Cinque Terre and Earthquake Evasion

Cinque Terre

I spent last weekend in the region of Liguria with my friends visiting Le Cinque Terre. Cinque meaning five and Terre meaning lands is the name for five villages on the western Italian coast which are all linked by a national park. I’d never even heard of Cinque Terre before coming to Italy, but I would definitely recommend it to everyone!

We stayed in Riomaggiore the southern most village nearest La Spezia. It was so funny when arriving by train as leaving La Spezia we went though this long tunnel and when we emerged all the passengers were hit by this dazzlingly blue vision of the sea. The way people reacted you’d think that they’d never seen the ocean before. Having said this it was  a spectacular view.

Arriving in Riomaggiore my friend Kirsty made the most accurate observation that the villages seem to be like a real live version of Balamory! With the windy cobbled streets and the brightly coloured houses, it’s difficult not to fall in love with it. We stay at a fairly cheap hostel called Cinque Terre Holidays, and although the rooms were a little disappointing the owners were delightful.

The Cinque Terre are linked by several walks and hiking routes, although unfortunately at the moment part of the coastal route is still blocked due to the devastation caused by the flooding in October 2011. We started out on the path which runs along the coast connecting Riomaggiore and the next village of Manarola called Via del’amore meaning the path of Love. Along the route there were locks fastened with names of lovers and writing on the tunnel walls with names of couples who’ve walked the route. It has to be said, it’s kind of depressing walking along side loved up couples when your a single girl ... Ah well it only gives me an excuse to return with a man in toe.

Manarola was a pretty little village, although the rain did kind of dampen it’s beauty, where we stopped for lunch. Being so near the coast fish courses are of course wonderful, however if you’re on a bit of a budget but don’t want to miss out on the Italian culinary experience I would suggest trying the Genovese pesto. It is a typical dish of this region and once you’ve tried it there’s no way you can go back to tesco’s basic range. Similarly there a little cafes and bars where you can get a cheap meal but excellent food such as focaccia with pesto or fried calamari.

Moving on from Manarola we decided to take the red path through the hills to get to the next village since the coastal path from Manarola to Corniglia is still blocked. It is well advisable, as we soon found out, to wear proper shoes for walking on uneven terrain. There was a steep incline to get you to the top, unfortunately for us in the rain as well! But once we got out on the side of the hills the sun broke through and the views were spectacular. The only downside was that none of us could walk properly for the next few days.

Stopping in Corniglia for a drink, we noticed how different it was to the other two villages we’d seen. Built right on top of the cliff it boasts one of the best panoramic views. The train station near the shore used to be only reachable by the 365 steps, however the village is made much more accessible by a handy shuttle bus which runs pretty regularly. We were unfortunate enough to miss our train by seconds forcing us to wait another hour for the next one. Not wanting to walk back up the stairs we wandered down these little steps to the beach. We sat eating ice cream on the rocks right by the sea - I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to miss a train before!

When we got back to Riomaggiore we joined the many people who had set themselves around the harbor to watch the sunset. Many had bought takeaway pizza and bottles of wine to eat on the rocks. We decided to get in the spirit and bought some fish and chips - how very british seaside! Then we headed to La Zorza bar for it’s amazing/deadly cocktails. This was such a great place, the bar staff were lovely and so hospitable since there seemed to be no tables when we arrives because the chelsea match was on but they moved some chairs and tables about to accommodate us. Plus you could get free wifi if you ordered a drink which was a god send.

The next day was too wet to hike or walk so we decided to take the train to Montarosso al mare the biggest village out of the 5 and the most northern. It’s a great place to do shopping and buy products produced in Cinque Terre. We had a free taster of the sweet wine they make there called Sciaccatera and plenty of other liquors and wines. It has to be said they were very liberal with their tasters! We also found a beautiful little boutique jewelry shop which sold pendants we painting of different Italian sights from the tower of pisa to the colosseum to fiat500. Luckily for me they have a website where you order items!

It was clear the Montarosso and Vernazza, the next village down, had been worst hit by the flooding. Around the two villages there were photos showing the devastation that had been caused. The two churches in Montarosso had be badly affected by the flooding  but the rest of the village looked like it was pretty much back to normal. However getting off the train at Vernazza made fore such a sorry sight it made me feel so sad. The road was muddy and parts of shop fronts were being rebuilt and half the shops were empty due to damage. This being said the one thing which brightened the scene were amazingly colourful doors lining the main street painted by artists in the village to help raise money to reconstruct the place. Vernazza is slowly and surely getting back on it’s feet so don’t be put off visiting. We went there for lunch and had a mix of foccacia and cinque terre wine in this lovely little enocoteca by the harbor.

Earthquake evasion!

So the second day into our holiday we received some shocking news that there had been a serious earthquake close proximity to Ferrara. The whole day we went round cinque terre and all anyone was talking about was this earthquake, so we decided not to go back the day we originally planned instead we took a detour to Florence, two hours south of Cinque Terre. So we booked a hostel that morning (using the wifi of bar zorza whilst having a cafe and cornetto - told you it came in handy)

We spent a lovely afternoon wandering around the streets of Florence in the sun, when the rain started so we took shelter in a little covered arch way near Dante’s house. Here we had the BEST Schiacciata which is a type of tuscan bread, rather salty, made into sandwiches. It was so cheap and so tasty, definitely recommended!

That evening we tried a restaurant recommended by tripadvisor around the corner from or hostel called Trattoria da Girgio. There was a set menu which offered pasta, meat and side and wine and water for 13€! The food was excellent and the place was packed with Italians - always a good sign!

We came back to Ferrara to find the majority of this still standing. There were bits of rubble here and there and part of the castle had broken off, but all in all I’d say we were very lucky. There’s still been aftershocks, although I haven’t felt any. The huge shame is that they’ve had to cancel the Palio, the medieval horse race! One of Ferrara’s main attractions and it’s cancelled! such a pain, ah well I’ll just have to come back next year to see it.