Jun 14, 2018
Cinque Terre
I could spend time researching the details but as this happened May 29th and my memory is worn out, so just best to just borrow from Goggle………
Cinque Terre is a string of centuries-old seaside villages on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline. In each of the 5 towns, colorful houses and vineyards cling to steep terraces, harbors are filled with fishing boats and trattorias turn out seafood specialties along with the Liguria region’s famous sauce, pesto. The Sentiero Azzurro cliffside hiking trail links the villages and offers sweeping sea vistas.
Over the centuries, people have carefully built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea. Part of its charm is the lack of visible corporate development. Paths, trains and boats connect the villages, and cars cannot reach them from the outside. The Cinque Terre area is a very popular tourist destination. Hiking between the villages is a popular activity.
We did not have time to do that so we booked a tour, a very expensive tour @ $426.00CAD for both of us. Well worth the price as we will never go back there again as there are so very many special places in this world to visit. That involved getting up at 5:00AM and meeting a tour leader at a certain area in Florence. Turned out that due to the new tram system going in that the bus was over a mile away so we got a good early morning walk in. The best part of this tour unlike all the others we checked out, is that it is limited to only 25 people and offers a commentary that explains the history and other pertinent information of the area we were in and we also got free time in all the towns that we stopped at. We were only 14 on the tour and it was the most perfect day in terms of weather in our entire four week trip.
We were gone 15 hours, spent 4 hours on two different boats ( allowing us to see each village from the water = perfect ), spent 45 minutes on three different trains ( the villages are close together ), walked 15,000 steps and spent four hours on the bus back and forth. Best trip on this journey, best day, best tour and so very beautiful and a taste of the real Italy which also included a 45 minute hike in Monterosso should you wish to do so. Cinque Terre is a UNESCO world heritage site.
We stopped for breakfast here at Porto Venere, just before the five villages.
My shot of a small boat in the port.
Our breakfast with a view. One of the best croissants on the entire trip.
One of the villages. We did stop here later on the train. Note the vineyards on the steep slope.
Monterosso where we stopped for over two hours.
Taken within the village.
No I did not drain the glass of spritz but it sure would have been nice.
We had a very very delicious lunch here from the local fish fry, the tuna salad and the great pesto lasagna not to mention the fabulous vino bianco.
So many interesting buildings. It is always laundry day somewhere.
We stopped here via train in Manarola.
Good place for a stroll….
…and a gelato.
Just another interesting colorful shot.
Another of the villages we walked through, Riomaggiore. So many photos and hard to chose which to show you.
Between Florence and La Spezia area are the quarries where marble for Michangelo’s David statue originated. These are located in the Apuan alps. Chunks of these mountains have been bought by the Chinese and ?? Dubai or ??Iran.
All along the highway are huge blocks of marble that have been cut from the mountain. These last two photos were taken from a moving bus which is why they are blurry.
Hope you did not mind waiting for what I think is a colorful post of the Italian Riviera.
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GORGEOUS PART OF ITALY. NOTHING BEATS THE ITALIAN RIVIERA. GLAD YOUR CHOSE THE TOUR AND WITH ONLY 14, IT WAS ALMOST PRIVATE. SUPER PHOTOS AND LOVE THE COLORS OF THE BUILDINGS. CHEERFUL AND INTERESTING.
It was a very special and one of our favorite days on the trip.
What fun informative day you had thanks for the pictures
So glad you enjoyed the photos.
So beautiful … thanks for sharing!
So happy that you enjoyed what was a highlight on our trip.
What an incredibly beautiful world we live in…
We are going camping to Kelwona in Mid to late August! Look forward to meet in you!!!
Thank you for providing us with a beautiful Blog. You two are very inspirational to us!
Yes I have been discovering how wonderful it is. Thank you for your compliments and I see no reason why we will not meet in August.
Really, really beautiful!!!
So glad that you enjoyed this post. Thanks for taking the time to send me an email Dolores.
The colors – they are so beautiful, greens, blues, yellow, reds and all the other rainbow colors. Loved seeing these photos. Thank you for sharing.