Europe 2008 Part 23

Cinque Terre

 

 Another 45 minutes train trip later we reached Riomaggiore, the southernmost village of the five coastal hamlets that make up the Cinque Terre World Heritage Area.

We looked at a couple of small apartments before taking one for the two days we had allowed for this part of the world.

Here is our view towards the Mediterranean: the rooms were at the top of the building, four floors up, and we looked straight across the narrow valley into the windows of our neighbours:

 

 

 We explored the village in the evening, had a fish meal at a local restaurant about ten paces from our flat, and looked forward to the next day's exploration.

The walking-track, very similar in surface to the walkway at home, is called the Via d'Amore (Love Road).

Here is the view north from Rio Maggiore towards the next little place, Manarola.

 

 

 

 

 Between Manarola and the next village, on the top of a ridge, called Corniglia, we fell in with one of our train-companions from the trip back from Milan to Genoa, and walked for some distance with her. She and her friend were doing a bit of sight-seeing before heading home to the US.

At Corniglia, we called in to the local church.  It was Sunday and mass was in progress. We sat and soaked up a different atmosphere for a few minutes as the villagers worshipped, and then caught a train back to Riomaggiore for lunch.

Later in the afternoon we took the train through to the northernmost village, Monterosa, and then back to Vernazza, between Monterosa and Corniglia, before we trained home for dinner.

Here is the Church at Vernazza from the breakwater, where fishing boats were pulled up and many families were enjoying an afternoon in the sun under umbrellas in  the square.

 

 

 These villages are all close enough together to walk the whole way, but we reneged and took the train. So did a lot of other people; the trains, which ran all day, were packed.