Portovenere
Sharing “Cinque Terra with friends (or any hike for that matter), is doubly more fun. Cinque Terra is a group of five small towns along the Italian Coast between Genoa and La Spezia. This track of land is considered a Unesco World Heritage Site and Italy made it a national park in 1999. Each town is primarily a fishing village. But it is the location of these villages perched high up on bluffs that makes them so beautiful. There is a ferry that runs from La Spezia and in good weather when the ferry is running that you get the most spectacular first impression of these villages. The second way to get to know them is to hike from one village to the other on the former donkey paths. A third way is to take the train, fast, efficient, easier on the knees but you miss out on the wonderful views.
This blog will document the first part of our trip with friends Nancy and Jeff. We started out early in the morning from our hotel in La Spezia where after a short taxi ride boarded the ferry which makes continual runs up and down the coast stopping at Portovenere and each of the Cinque Terre towns farther north. Our trip was initially held up by Italian Navel maneuvers in the Golf of La Spezia. Here we sat for ½ and hours watching people jump out of helicopters into the bay. It is easy to see why this is also referred to as the Gulf of Poets. Shelly, Lord Byron, Dante and Petrarch all wrote of it beauty. Near our boat we were able to observe the mussel fields (bouchots) in the bay.
Once we left the Golf of La Spezia we came upon the town of Portovenere. This is the only town in this chain without train service. Entering it by ferry or car in the only way in. Watching it from the sea we were impressed by the little Gothic Church of St. Peter perched on the promontory point.
Next stop was Riomaggiore, followed by Manarola, Corniglia high on the bluff, then Vernazza and finally Monterossa.
Riomaggiore
Manarola
Corniglia
Vernazza
Monterosso al Mare
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