It’s finally our “Cinque Terre” day. We’ve seen photographs of these picturesque little fishing villages in travel magazines and on calendars for years. I guess curiosity got the best of us, because we just had to come and see them for ourselves. So today we’ll take a train ride to Cinque Terre, starting with Riomaggiore.
We started the day with a good breakfast in the hotel’s breakfast room. They have a fairly extensive buffet. I think I had one of everything. It was all light, though. No scrambled eggs, chicken-fried steak, and biscuits and gravy. Not that I have it very often at home, but sometimes I think about it when we’ve been out of the country for a while. That, and Mexican food.
Did Someone Say “Anchovies”?
Speaking of food… one of today’s highlights, I hope, will be having anchovies for lunch. We’re in anchovy country now. Some of the fishing villages we’re going to today are famous for ‘em.
I know what you’re thinking. But anchovies over here aren’t like the hairy little brown things in the tin we buy back home. No way. Anchovies here are more like miniature trout. Bite-sized miniature trout, floured, seasoned, and fried to perfection – can you imagine?
After breakfast, we made the short walk to the train station. We were slightly relieved to see that today it looked like a normal train station with a fair amount of activity. (As opposed to yesterday, when the station was empty, due to a 24-hour transportation strike).
We found the ticket validation machine and punched the tickets we bought yesterday. The train was right on time. It came in, stopped for three or four minutes, then left the station with us on board.
The Villages of Cinque Terre
Cinque Terre consists of five tiny fishing villages lined up one by one, embedded into the jagged cliffs of the Italian coastline. Hey, this is a good place to practice your italian. The names of the villages are:
Riomaggiore (“Ryo-mah-JYOH-reh”)
Manarola (“Mahn-ah-RRROLL-ah”)
Corniglia (“Corn-EEL-ya”)
Vernazza (“Vayr-NAHT-za”)
Montorosso (“Mont-orrr-ROSS-oh”)
Remember, the accent is almost always on the second-to-the-last syllable.
The weather for our little excursion wasn’t the greatest. The temperature was comfortable, but the sky was overcast and drizzly at times. There weren’t a lot of people on the train. There were a few people going to work and a handful of hikers in the car we were in.
We didn’t know it until we got here, but Cinque Terre is a huge hiking destination. People come from all over Europe to hike the trail connecting the five villages. Who knew hiking was so popular? Not us. Although we did get a clue when we ran into some French hikers on our walk to Portofino.
It took an hour to get to Riomaggiore. It was still drizzly and a little chilly, but we’d made it. We walked from the train station directly into the little town, down the main thoroughfare to the marina. When we reached the marina, it seemed like we had pretty much covered the whole town. And in fact, we had.
Riomaggiore
We could tell this was the same place we’d seen in all the pictures, but it looked a little rougher up close. They must have cleaned it up a bit for those pictures. Or maybe the photographer did the clean-up. A bright, sunny day probably would have made a difference.
Riomaggiore was still pretty neat, though. The houses are built right into the side of the rocky slopes like barnacles on the side of a rock. They’re painted all different colors, but as usual, somehow everything looks like it goes together.
We decided to warm up with some cappuccinos, so we went into a little bar that was on the town’s main street. (A “bar” over here is a place that mainly serves coffee). We ordered cappuccinos. They were extra good.
From where we were sitting in the bar, we could see where the hiking trail wrapped around the edge of a point jutting out just north of us. There were already groups of hikers making their way around the point, heading for the next village.
Well, we came and we saw. If one isn’t hungry or a hiker, there isn’t much else to do or see in this tiny little town. The town itself is the main attraction. We strolled back to the train station to catch the next train out.
The next two towns, Manarola and Corniglia, are tiny like Riomaggiore, so we decided to go straight to the next town in line, Vernazza. Vernazza is a little larger, and we’d heard there are some good places to have lunch there. I think there are some anchovies there that are calling my name.
To be continued…
Beautiful photo of Riomaggiore – Credit: Chensiyuan/Wikimedia Commons
