Cinque Terre

6^th July 2011

We have been to Italy quite a few times and have always been told by others that we should visit Cinque Terre, the 5 little cliff hanging villages just west of La Spezia. In Rapallo there is a boat tour that takes in the whole area and lands in 3 of the villages for long enough to have a good look around.

The thought of seeing it all from the ocean, also had immediate appeal, as both road and rail transport along the coast spends at least half of the time in tunnels. The distance by sea to the furthest east of the villages appears to be about 30nm.

The boat left Rapallo at 9am and headed east. We picked up further passengers in Chiavari, which had a sizeable marina and cruising boats anchored offshore, with plenty of people in the water on the beach.

Chiavari

Next stop was Lavagna, a very large marina with plenty of room. It also boats the largest beach on this coast.

The beach at Lavagna

Lavagna Marina

It was then on to Sesti Lavante. This was a real test of the captain’s skills, as to get to the wharf he had to pass through a long line of boats either side of the passage on bow and stern moorings. Clearance was only a few metres each side.

Berthing the boat at Sesti Levante

We now had our full complement of passengers and headed off to Cinque Terre, passing all of the villages along the way with our first stop for 1 hour at Riomaggiore, the most easterly village of the 5.

The trip along the coast only serves to reinforce the ruggedness of this coastline with the mountains coming right to the sea.

Like all of these villages, it is built on rugged country, with a tiny little “harbor”, suitable only for very small fishing boats. The “wharf” for the tour boats is a concrete platform facing the ocean, they come in gingerly nose first, and desperately get some lines on before hitting reverse to hold the boat in place whilst a boarding platform is launched from the bow, and people clamber off. It is not always possible for the tours to go ahead if the wind is too strong as it would be too dangerous to try to berth the boat. The scenery  in Riomaggiore is spectacular, and the village full of little restaurants, and lots of shops selling everything from fresh produce, wine, clothing and the usual tourist rubbish. But overall, it is a very nice place. We spent our hour exploring the town from top to bottom.

Location of the villages of Cinque Terre

Riomaggiore from the sea

Berthing and going ashore is precarious

The small boat harbour

Looking up into the village

Entering the village from the sea

                                             The local produce looks delicious

The boat left on time an hour after arrival for our next stop, Monterosso, it is the most westerly of the five villages. On the way we passed Manarola, Corniglia, and Vernazza (which we will visit last). All of the villages are famous for their wine production. We have already sampled one in Rapallo and look forward to trying another with lunch.

Monterosso "New town" with a popular beach

Monterosso "Old town" with a small harbour

The fishing fleet in the harbour off the old town

Lunch was very good

The beach was very popular

Monterosso, is a larger place with the village divided in two by a headland. The old village is on one side, and the new village (and more beaches on the other). Our stopover here is for 3 hours ( I think to let the boat crew have their siesta). After a look around for half an hour or so, we found a nice little wine bar in the village and settled in for lunch of antipasti, mixed bruschetta and a bottle of white wine from Corniglia. All of it was excellent.

After lunch we wandered around to see the rest of the village, but in the end looked for a shady spot to rest and enjoy a gelato.

Last stop was Venazza, once again we made the precarious landing off the bow of the boat, but the village had a lovely little harbor, quite protected but good for small boats only. We wandered around the streets of yet another very pretty village and the decided to climb up to the castle to get the best view possible of the town. It was well worth the steep climb.

Approaching Venazza from the sea

It had the best small boat harbour and a beach i n front of the town

It was very hot so there were plenty of people on the beach

The harbour from Doria Castle

The rock that the boat berths at taken from the castle

It was now 4.45pm and the boat departed to return home, back through the ports where we had picked up others until we were eventually back in Rapallo at 6.15pm.

Overall it was a fantastic day, and whilst the weather started out a bit overcast, it had cleared by noon and we continued to have great weather.

It is our last night in Rapallo and tomorrow we drive to Milan and fly to HK via London.