We Wander — Mark & Meghan’s World Travels

Our first stop in Italy was on the northwest coast — we spent two nights in Manarola, one of the five villages of the Cinque Terre. Once again the weather was fantastic, and on the day we hiked the trail connecting the five villages it was sunny and hot. The hiking was very different from the trails we had just been on in the Swiss Alps. Instead of having to pack our bags with lunch and extra clothing, we grabbed the camera and a water bottle and set out knowing that there would be villages full of pizza and focaccia breads and gelato along the way.

Cinque Terre (pronounced Chink-weh Terra) consists of five villages precariously perched on the cliffs and hillsides of the Mediterranean coast. For hundreds of years the land surrounding the villages has, quite remarkably, been cultivated and harvested by hand. The work done by man to modify the surrounding landscapes is what makes this area so unique. Retaining walls have been built stone-by-stone to transform the cliffs into rich, terraced farmland, whose produce is unique and specific to that region. The area has been deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site and work is being done to recover the terraced landscape and maintain the farmlands.

The trail meanders along the Italian coast. Along the way, we passed through terraces planted with lemons, olives and grapes. We also passed a few more tourists than we did in Switzerland, but it was definitely a good thing that we were there outside of high season. The trail is extremely narrow at some points near the north end, and it would have been really awkward had we run into hundreds of people going in the other direction. The trail really transforms in difficulty as it moves north as well. The very south end is like a sidewalk, complete with paving stones and benches. By contrast, the north end is full of elevation changes, and the trail is often dirt and rough stone stairs. It’s enough to put you out of breath, but nowhere near the level of difficulty of many of the other hikes we’d done up to that point. Mostly it was a beautiful walk through some really interesting landscapes and villages. One of the coolest things that we saw along the way were these harvesting cars mounted on tiny rails that climbed up and down the terraced hillside. We didn’t get to see one in operation, but I would have loved to. Looking at the rails, I found it hard to believe that they would actually hold up under any sort of weight. It would have been nice to see them tested out.

The whole hike took about 6 hours or so, and that includes time for lunch in Vernazza, gelato in Monterosso, and a really, really refreshing swim in the Mediterranean. Our route went north from Manarola to Monterosso, where we caught a train back to the south end and hiked from Riomaggiore back to Manarola. The water was beautiful to look at and swim in — clear and blue, and just the right temperature to cool off in after sweating in the sun all afternoon.

We arrived back in Manarola in time to watch the sunset on the waterfront. We also watched as the local fishermen lowered their boats into the water to head out for the evening catch. The fishermen’s catches were bought by local restaurant owners as soon as it was brought ashore. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to try the fresh seafood, though, as we were too excited to get our hands and mouths on some Italian pizza. The pizza we ended up getting was only mediocre, so in hindsight we might have gone the other way. Oh well — I always liked the saying I heard somewhere, that “pizza is like life; even when it’s bad, it’s good”.