Cinque Terre ... beyond the Riviera
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We made a great decision, quite by accident, when deciding which of the five
towns of the region to rent an apartment in. We chose the town in the middle,
Corniglia, because we thought it would allow us to walk in either direction
to the other towns and frankly we just liked the looks of the little town
that sits up high on a rocky prominence. We didn't know that our decision
would also yield the quietest evenings with few tourists and a great view
of the town and sea right from our apartment's patio. 
Corniglia
is a small town and a short walk up and down the narrow "streets"
will take only a short time but the comfort of finding all of the small stores
that had everything we needed to stock our apartment within an hour or so
was comfortable. All of the people in town were very friendly and though my
Italian is very poor, I never felt out of place.
Transportation in Cinque Terre is very interesting and quite a bit of fun.
First and foremost you have your feet. Walking the ancient paths from town
to town is the best way to experience the area and the views approaching and
departing the towns are spectacular. Then there is the train, which runs along
the coast, mostly hidden within tunnels joining the towns. You can buy a pass
for a week and use it to come back to "your town" after a long day
of walking or to get to another town for dinner and a night out. Then there
are boats, that connect four of the towns with regular daytime service.
Corniglia is the one town without a calm harbor and the boats do not stop
there. Last, there are roads that wind their way up into the hills and back
down to the different towns but most of the towns do not have streets for
cars, just for walking, so you need to park wherever space is provided for
and walk from there anyway. In general we recommend going to Cinque Terre
by train, regardless of which t own you might choose to stay in. Having a
car would not be a tremendous asset, rather a bit of a nuisance.
The
terraces of Cinque Terre were not built for good looks but to enable the growing
of grapes that are unique to the region. While eating at a small restaurant
one night we were amused by an American family that made a big fuss ordering
an expensive bottle of wine from Tuscany while we had a carafe of the local
table wine for a few Euro. We drank so much we almost took the train in the
wrong direction to get home ... it was very good. Being rather near Genoa,
one of the specialties of the region is Pesto. The owner of one the
small shops in Corniglia made fresh pesto every day. She only made a few bottles
at a time so we had to beat the locals to the store in the morning but it
was well worth it!
Don't forget to check out the links to specific Cinque Terre details
in the left column below the main NotAMall categories.
