CINQUE TERRE

The Cinque Terre is a series of five little fishing villages (Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, Monterosso) set along the coast. This is a world heritage site and you can walk a track all the way along. Starting from the most eastern end, the track is very easy. It is a wide cobble path filled with older overweight American tourists. As you go from villiage to village it gets progressively harder, until between the last to villages the track is a goat track. Very, very narrow, and almost vertical in places. But the sights are worth it. Walking through tracks experiencing amazing beauty. Through narrow village streets (1.5 m wide). Front doors opening directly onto the street. These villages are set precariously into the sides of rocky lumps of land. You would have to be really determined to live here. It makes you wonder why their ancestors chose these places to settle. You know when get to the end village, because that is the most commercial. Lots of expensive restaurants, and as we heard, an English tourist looking for ‘Fish ‘n’ chips’!
But let’s go back to the start of the day. We were told that the easiest way to get there from where we were was to get the bus to the La Spezia train station, and then catch the train to Riomaggiore. We wrongly assumed that the bus would go to the train station. It didn’t. After an hour on the bus were back in the general central area of La Spezia. We got off the bus and tried to find the train station without a map. After asking lots of directions we finally got there after another hour and circumnavigating the city. Of course the train left while we were in the queue for the tickets. Once we got onto the train it only took ten minutes to get there.
But once there it was well worth it. Once again the way we start the day usually seems to be more then compensated by what we get to experience. This really is a wonderful adventure.
Trying to find the bus home again at night was another adventure.