Cinque Terre – June 1, 2023
Jun 15th, 2023 by rallyadmin
We decided last night that we would use the train to visit the towns in the Cinque Terre, The train gave us much better options for the day.
The issue with using the boat is that the boat left at 9:00 AM and stopped at each of the towns and then followed a schedule for departure and travel to the next town. If you wanted to cut the trip short there was no way to come back except buying a ticket for the train and abandoning the boat. I just gave more options to use the train.
The good news is that the train station was less than a kilometer from the apartment. We walk back to the main drag, take right turn and walk a few hundred meters to the turn off for the train station. Up the road to the station and follow a woman into the station. She turns around and asks if we need to get tickets. Next door.
There’s a ticket window with a couple of people running credit cards and issuing tickets. I’m sure that there are trains here that go other places than the Cinque Terre towns but you’d never know it. Ticket after ticket for the 5 villages. Out to the platform and a few minutes later the train appears and we off a few minutes later for the first town on the list.
The first village is Monterosso. It’s about 10 minutes on the train. The train stops and most of the people on board get off followed by a large group getting on the train to move to the next town.
We step out of the train station and out on to the promenade of a long beach with umbrellas and deck chairs. We head up the promenade to a point overlooking the beach and a small harbor on the other side of the point.
Walk down into the piazza and head up the hill to a small church, oddly constructed of alternating black and white rows of stone. Inside the church, there’s a small model of the Nativity meticulously crafted in fine detail.
Then farther up the hill in search of a tower overlooking the town. We end up in a large enclosed cemetery filled with above ground crypts, some dating back to the early 1800’s and many in the 1940’s. We don’t find the tower and head back down the hill on a winding, narrow road.
We stop on the way down at a closed restaurant and chat a bit with a couple there who are checking the restaurant menu for future use. Then farther down the road we pass a couple going up the road dragging their luggage. Good luck. The road just gets steeper as it gets higher.
Down in piazza, take in the church, another constructed of alternating black and white rows of stone. Head back to the point through a road tunnel that cuts off a fair bit of climbing and a fair distance to boot. We stop at a restaurant on the way back down the promenade and have a couple of sandwiches for a snack and then we head back to the train station to move on to the next town.
The next stop is Bernazza. The train stops, we and most of the passengers that got back on the train in Monterosso, get off and head through a long tunnel that runs from the train station to the town proper. At the end of the tunnel we turn left and head down the main street through the now much larger crowd of tourists past the restaurants, galeteria and souvenir shops to the small harbor at the end of the street. The harbor has a few small fishing boats but it seems that fishing isn’t the big business here. Tourism is.
We’re looking for the way to the Doria Castelo. Eventually we find a sign pointing us up a steep, narrow set of stairs. Up, up, up. The stairs seem to get steeper and more narrow as we get higher and the people coming down stop to let us continue climbing when we really want to stop and let the continue descending.
We come to the inevitable ticket office. It would probably be better to have the ticket window at the bottom so that they wouldn’t miss the people who give up on the climb. The smiling, friendly woman who sells the tickets indicates that we’re almost to the top. Lies! All lies!
Well, not really. There’s not much climbing left but it’s still climbing until we reach the stone platform that makes up the base of the castelo and the tower. The view from up here really is breathtaking. The town and the hills in one direction and the small harbor and the sea in the other direction.
Barbara climbs the tower and pops her head over this side while taking some pics. I pass on the climb. The long climb to the base of the tower hasn’t done anything good for my aggravated knee. I stay down and take more pics from the castelo base.
Back down to the staircase which still seems steep and narrow. We pop out at the harbor and head back up the main drag looking for a restaurant for lunch. Along the way, I take a picture of a stairway leading up to a house that seems even steeper than the stairway to the tower.
After a short wait we get a table in one of the restaurants on the main drag. Then back up the hill to the tunnel to the train platform for the ride to the next town. The train stops, the passengers get off and the crowd with us all try to get on the train through the nearest door.
I motion to Barbara to follow me up to the next door which is open but empty. I get on, put the little day pack that we have been carrying down, the train doors close and we’re off. With no Barbara in sight.
Hopefully Barbara has gotten on through the previous door. I pick up the day pack and head back through the train looking for Barbara. No Barbara. The next train car is a double-decked car. I head up the stairs to the upper deck to look for her. No joy.
On my way back down the stairs a woman asks, in English, if I’m looking for someone. “Yes, my wife. We seem to have gotten separated getting on the train.” She points me to the lower deck of the car and there’s Barbara sitting there using her phone to text me. It seems that everyone in the area knows that we are looking for each and smile when we find each other. This “old and helpless” look really works some time.
We get off at Manarola, the next town. We get off and leave the train platform, head down into the town down what’s become the standard little street past the standard restaurants, gelateria and souvenir shops to the standard little harbor. We stop at a raised platform that overlooks a few rock that some teenagers are jumping off.
The rock that they are climbing and then jumping off is probably only 5 meters high and there is one boy who climbs up over and over again to jump off. Between jumps he tries to get a young girl to jump but she gets to the edge and then retreats at the last moment. This tease goes on until the boy jumps again and then climbs back up again to try to get the girl to jump once again.
This goes on for about 20 minutes and then we lose interest. It’s pretty obvious that the girl isn’t going to jump and the boy isn’t going to stop trying to get her to jump. Back up the street to the train station.
We’ve done three of the towns and we’re ready to head back. It’s a fun side trip but it’s charm has worn off and we’re getting tired from the crowds and the sun. Back on the train to the station in Levantro and then back to the apartment.
Barbara had worried when she was planning the trip that these 2 days would be too touristy but the stay ended up just about right. Especially, the apartment which had a small rooftop lounge area for some peaceful reading in a lounger.
Later, it’s a quick dinner on the pedestrian mall and an early night. Tomorrow, Pisa and San Gimignano.
Obi-wan