A Day in Cinque Terra

A Day in Cinque Terra

Cinque Terra (meaning ‘Five Lands’) is a National Park not far from Lucca.  Some of it’s beauty comes from the five coastal towns that are part of this special park.  Until recently, you could only get to Cinque Terra by boat or train.  By train, much of the route is under the mountain except when the train surfaces at one of the five towns.

REMEMBER - If you want to see larger versions of the pictures, double click on the picture.

This trip, we took the train to Monterosso which is quite the beach town with two large beach areas.  Within a couple minutes of the train station is the first beach.

We planned for a sunny day, but our first views didn’t match our plans.  

When in Italy, I like to see things as they are and also how they were.  Centuries ago, Monterosso and the other four towns had to defend against pirates so some of the ancient looking buildings had a different purpose in years gone by.

We came to see two of the towns, so after a lunch of seafood, we headed off to the trail that connects Monterosso and Vernazza. 

Between the towns is a little over 1 1/2 miles by foot.  But, we knew of the trail conditions.  Locals take a little less than two hours to walk it - that should have told us something.  

It was more like continually climbing and descending stairs on a very steep mountain side.  One of our group has balance issues, another is afraid of heights, and as a group, we were the oldest on that day.

We did eventually make it - 4 hours later.  I think that about 0.4 miles an hour!

Two said they would never do it again, but, all loved the views of Vernazza, especially when we arrived in town. 

It definitely was an unforgettable day!