The Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre (which means "five lands") is on Italy's northwest coast. It consists of five villages nestled between the Mediterranean Sea and the rugged, terraced hillsides that tower above them. No cars are allowed in these villages so if you drive, you have to park your car at the top of the hills and walk down, luggage and all. The five towns are (from northwest to southeast): Monterosso al Mare (the largest), Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. The villages are linked by a train, a ferry, and a spectacular yet somewhat difficult hiking trail.

We left on Friday after work….Aggie and myself, along with my buddy Robert and his lady friend Alexandra. We headed out to Hahn, Germany for our Ryanair flight to Milan, Italy. We were meeting up with Darren and Nicole Ludwig (great friends from Chicago) who were beginning a 2 week trip of Europe. From Milan, we were catching a train to the Cinque Terre village Vernazza.

On Friday, we took off with no problems at 8:30pm and arrived at our hotel in Milan around 11:30pm. Nicole and Darren were at a watering hole across the street and welcomed us right away. We were starving (and thirsty!) after our flight so we grabbed some late night dinner…nothing like homemade Italian pizza and pasta accompanied by a cold beer at midnight!!

The area by our hotel was pretty cool and there were lots of people out. Basically, instead of beer gardens, there are bars lining the streets and people just stand in the sidewalks drinking and hanging out. It was a good atmosphere.

Our train left at 7:20am the next day and we got to Cinque Terre in about 4 hours. The scenery and view of Cinque Terre was something I have never seen before. It was truly amazing.
Each village looked pretty similar but had a few things that were unique enough that you could remember them by. All of them had basically one main road (more or less a wide sidewalk) that led to the top of its respective hill. Each place had an intimate, quaint feeling, with a few restaurants, one or two grocery stores, etc.

We got off the train in Vernazza and walked down the small street to our hotel. Along this “road” were 15 or so shops total. Laundry was hanging out of many windows, older locals were busy sweeping and getting their shops ready for the day, there were some tourists walking and there were a few random cats and dogs running around (no strays like Sardina though). The homes were so colorful and built into the hillside…It was an amazing sight!

We got to the bottom of the hill and took in the view. There was a main square with 4 restaurants, 2 or 3 gelato/sandwich shops, some row boats in the bay area (no real motor boats) and a small beach. The ocean was crashing into the rocks and some people were swimming or out sun bathing.

We called our hotel contact because we did not see a sign for our hotel. We found out though that people basically just rent out apartments for really reasonable prices and live in the same location. Our owner lived across the hall from us! He was an awesome guy and just had to love his life. Stress free and relaxed, wearing a button down dress shirt with board shorts and flip flops….sweet. He was very helpful and friendly.

We got our keys and the room was great! We had a common sitting area and then 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Perfect. Then, we headed out to explore. We grabbed lunch on the pier and after lunch Robert and I thought we would be dare devils and swim in the sea….well, it was a little different than just swimming. Getting in was easy…getting out was a little different. We had seen these kids jumping in off the pier and then when the waves would come in, they would try to basically scale the wall and let the waves lift them up and out of the water. It looked so easy…two finely tuned athletes like me and Robert could easily do this too, right??

As you will see from the pictures, we struggled! There was one point where the waves lifted me up, I started to pull myself up, and then the waves REALLY let back out to the sea (I’m talking like 10 foot swells, easily) and there I was hanging from the side of this pier!! You can see on of the pictures where my hands were just hanging on to the wall! When it became apparent that this could last all day, I ended up using the ladder to get out and walking over to the edge to pull Robert out. After that incident, we went over to the bay and swam by the boats, which was much more relaxing.

After the swim, we thought we would go for a hike. We were staying in the second village so we wanted to hike to and from the first village that day and then conquer the other 3 the next. It was around 2pm so we headed out. To get to the trail, we actually walked to the third floor of our building, walked out the door and, bam!, there was the trail that lead you through our village! These places really were built into the sides of the hills…

The journey from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare was TOUGH! We were not expecting the hike to be as difficult as it was…you were seriously on the edge of cliffs, climbing over rocks, etc. There were some areas where “stairs” were formed from rocks and there were a few downhill spots. However, it was mostly an uphill battle that took about 2 hours. The view was worth it though!

When we got to Monerosso we walked around a bit and this village was actually the liveliest of the five. There was a decent size beach area and several restaurants. We grabbed some drinks and ice cream at a bar overlooking the sea, relaxing our legs. We then realized it was getting close to 6pm and we wanted to head back before it got too dark on the trail. What was amazing is that it took us only about an hour to get back! After the first little part, almost all of the trail was down hill.

Before we all rested and showered up, Ag and I headed to a wine shop and got some local red wine and a few plastic Dixie cups. It is very common, I guess, in Cinque Terre to buy a bottle of wine and just ask for it to be opened then and there and for the cups from which to drink it. We enjoyed a few glasses and then we all met in the plaza area for dinner.

Dinner turned out kind of funny. When we got the wine, we realized there were 4 places in the plaza with seats outside and where we could eat dinner. As a group, all 6 of us walked up to 3 of 4 places but none had any available tables. We went to the last place and it was the only restaurant that didn’t have anyone sitting outside and eating! We were skeptical, but we didn’t have too many other options so we sat down.

We ordered and things were going well….we were all really happy, tired and just amazed at how hard and yet how awesome our hike was…. my and Darren’s appetizer comes….we all talk more. It’s a beautiful evening and a great breeze is blowing, etc. Then everyone’s food came out except for mine and Darren’s. The group was being polite and waiting, but after about 5 minutes of waiting, we told everyone to just go ahead and start eating…no point in their food getting cold. That turned out to be a good call because I think they were literally rolling my pasta and catching Darren’s prawns!

Everyone was done and finished for about 10 minutes and then our meals came. Ridiculous. I do have to say though, it may have been some of the best pasta I have ever tasted. Definitely 100% hand made and you could tell. It was extremely good.

After dinner we walked up the street to get some gelato and then retired for the night. When we went to bed, we had the windows open and you could just hear the waves crashing into the shore. Very peaceful.

Ah, the night….well, at 2:45am we were woken up by one of the loudest alarm systems I have ever heard. It went off for about 2 minutes and then stopped. I tiptoed to the window to look out and saw a few guys putting down the restaurant umbrellas, cleaning up, etc. We could hear them shouting back and forth to each other, and they sounded kind of serious, but we had no idea what was going on because they were of course speaking Italian.

Then, the alarm started going off again for about 15-20 minutes and honestly, we thought we were going to die. It was like the Germans were bombing the village. I half expected to see ninjas scaling down ropes from menacing black helicopters and raiding the square (I was also half asleep, so cut me some slack). Agnes honestly thought that someone was trying to climb a ladder and into our window! During the time this alarm was going off, all the lights in the town would cut out and it would be pitch black. Then a flash of lightening, then a huge roll of thunder, then the lights would come back on, one at a time…then off, etc, etc. A few minutes later, one of the worst thunderstorms I have ever seen blew into the area. Sheets of rain were coming down (it was like sea water was just being scooped up…by the Germans and ninjas, of course…and dumped into the village) and finally, the alarm stopped. Were we dreaming or what? What was going on?? Finally, we fell back to sleep. The next day we confirmed we were not dreaming as Darren and Nicole witnessed the alarm too. However, somehow Robert and Alexandra, who were staying in a hotel just a few houses down from ours, heard nothing.

Anyway, the next day we all woke up and had coffee and croissants in the square. We then mentally prepared for our hike southeast to the next 3 villages. It was a beautiful day! The sun was shining, people were out and about, it was awesome.

We left Vernazza around 10:30am and got to Corniglia in about an hour. Corniglia sits on a cliff and doesn’t go to the bottom of the hills so the climb wasn’t awful. Actually, the first part of the trail was pretty intense but once you reached eye-level with the village you were good to go. The path was also a bit shaded but you definitely had to be careful because there were some slick rocks from the rain the night before.

This was probably the smallest village out of the 5 and very quiet and quaint. It seriously had MAYBE 5 places to go into and that is including 2 restaurants, a grocery store, etc. We then left Corniglia and walked to Manarola. The hike wasn’t bad at all, maybe 30 minutes at the most because it was mostly downhill and the path was paved. This village had lots going on and 4 or 5 really good looking places to eat.

We walked into a small sandwich shop and when we came out, we ran into our friends, Jacob and Annette Cooper, who were doing a 2 week Italy/Tuscany car drive. Small world huh??
Manarola had a swimming area and people were jumping off the rocks and into the sea (no beach). Of course Robert and I felt we had to jump in. The water was crystal clear and just looked so inviting (although being able to see the rocks in the water and not being 100% sure if it was deep enough was a bit scary)!

Anyways, it was fun stuff, and as we were dare deviling, we got to see a pretty cool peculiarity for this town. As mentioned, there was no beach. So how do people get their row boats out of the water? As you will see from the pictures, you row your boat into this little area and then a crane is lowered down about 50 feet. You tie a rope that is around your boat to the hook and up your boat goes! You walk up the steps and then you wheel it to a “dock” area (aka parking space) on the side of the street.

Onward we all went to the next village, Riomaggiore. The walk was paved and more or less flat; it took us 20 minutes. It was a very nice way to end our journey! We walked around a bit and took in the view of all the villages from across the sea. Riomaggiore had a small swimming area and a few shops too.

At this point it was only 2pm and we had seen all of Cinque Terre! Our original plan was to take the water ferry back to Vernazza but unfortunately due to the rain the night before, the ports were too rough to dock the boats. We decided to stroll back to Manarola and go to one of the sandwich shops for some food and drinks. We were all pretty tired and yet very satisfied with our day’s activities.

We then we took the train back to Vernazza for 2 euros a piece - money well spent! We grabbed some wine and Dixie cups, drank and chatted about our day, showered and headed to dinner. It was around 8pm at this point.

Dinner was a huge success! Well, Darren and I got our food but Aggie and Nicole didn’t get the veggies they ordered with their steak…instead they got some free chips but at least we all ate at the same time! After dinner we grabbed some gelato and a few more bottles of wine. We sat on some stone steps and chatted, laughed and enjoyed the rest of the night.

We headed to bed wondering if we would be woken up again by the sirens. Thankfully, no disruptions this time and we woke up feeling well rested. We all kind of relaxed and had coffee, enjoyed the atmosphere and village scene and then headed out around 11am.

Nicole and Darren caught the train to Rome and we headed back to Milan. We spent the day in Milan and then caught a late night flight back at 10:30pm. Needless to say, we got in late! It was 1am when we were pulling up to our apartment and of course, of all nights, Monday was my fantasy football draft. 8pm in Chicago translates to 3am in Luxembourg. I was a ball full of fun at work on Tuesday, that is all I have to say!

This weekend Darren and Nicole will meet up with us in Luxembourg. Then on Monday they are taking the train to Paris and we have Big Fred and Andre arriving on Tuesday for the National Lampoon‘s Marcum Family European Adventure! On the docket are Burgundy (France); Bern, Interlaken and Luzerne (all Switzerland); Fussen and Munich (Germany); and maybe a day trip to Salzburg (Austria) from Munich.

Other news :

- Agnes has a new skill. She can safely and comfortably drive a stick shift car. Can anyone say "designated driver"??!!

- We’ve sold the “green machine” (the Saab) and bought a new car…an Audi A4. Wish us luck with this one!!

- College football starts this weekend and we (by “we”, of course, I mean me) couldn’t be more excited…we bought the ESPN College Ticket package for the internet.

- The Schueberfouer (basically glorified St. Ann’s festival, just instead of the hillbillies and drunken brawls, they have a ferris wheel and roller coasters) is going on in Luxembourg these days. We’re gonna check it out with Darren and Nicole either tonight or Sunday.