Cinque Terre – Vernazza & Monterosso – Off Travelling Together

Cinque Terre means Five Lands for the five small coastal villages of Monterosso al Mare, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia and Vernazza, built into the sheer rocky coast of Liguria. They are famed for their rugged scenery and are popular with tourists and hikers alike. The access by road is limited, so most visitors travel between the villages by train, boat or on foot.

We caught the train in Pisa and headed for Vernazza which is billed as the most beautiful and characteristic of the villages.

We are staying with Ivo and he met us at the station, walked us through the village pointing out where everything was and then thankfully carried my case up 67 steps to our room on the fourth floor! Our cheery little room overlooks the small street and will be our base for 5 nights.

We went to explore the village with the rooftops piled higgledy-piggledy around Piazza Marconi and the harbour and up the slopes towards the fortified tower of the Castello Doria, but it was all a bit grey and chilly.

We looked round Santa Margherita d’Antiochia …

… then warmed up with a couple of local specialities – pansotti (a local pasta stuffed with cheese and greens) served with walnut sauce for Chris and minestrone Genovese with pesto for me and were delighted when a little later the sun came out.

The Sentiero Azzurro or Blue Path is the easiest and most famous path linking the five villages. However due to storm damage, only the 2 mile section between Vernazza and Monterosso is open so this seemed a good walk to start with. We followed signs to the start and were quickly rewarded with a great view of Vernazza in the sunshine.

The path was busy with walkers and had plenty of ups and downs as we passed terraces of vineyards.

We caught our first glimpse of Monterosso, although it took a while longer to reach it! This was the first resort of the area and has a tunnel through a headland joining the two parts of town. We only had 30mins till the last boat back … so the priority was gelato but we did take a couple of snaps including this one of Torre Aurora which was built in the Middle Ages to defend the town from pirates and Pisans.

Having taken a good couple of hours to walk there, our boat trip back took 15 minutes! We got views leaving Monterosso, of the coast and of Vernazza from the sea when we arrived.