The Five Towns: Cinque Terre

Google pictures of Italy, and you'll see the Colosseum, the rolling hills of Tuscany, and the colorful villages of the Cinque Terre. On our last day in Italy, we signed up for a day tour that would pick us up in Florence, drive us the (approximately) two hours to Cinque Terre, tour the villages, and drives us back. We met at the train station in Florence, where we were greeted by two tour guides - Sarah and Stefano. (Sarah and Stefano actually work for a company called Walkabout Tours. Our tour was booked through Viator, and then sourced to them.) These two would be with us for the drive and then split into two groups, with Sarah leading our half. Sarah is a native of Florence and does tours almost every day throughout Tuscany, all starting from Florence.

All along the drive, Sarah and Stefano shared a lot about Cinque Terre as a whole and the sites we were seeing along the way. One of the stories that stuck out to me was driving past the town of Carrara. They pointed out the beautiful mountains and we could see the marble in the mountains - hence the name, Carrara marble. Such a silly a-ha moment for us!

Our new home - ha!

Cinque Terre is the youngest national park of Italy, founded only in 1999, and is also a UNESCO world heritage site. Within the park itself, there are actually several small villages, but it is most famous for the five you regularly see photos of, hence the name of the area: Corniglia, Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Riomaggiore and Manarola. You can hike between all of the villages, or take the train, depending on your time and interests. With our schedule for the day, we would be doing a little of both. (Driving is strongly discouraged because there is little to no parking in the villages.) Cinque Terre is also a sister site to the Great Wall of China. The reason being, it is said to be true that if you lay out all of the Cinque Terre terraces next to each other, they will stretch as long as the Great Wall. The terraces are necessary for the support structure of the vines and grapes in the region, because of the steepness of the hills. The terraces are so hard to maintain, that the Italian government will actually give you land for free, and you won't have to pay taxes, if you agree to live here and maintain the terraces. So many people move to open a bar or restaurant, because the work is so difficult, that they need to people to help support them. So.....bye! We're packing our bags and moving. :)

Okay fine, maybe not.....yet. But on with the hike! Our first stretch of the trip was hiking from our dropoff point at the peak of the hill, down to the first town of Corniglia. This hike took about an hour and was about 100 meter drop in elevation. It was a really beautiful and peaceful hike, but the last stretch had a steep decline, so be prepared to go slowly so it doesn't hurt your knees.

Seafood appetizer

Following our hike, we had a pre-arranged lunch in Corniglia with locally sourced food. Being right on the coast, seafood is a top meal to eat here. Bryan wasn't brave enough to try it (he went for the meat plate) but I wanted to go with the flow of where we were. The appetizer consisted of a fried anchovy with octopus, clams, mussels and shrimp with potatoes. This was followed by our main course, pesto pasta (which Bryan did eat). Cinque Terre is part of the Ligurian region of Italy, home to pesto. It was so delicious I forgot to snap a photo of it.....does that mean it didn't actually exist?

After lunch, we had about an hour to wander the streets of Corniglia and do what we wanted. Bryan and I explored the town, and then stopped for what else? Gelato. You might have guessed wine, which would have been a good guess also, but this was easier to walk around with. :)

From Corniglia, we took the train to Vernazza where Sarah gave us a few recommendations of things to do. It was here that we went for the wine. We went into a small little shop that offered us a taste of three local wines: Vermentino, Cinque Terre and Sciacchetra (pronounced shakeetara). The latter is a dessert wine that came highly recommended to try......and to try and say. :) The wine tasting took a bit long, so by the time we were done, we had enough time to take a picture of the street of Vernazza and head back to the train.

Next up, Monterosso al Mare! In this town, we had the most free time to do what we wanted. We first followed Sarah as she shared a bit about the history of the town and showed us some highlights. It was here she pointed out a good shop to purchase some pesto to bring back (I wanted some from the region it came from!). There were also some stores that highlighted the fact that we could order some wine to go, so we did. :) We got a glass and walked slowly through town, enjoying the view. It was around this time the weather started picking up and it got windy, but we walked down to the beach anyway to enjoy the sound of the water moving in the wind.

During this trip, we were also supposed to visit the town of Riomaggiore, but that trip was to be made by boat - how fun! Unfortunately, because the wind was so strong, this part of the trip had to be cancelled and we didn't get to visit that town. We kind of expected that ahead of time. In May in Italy, the weather can still be rainy, so just be prepared you can't always do what you plan to!

Our last stop was beautiful Manarola. More than likely, when you see pictures of Cinque Terre, it's this town that you see - but they're all beautiful no matter what! Arriving in Manarola, we climbed to the top of the village through some of the homes, where Sarah shared a bit more about the towns. Apparently, when the homes were built, you had to pick one of eight colors to paint your home and then that was it - you couldn't change the color. That's why it's as beautiful as it is. And back in the day, a fisherman's boat color matched the color of his home. This way, wives could look out on the water and more easily find their husband, and vice versa. And when a husband would see smoke coming from his chimney, he knew it was time to head in because dinner was almost ready.

Beautiful Manarola

The homes were originally built as towers with an entrance in the front and back. This way, if pirates came to town, you could escape out the other door and not run into the pirates. These tower homes have now been split into smaller properties and condos. Want to buy one of these beauties? Don't we all. Minimum price for a property in the Cinque Terre - 1 million euro. Start saving your pennies!

After our lesson on the homes of Manarola, we again had some free time. We walked what's called the Path of Love, which leads outside the city of Manarola into Riomaggiore. Currently, you cannot walk the entire distance between the two cities on this path, but you can get just outside for gorgeous views of the town. The wind had really picked up by this point, so we snapped a quick photo and headed back to town where we enjoyed some glasses of Cinque Terre wine before heading to the train and catching our bus back to Florence.

During our tour, we discovered our guide, Sarah, lived in the neighborhood we stayed in, Santa Croce, so we asked her for some local recommendations on where to stop for a quick bite to eat on the way home. Her suggestion was a place called Il Vivandiere, which serves great small plates. Unfortunately, we had a terrible time trying to find it (imagine that one). We were so tired that we just found a pizza place near the house and called it a night!

We couldn't have imagined a better way to end our time in Italy. If you go, I highly recommend adding this tour to your list and hope you get to enjoy our guide Sarah as much as we did!