Checking out Cinque Terre

From Pisa we travelled another hour to the cliff-side villages known as Cinque Terre, the "five lands", on the Italian Riviera. The "five lands" or villages consist of Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. We had five hours to cover as much territory before heading back to Florence. Cinque ore in il Cinque Terre (five hours in the “five lands”). The villages are connected by hiking trails, but fortunately for us the villages are also connected by rail. After all the hiking across Florence, we couldn't handle trekking up the mountains of Cinque Terre. We aren't Sir Edmund Hillary! So we closely studied the train schedule and figured that we could spend one hour in each village and see all "five lands".

We started at the furthest village, Monterosso al Mare, and worked our way along the train route. The towns are similar in architectural style, with buildings painted in pastel hues and narrow laneways that turn into steep steps that seem to lead to heaven, or at least it feels like your ascending into the skies. You didn't need to take the hike path to get a work-out. People all round us were even equipped with their trekking poles, just to traverse the train platforms. We think some of them were using the poles as a fashion accessory rather than for more practical reasons.

The weather was perfect to capture the beauty of the villages with the houses stacked upon each other and set into the cliffs. The almost fluorescent blue water was so clear you could see the fish from high up on the cliff. No wonder it's a UNESCO world heritage site.

Every corner we turned could be a postcard picture and beside it was another Australian taking a photo. The villages seemed to have been invaded by troops of Australian tourists. Perhaps Katriona Rowntree had recently done a special on Getaway about Cinque Terre that we had missed. We could definitely see the appeal of the area. But after more than 35,000 steps it was time to take our tired feet home to Florence.

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