Day 15

Italy 2010

Day 15

Today we took a day trip by train (actually three different trains each way) to Cinque Terre (five lands). This is a popular area of five towns hanging onto the cliffs along, and above, the Ligurian Sea. They can only be reached by train or boat and are connected by a steep, narrow, and rocky trail. The last leg of the train ride was mostly in tunnels, and the little bit of daylight we saw from the train was where we arrived at the five towns.

We were here six years ago, loved it, and wanted to revisit this wonderful part of Italy.The hiking between towns is one of the highlights of the area because the trail is made of miles of hand placed rock and great views of the towns, the beautiful sea, and terraced hillsides with olive trees, grapes, and all sorts of vegetables. There is terrace upon terrace above the church.

We got off the train at the fourth of five towns, Vernazza, had lunch, and hiked back to the third town, Corniglia.

Vernazza, like the other Cinque Terra towns, is very photogenic:

There were lots of people on the trail, a notable difference from our last visit, and that made quick hiking impossible. We still recommend this area as a stop on anyone’s tour of Italy. BTW, this is a national park, one of relatively few in Italy.

The trail is anything but level, so little time was spent contouring along the sea. It was almost like one big stair machine with uneven steps made from hand-hewn rock. The Italians had, and have, an incredible interest and talent in using rock.

We have mentioned our new favorite pasta - tortelli lucchese. It’s a very thin ravioli with a ragu filling and sauce and when prepared well, it looks like this: