Cinque Terre

If you are tempted to swim in any of the harbours in the Cinque Terre take care. The water appears clear and warm but in the smaller villages the sewerage outfalls discharge very close by and a unhealthy looking brown scum with identifiable waste floats on the surface of the water. Vernazza and Monterosso seemed to be the least effected, Corniglia was the worst as the harbour is more enclosed.

Be prepared, especially if you are going for a day or two, to pay 5 euros a day for a Cinque Terre card to walk the walks (a slight discount for 3 or 7 day cards) I had not come across this in any of the information I had read before going. I met a few other people who were unprepared for this. The card offers many concessions on items but even if you just want to walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola (about 20 mins) you must have this card. We were there for 4 days and didn’t want to visit wine or fish museums or buy souvenirs from the information offices (all of which are discounted with the card), or take a free shuttle bus to the car park. 15 euros just to walk seems a bit steep (excuse the pun). The extended card with the train included seems even poorer value unless you intend to use 3 or 4 trains a day as the train tickets are only 1 euro.

It’s a wonderfully picturesque place and having had the most beautiful May weather (sunshine and clear blue skies) it would be difficult to find a fault with it. The walking is varied; from easy promenading between Riomaggiore and Manarola to the (literally) breath-taking climbs between Corniglia and Vernazza and Monterosso. The views are stunning, the food is delicious, the wine’s OK (not to my particular taste, I prefer red) getting around is easy and cheap but the people are either fellow visitors or somewhat diffident locals (but who can blame them with so many tourists traipsing through there beautiful villages). I would not want to be here in the high summer season though, it would be just too hot and crowded.
Stayed at the beautiful La Torretta, at the top of Manarola by the church.

Two years ago we drove from Nice to Siena in a motorhome. We travelled along this coast on the mountain motorway (autostrade) and saw some tiny intriguing fishing villages way below us. We didn’t then know what they were; it was a drive of discovery for us so we hadn’t planed just where we would go, rather hope to be surprised by what we came across. But as the decent to the coast looked too precarious for our oversized motor van we never ventured down. We did have a fabulous time driving around Tuscany but when we got back I looked up these coastal villages, they are called Cinque Terra (Riomaggiore, Corniglia, Vernazza, Monterosso and Manarola); I immediately regretted not having gone down those cliff roads. Someday we’ll go back to visit them, I just hope that they do not disappoint. We are currently in Florence but just do not have the time for this visit right now.