The weather has not improved on the Cinque Terre, torrential rain is pouring from the sky, the hiking tracks in the hills are closed as are all the ferry sailings. The Operator ventured forth for coffee and pastries for breakfast and popped into the railway station for a timetable. Brave souls were out and about in the terrible weather seeing the sights of our wee town so we thought we had better make a move ourselves.
Rain coated up off we headed to the next town of Manarola, As the crow flies it is less than a kilometer away over steep vertical cliff and hills. Lucky for us all of the Cinque Terre villages are linked by a regular railway system, mostly comprised of tunnels bored through the cliff, the tracks were put in place in the early 1900s, this caused more people to be able to easily leave the area resulting in a population decline. In the 1970s people started to appreciate the remote lifestyle and so began the tourist boom.
We reached Manarola within 4 mins of train travel…the towns seem to have a tidal flow of people as well as the ocean, whenever the train arrives, pretty much every hour, hundreds of visitors disgorge into the small towns and you fight your way into the main street. It was still raining pretty heavily when we arrived but we had a plan, we were going against the flow of people which naturally walk downhill to the harbor….we were going uphill…
… not Rosies natural choice but we were heading to Trattoria dal Billy which happens to be in the highest part of the village. This Trattoria has been recommended to us by so many people from NZ that have been there and it is the NO 1 place to eat in Manarola, so says Tripadvisor, Rosies trusted travel authority. We had booked a table and trudged to the door breathless (well Rosie anyway) from the uphill climb totally saturated from the rain…it was heaving down, don’t be fooled by the blue sky in the picture right, there is Billy in the blue hat.
We had a lovely window seat at Billy’s, this is the view from it below, and, we were the first to arrive for lunch, the place filled up and plenty got turned away. Billy himself was working front of house, photos of his fishing escapades lined the walls of the trattoria and it was one of the best meals we have ever had! A 12 course seafood appetiser to start, it is raining what else did we have to do, gamberoni taglietelli to finish and a wee bit too much wine for lunchtime. My knee sure felt fine going down hill afterwards…and the sun was weakly shining, me thinks the weather is on the turn, yay.
From the window at Billys we looked down over the rooftops of the village, the steep hillside lay before us and it is a pretty picture of steep cut out terraces that hold tiny vineyards, lemon groves and olive trees on its tenuous topsoil. Some of the gardens are so steep it is amazing how they are tended. One guy we were speaking to said his vineyard produced only 1500 litres of wine a year and he was as proud as anything, he sold his wine to the local restaurants only and there is so many local tipples to be had from guys just like this one who have small holdings that they tend themselves and make their own wine from start to finish.
The rain showers were off and on for the rest of the afternoon, Manarola is pretty much like our wee town, it too has a fishing harbor and is as pretty as a picture.
We took the train back to Riomaggiore, the weather had turned again and it was back to torrential rain…Rosie and The Operator hope it blows itself out overnight.
It did, by the morning, the sky was clear, and there were remnants of an inflatable boat in the harbor that had slipped its moorings overnight and had been dashed to pieces on the rocks. We were out and about early to make the most of the day. We took the train to Monterroso al Mare, the biggest and the most further away of the 5 villages.
This town is pretty much built on the flat and is really pleasant and easy to navigate. It is a little more beach resorty, and is the only village with a shingle beach where you can lounge under a sun umbrella and safely swim. It is also the only village in the Cinque Terre with a natural harbor. No one was braving the water or sitting under an umbrella today, it is the end of the summer season and we were told that most places here were shutting up shop for the winter as of next week.
We wandered along the board walk to the castle. All of the towns have a castle as part of the communes defences back in the 13th century, if the town was under threat by Turkish pirates the town would rally behind the walls until it was safe again. This town seemed the least interesting and the least real, it seemed a little too perfect and well constructed for the tourists.
The ferries had just started running after being out of service for the past 3 days due to the bad weather, The Operator was gutted because the hiking tracks were still closed because they were too wet. So, we thought we would see the villages from the sea and catch the ferry home instead of the train.
The ferry is quite a large boat, the harbours are quite deep and the ferry nudges up to the stone harbour, drops a gangplank that has wheels on the front and the people pile in…as the sea surges the gang plank rolls with it, very unnerving getting on and off. From the sea you get a great wind blown view of the villages from up on the passenger top deck.
Vernazza
Corniglia – this is the only village in the Cinque Terre without a harbor, it looks so exposed perched on its clifftop.
Manarola
Riomaggiore from the sea coming into dock……
getting closer…..The day has cleared nicely and we explore a little more of our village, we take a hike up to the top of the road to the cemetery, everyone seems to be cremated and put in little niches.
There is a rolling high ladder so you can safely change the flowers from the top rows which would be about 4 meters high. You can see the cemetery from our terrace and it emits a weird glow in the dark….alot of the niche fronts have an eternal flame on them that harnesses a solar glow during the night.
The visit to the Cinque Terre has been slow, it is not a fast paced place to be. It was bad luck visiting when the weather has been so terrible and it has put an end to some of the plans we have made and journeys we hoped to achieve. We are glad we stopped and experienced this part of the world and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone else visiting this area.
Tomorrow we are on our way to Tuscany, Rosie and The Operator do enjoy this area for its beauty, grace and charm. It is a polished jewel in Italy’s crown and the autumn change should make this area look splendid. Ciao.
