The Cinque Terre, or "Five Lands" are five small villages located in Northwestern Italy. They were originally isolated fishing and wine producing villages, until a train system was built. This train system unfortunately resulted in increased poverty, because though the train brought other opportunities to the locals, it caused them to abandon their traditional occupations such as fishing. Eventually tourism improved the economy but the villages still operate in semi-traditional manner, banning cars in the 1970s.
The villages are extremely beautiful, made up of brightly painted buildings nestled between ravines that reach downward to the sea. It is rumoured that locals painted their houses in bright colors to ensure the fishermen could find their homes easily, so that they could monitor their wive's, ensuring the women performed their housework duties faithfully.
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You can get to any of the five towns via La Spezia, easily reached on the wonderful Italian train system.
The trains come every thirty minutes or so, and stop at each of the five cities.
From its train station, you enter Riomaggiore through a tunnel.
The southernmost city is Riomaggiore, a city that hugs a ravine that goes down to the sea.
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You can take some amazing snaps at each end of the village.
The buildings are extremely beautiful towers painted in bright colors.
If you wish you can boat, fish or swim.
There many beautiful sights.
Or you can relax and enjoy the view!
Instead of taking the train, you can also hike to various towns.
Unfortunately, the normal path, the Lover's Lane between Riomaggiore and Manarola is closed (and has been for a while, and probably will be closed for a long time).
Hiking through the hills is free, but much more difficult than the normal flat paths.
Still it's quite beautiful.
There are farms built on terraces that you see as you climb over the ravine to Manarolo.
One of the region's main industries is still wine-making.
There are interesting rock formations to see as well.
And of course the deep blue sea:
From the top of the hill you can see the other bays-- here's the train station for the next town north: Corniglia.
You can see the national park trail, which costs some money to hike on (in the unclosed sections)
I wish they had left it open, because it's quite beautiful.
You can hike the whole way from north to south still, but probably should do it in at least 2 days.
Or you can take the trains.
Still Corniglia is up on top of the cliff, so you have to hike there no matter what.
We just hiked to Manarola.
The higher parts of the towns have cars, but not the old city center.
It's a beautiful section of the Italian Riviera.
Here's more of Corniglia's train station.
You can see Corniglia on top of the cliffs.
There's a bench up top where you can relax and enjoy the view.
Take a wine and some food and have a picnic!
Enjoy the terraces!
You can also see the towns by boat.
I think the slow hiking way is the best however.
Once over the mountain you can see Manarola.
The village is tucked inside a ravine.
There is a climb through the village.
The terraced village is quite beautiful.
You can see the coastal village below.
Manarolo and Riomaggiore are probably the most beautiful of the five towns.
Manarola and Riomaggiore both sit upon ravines.
They are quite beautiful cities.
Each of the five towns speak their own dialects.
Manarola is
Manaea in the local dialect.
The towns are quite affordable.
You should be able to get a hotel room for under 100 $.
We took the train to Corniglia, the next village, located on a hill.
You can see it from other bays.
Some locals were transporting tuna they had just caught.
Tuna are quite large fish if you've never seen one before.
The town has meandering streets, and is probably the least visited of the other five, not being on the coast.
Still it's a good place to get away from the crowds in the other villages.
There's a bit of a port you can climb down to.
But it's not like Manarola or Riomaggiore.
Those villages go down into the sea.
The port in Corniglia is small and down a cliff with stairs.
It's certainly more private than the other towns.
But there's less to see.
The last town we visited was Monterosso al Mare. We skipped Vernazza-- likely it would have been better to skip Corniglia if time is short.
Monterosso al Mare has the largest beach, so may be the best place if you're into swimming and sunbathing.
It's also quite beautiful.
Well, it's time to go home!
Relax at the train and enjoy the sunset at the train station.
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If you would
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