James Funfer

Regrets, I’ve had a few. But then again, too few to mention.

If I had known about the Cinque Terre sooner (instead of booking a day last-minute), I would have opted to spend a lot more time there. However, I saw it as an opportunity to “scout” for myself and Aimee, and others potentially thinking of going to Italy (Mum and Dad, Aunt Sue, hint, hint).

The Cinque Terre are a series of five brightly-painted cliffside medieval towns carved into Italy’s coast just north of Pisa and La Spezia. Many of them still have fortifications from the days when they had to protect themselves from coastal raids. Now they are resort towns, full of tourists, restaurants, artisan shops and beaches (most of them rocky but the water is blessedly cool in the summer heat).

Expect to walk a lot in the Cinque Terre, and not just back and forth — I mean up and down, too. They are villages built into the coastal rocks, so it’s ramps, stairs and slopes wherever you go. It’s easy to justify getting two gelatos a day there. You’ll work it off (and you need them in the summer heat).

I didn’t get a chance to do the hikes between the villages due to time restrictions, but as I understand it, the views are amazing (if you can brave the extreme hikes between some of them — the ‘easier’ walks between the first three villages are under repair due to flooding a few years back). If you don’t feel like hiking, the regional trains run regularly and the time between towns is only a few minutes.

My experience with this little slice of Italian paradise was thus: coming from Rome, I transferred trains in La Spezia and stopped in Riomaggiore, the southeastermost (not a word, I know) for the evening, watching for pickpockets around the train station (a few sketchy people around, but just be alert, not staring at your phone, and you should be fine…from what I’ve been told they target zombie tourists).

Riomaggiore is a cute little hilly number built into the cliffs, and getting to my hostel was quite a climb, both on the street and within the hostel itself (buildings are tall and super thin). I dined on an amazing regional dish of stuffed anchovies (picture included) and people-watched, then got adopted by a local group of young, rowdy Italians who had just come back from the El Camino trail. They taught me bad Italian words until I waved farewell and went to bed.

Vernazza, the fourth town, is said to be the most picturesque, so I took the train there in the morning to snap some photos and grab a piece of foccacia for breakfast. This beach was a bit nicer, but I could see across the water to Monterosso al Mare, the final town, which has a sandy beach and is the most popular swimming spot.

All in all, if I’d had more time I would have stayed an extra day or two to get some hikes, swimming and history in, but I’m glad I got a chance to look and see the Cinque Terre, if only for a brief time. Expect a lot of tourists if you go, but there’s a reason it’s popular. It set my imagination ablaze for the Crystal series.