flavoured pasta with pesto tomatoes with anchovies

Sue had pancake type breads with pesto, walnut and parmesan

The Church of St Peter at Portovenere was fantastic!

Right on the cliff edge

Pasta curtains!

Portovenere should not be missed and we found it prettier than Portofino which was our next day trip. Getting to Portofino was a challenge. We had aimed to get to Rapallo and park as cheaply as possible - yes I know ...laughable! However a failure to fins a car park there took us on to neighbouring Santa Margherita Ligure where we were able to get a ferry to enter Portofino from the water which was a lovely way to do it.

Lots of designer shops in Portofino which was even wealthier than the other riviera towns

We resisted this gelato and had a coffee instead

A lizard 

A chilled boat taxi man

My yacht for the day - I wish!

A well hung rhino!

Pink Meercats

My favourite boat

Heading back to Santa Margherita Ligure we found that to be a beautiful town too.

Everyone claims Columbus but he was actually from Genoa

As the week went on temperatures climbed from the mid 20s to the early 30`s with the temperature on our balcony even hotter. My brief dalliances with the sun again turned me to a lobster rather than a tanned Adonis and we began to seek the shade. A few sites nearer to home.

Sunset from our balcony

The working hills of vineyards and small holdings opposite our apartment

I`d rather have driven this around than the Aygo!

Saw these curious monorails used to bring grapes from the bottom of the hills to the top or vice versa

Track to our apartment

Water meters and door

The track down to mour parking space

All in all a fantastically beautiful place to visit. I don`t think I`ve ever stood so many times saying
 " What a fantastic view" to sue other than in India and Yosemite.The villages all date from the early medieval period and the Cinque Terre is described by the Lonely Planet Guide as " Some of the most dramatic coastal scenery on the planet with 5 ingeniously constructed fishing villages that can bolster the most jaded of spirits". certainly did for us - quite magical! Well worth a visit but avoid July and August when it must be absolutely heaving given how busy it was in early June , especially at the weekends.