The Cinque Terre

Thursday, September 9 - Sunday, September 12 2010

This past Thursday was Fasting Geneva, our first official holiday as Swiss residents.  We opted to take a vacation day on Friday to make it an extended weekend trip and then took off Wednesday afternoon for Italy.

We've heard great things from multiple people about the Cinque Terre, an ancient region (dates back to the 12th century) in northwest Italy.  'Cinque Terre' roughly translates to 'five lands', and much like the translation suggests, is a group of five villages (Monterrosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore) which are uniquely perched on the rocky coast of the Mediterranean. The area is known for their grapes vineyards and their freshly caught seafood. One of the most recognizable features of the region are the hiking paths that link the five villages for easy exploration by foot. It is a warm weather destination so we wanted to get there before the end of summer. Apparently we chose a pretty ideal time because we missed the swarms of tourists, typical in July and August, but still had great weather to enjoy the outdoor activities.

View from our rental apartment

By train it is a 7-8 hour trip from Geneva with a layover in Milan.  We arrived in La Spezia late Wednesday evening for a quick overnight stay. Thursday morning we trained into Riomaggiore, the southern most of the five towns, as this is where we would stay for the weekend.  Our accommodations were small and simple, in a perfect location, and even included a nice little terrace with a harbor view (the video below shows more of our view) -- perfect for relaxing in the evening with some delicious Italian wine and cheese.  Luckily we were able to check in and drop off our luggage right away and start to explore.

We didn't plan any hiking for Thursday because the forecast called for thunderstorms and the trails often close under wet conditions.  It sounds strange, but we were actually glad that it was stormy on Thursday because the large waves crashing into the coastline were quite the site. Ironically, the guide books actually recommend coming to the area in the wintertime to catch one of these storms. We have a feeling that the one we experienced was fairly tame compared to those referenced in the books, but it was still exciting. Even though the seas were rough, it only rained briefly in the morning so we were still able to explore the different towns at a leisurely pace.  It was during a leisurely stroll in Vernazza when one of the most unexpected things happened...

Warren and Kitty

If you remember in our Matterhorn post we mentioned meeting Warren and Kitty, a wonderful couple from Denver whose grandson, Tim, was climbing the Matterhorn last Sunday. It's a small world afterall-- we ran into them out of nowhere walking through the town of Vernazza!  Out of all the places for either of us to be, we happen to run into them in a tiny village in Italy!  So random-- we had no idea that they planned to travel from Switzerland to Italy, nor had they known our weekend plans. Come to find out they have a couple more weeks in Europe (this time around we verified that we aren't going to be in any of the same places over the next two weeks). For this portion of their trip, they were traveling with their friends, Hans and Ellen, from The Netherlands. The six of us enjoyed a great dinner together on Thursday night and look forward to keeping in touch.  Small, small world.

Friday was our hiking day. The main trail that links the five villages is known to take 4-5 hours from end to end. We started in Riomaggiore at around 10:00 and finished in Monterroso at around 4:30, although about half of that time was spent dinking around the towns as we passed through. The scenery is incredible and the towns are ridiculously picturesque (our favorite shots are below).  The trail wasn't too tough but at the same time we probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much in the heat of August (it was about 80 degrees for us).

On Saturday we shifted gears again, this time to focus on the water. We found "Angelo's Boat Tour", recommended as the #1 activity in the Cinque Terre according to TripAdvisor.com (part of the Expedia, Inc family-- just a shameless plug :) ).  The tour consisted of 5 hours out on the Mediterranean swimming, snorkeling, exploring sea caves, cliff jumping and taking in the fantastic scenery. We petted a live jellyfish as it swam next to us-- Angelo assured us that it wasn't the stinging type (we believed him after he threw one the size of a basketball at Ang, haha), luckily he was right, and it surprisingly felt quite rubbery. The afternoon on the boat also provided us with views of each village from the sea, which was quite pretty. They ended the tour with a delicious lunch on the boat consisting of freshly caught seafood and local specialties. It was quite the treat and would recommend it to anyone.  You can see us in action in the video below.

Hayden and Grace

One of the best parts of the tour was meeting people from across the world in an the intimate setting of a 10-person boat tour. We met some great people from Australia, Ireland and the U.S. and hit it off particularly well with one couple from North Carolina, Hayden and Grace, who were on their first European vacation. We had so much fun with them that we had dinner together later that night. We never thought that traveling would be such a social event for us but it is always a pleasant surprise meeting new people and sharing our experience together.

Unfortunately our time in the Cinque Terre ended too soon but we're happy to take great memories and new friendships back to Geneva with us.