The Cinque Terre

The day before our trip back to Rome with engine troubles, described some time ago in my ‘What a day!’ post, we set off from La Spezia very early to catch a launch to Porto Venere, on the way to the well-known Cinque Terre, a set of five coastal villages, each of which practically hangs from steep cliffs surrounded by hills and vineyards. The villages were built along this attractive coastline in such a way to defend themselves from pirates and for a long time were only accessible to the rest of Italy by steep pathways. Other produce was also grown up the steep hills using terraces to keep the plants well-watered and to prevent loss of soil.

After an hour’s exploration of Porto Venere, a picturesque village with its historic church and colourful buildings, we caught our next launch to Vernazza, one of the five villages then yet another launch to the last of the five picture postcard villages, Monterosso. We were now in the open sea, but luckily it was not rough. Here we had a superb fish lunch then were set free to explore this village and any other villages we chose, using the challenging walking track between them or the train that now runs along the coast (mainly through tunnels) back to La Spezia. The fittest of our group did the very long hike, others hopped on and off the train to the different villages, while I caught the train in the middle of the afternoon directly back to La Spezia after spending some time exploring Monterosso. It was very hot and had been quite a tiring journey.

I have already mentioned my hair cut in Rome on my one day off from travelling. In my next post I will start telling you about my cruise to Sicily, the Greek islands and Athens. But now I must rush as my WiFi access is about to be cut off as I am leaving the ship this morning and departing on a series of three trains to get me to Amsterdam. I will not be able to post any more stories until safely on board the river boat. (I assume it will have WiFi.)

At La Spezia, on the way to boarding our launch.

Along the coastline to Porto Venere.

An amazing historic castle-fortress right at the entrance to the bay in which La Spezia is located.

Coming into Porto Venere.

Porto Venere. The sea water was crystal clear.

View of part of Porto Venere, a very attractive village.

Part of the train line connecting the villages. Notice the terraces up on the hillside.

Many of the houses are precariously perched on the cliffs. The fence on the right marks the long walking track between the villages.  One of the five villages can only be reached by a very steep walking track.

A view of another village.

A view of Monterosso.

An intriguing villa in Monterosso.

Enjoying the beach at Monterosso .