One of the most popular tourist destinations in Italy, Cinque Terre still preserves natural beauty of the landscape full of terraced vineyards, orange orchards, prick pears overlooking majestic cliff shore scattered with tiny colorful houses, which look like growing out of the rocks.
Cinque Terre literally means ‘five lands’ as there was no road connecting the villages, accessible only by the sea, thus the villages grew separately, like five isolated lands.
although known of wine producing at the Roman times already, the tough location bare no military or political interest to any of the invaders, who went across Ligurian coast thorough the history. Finally the coastline with the five villages, and the surrounding area formed the Cinque Terre National Park listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Till the present times there is no car road leading to the villages. The train line links all five villages, used both by locals and the tourists, who can buy an open ticket, which allows to hop off on one train station and join another train after several hours of visiting the place. There are also the ferry boats running between the villages, and the tiny footpath along the coast, which is quite busy during the season, full of visitors wanted to actively experience the beauty of Cinque Terre. The spirit of adventure is slightly spoiled by the fact, that tourist have to pay the toll while entering the path. Still the walkway is one of the most famous trails in Europe, and the first part, between Riomaggiore and Manarola bears the colorful name ‘Via dell’Amore’ ( The Lovers Path). The full route between five villages takes over five hours, so you can skip the part of it by using the train.
Tourists coming from Genova side
first access Monterosso al Mare, which is the only one with the sandy beach, and features the remains of the castle touched rapidly by the coastal waters.
Next is Vernazza with Gothic church of Santa Maria d’Antiochia. Between Vernazza and Corniglia are the terraced slopes of olive groves and vineyards with famous Schiacchetra grapes used for making the famous local white wine, known in Roman times as the wine from Corniglia. Leaving Corniglia the path goes slightly up giving the nice view on panorama of the village, which is situated on the cliff around hundred metres above the sea. Each village features old church in the middle, and one of the nicest ones is located in the next on the path Manarola ( church of St.Lorenzo from the 14th century). There are several sanctuaries hidden in the hills, like the one of Our Lady Victorious , between Corniglia and Manarola, and of Our Lady of Montenero, between Manarola and the last village on the trail Riomaggiore. Here between Manarola and Riomaggiore the path tunnels underneath overhanging rocks and over the stone bridges with picturesque green landscape, the reason its called ‘Via dell’Amore’. The walk to Riomaggiore takes some 20 min ( or much more), and the path ends near picturesque castle ruins with two towers preserved from Middle Ages.
Riomaggiore is the Southernmost village located near provincial capital, La Spezia, with huge naval base and boatyards, the main embarkation point to Cinque Terre and the near Portovenere.
[Manarola,Cinque Terre photo courtesy of Robert Crum]
The map below points to Corniglia, the middle village of Cinque Terre.
Guides: liguria
