Cinque Terre ...
beyond the Riviera

Some places in the world, and Italy in particular, are just plain too popular with tourists. The buses of tour groups that unload onto a once special landmark or vista can be very discouraging to the traveler that doesn't like to have someone in plaid shorts popping up in all of the photographs they take. Yet some places are popular and still worthy of an extended visit.

Cinque Terre is a small region along the northwestern Italian coast just below Porto Fino. The coastal region from San Remo to Porto Fino is considered the Italian Riviera and is popular with high rollers at the well-known casinos and topless beach bunnies on unlimited credit card accounts. But just to the south the coastline changes from mostly beachy to rugged mountainous terrain. There the five towns located in a row along the sea give the region it's name, "Five Lands."

All of the five towns of the Cinque Terre region are beautiful and generally unspoiled by progress. Due to the challenging terrain it was actually a bit difficult to reach this area until fairly recently and roads leading from one town to another still need to wind their way up into the hills in order to again wind down to the next town. There is a train line that runs through long tunnels near the sea but there is no road that follows the coastline between the towns ... except for the ancient footpaths that make for great walking and hiking.

This region is perhaps best known for the thousands of stone walled terraces that were built along the steep hillsides facing the sea to permit the growing of grapes, olives, and other necessities. By today's standards cultivating the crops in so rugged an area is not at all practical but the Cinque Terre region today is a national park. The Italian government is supporting the effort to maintain the terraces, the culture and the agricultural methods of the region. It is not only an incredibly beautiful region but it is also comfortable with tourism and welcoming to a wide range of nationalities.

Germans, British, Canadians, Australians, French and Americans are very fond of this region and it is quite busy in the peak season of mid-summer. But it is also much less busy in the off-season and the mild climate can still provide good weather for swimming and hiking. We visited Cinque Terre in early September and found the quantity of tourists to be manageable though a few of the locals seemed a bit burned out from the summer traffic (put yourself in their place ... tourists can be very unpleasant and demanding).

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