Marilyn's Odyssey: Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre is composed of five towns which each fill a ravine along the coast. In medieval times each town had their own castle where lookouts watched for pirates arriving fron North Africa. This was a problem until the 1400's. Since then the residents of each town have prospered with the plentiful fishing and grapes for wine production. This area is now very popular for hiking and relaxing. Trains and ferries join the five towns. Until 2011 all the towns were joined with costal trails but in 2011 the area had 22 inches af rain in 4 hours which caused great flooding and landslides which wiped out most of the trail system. Locals put their money and effort into restoring their towns so most of these trails have not yet opened. Even though one can not do a lot of hiking each hillside village is a delight to explore and the multitude of hills give one a good workout. The castles in each village sit high on the hills and are wonderful vantage points. The ferry system is great but certainly would not meet our safty standards. Clumsy me did make it through without any mishaps.

We stayed in Monterosso in a delightful family run hotel. The owner did everything along with his staff including clearing breakfast tables and serving as bar tender. Joys of entrepreneurship. The old town was full of delightful little shops and restaurants spilling out onto the street. We chose to explore the towns by ferry so we started the day sailing down to Riomaggiore. Very much an active fishing town the Main Street is lined with fishing dowries instead of cars. A charming step back in time. Colouful frescos still exist on some of the walls depicting the life of those who lived and worked here hundreds of years ago. The next town of Manarola was our favorite with the winding steep streets lined with boats at the lower levels and leading up to fabulous views. We walked a short part of the trail here until we came to the Danger Keep Out signs which were reinforced wit)h gates. Enjoying a delicious seafood spaghetti on the shore of the ocean was delightful. The third town,Corniglia sits high up on a cliff and is not access able by boat so we next visited Vernazza which is overseen by a decaying castle and an old stone church. Though some consider this to be e jewel of the Cinque Terre we found it much less inviting than the others. Perhaps because it was hardest hit by the floods may be why we found it to be shabbier and less appealing. Having said that we loved the whole area and felt like we were exisiting in a postcard world.