Departing Pisa, we made our way up the coast to the city of La Spezia and then headed across to the Cinqueterre. These five small towns developed in relative isolation, connected only by a network of trails and then later by railroad. The land rises straight out of the water in this region so the towns are nestled into small ravines or cling to the cliffs and bluffs. They are now part of a national park, crisscrossed by hiking trails. We stayed in Manarola, the second town as counted from east to west. We stayed in the same rooming house we visited six years ago. Below is a picture taken from the window of our room.
The brightly painted houses are a signature of this region. The house we stayed at, not visible in the picture for obvious reasons, is the only purple house in town. The steeply sloped hillsides are terraced in such a way that would put even the Peruvians to shame. The principal crop of the region is grapes and we had several bottles of very nice, local, vino bianco. On the terraces to the right, they normally have a cross and the illuminated word “pace” (peace). Since we were there during holy week (we departed on Good Friday) they set up a series of figures for the Stations of the Cross.
During our previous visit it was full tourist season under a blazing August sun. This trip was far more laid back with weather that was just right for walking. In the view of the “harbor” below you can see a path bounded by a railing heading off some 20 meters above the water. This is the part of the primary path which connects the five towns.
Unfortunately, this sentiero basso, or lower trail, is not open due to a series of washouts which occurred during heavy rain last fall. That means, if you want to walk you have to walk through the mountains on the sentieri alti, or upper trails. The lower path to Corniglia, the third town, would normally take half an hour or less to walk. The upper path took almost three hours. You climb almost 400 meters at a pitch of close to 35 degrees then walk along the narrow terraces of grapes. The view is spectacular! At one point we had a view of Manarola to our left and Corniglia to our right.
The weather was … interesting… to say the least. The dark gray layer at the top of this picture is the cloud layer. While Corniglia is darkened by clouds, beyond it you can see the sun on the next bit of shore visible.
The bottom of the clouds was actually lower than us and at one point we were walking through it.
By the time we descended into Corniglia, it was sunny there as well. We lunched in Corniglia and then took the three minute train ride back to Manarola. I kid you not, 3 minutes instead of 3 hours, although they accomplished that by doing the entire trip underground in a tunnel. We spent two nights in Manarola and then returned to Viterbo to rest and get ready for the final push to the end of the school year.
All of the guidebooks tell a tale of five isolated towns, connected only by walking paths and a train. That was certainly the way it was years ago, but it is now a complete fabrication. Roads connect all of the towns in the hills above as I discovered while hiking the last time we were there. There is very limited parking, in Manarola there are no more than 60 pay spaces, so they can’t come any way near handling the huge influx of tourists who visit if they all drove. However, residents all have cars parked outside the limited access area and it is no more than 20 minutes drive from Manarola to a very large city (La Spezia). As it was the off season, we were able to snag a space with no problem. In fact, they weren’t even bothering to collect parking fees so we saved the 20 euros a day they would normally charge. If you arrive by train and spend all your time walking along the sentiero basso, then you might never realize the truth. However, once you start walking the sentieri alti the illusion is gone. The moral of the story is, if you visit and want the myth, stick to the lower path which will hopefully be repaired sometime soon.
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