With the weather staying fair, we decided to re-visit the Cinque Terre - five villages on a wonderful bit of the rocky coastline of Liguria. It is probably only a few score miles from Barga as the crow flies across the Apuan Alps, but this year, as last, we found shorts and short-sleeved shirt weather, palm trees and people sunbathing on the beach!
The five towns are the famous ones, but thy are "bracketed" by two more - Porto Venere to the south, and Levanto to the north. We decided to walk from Porto Venere to the first of the five towns, stay the night, then use the train to get to number five, and do the walk to Levanto. Not as complicated as it sounds, except that there was a rail strike just at the wrong time! However, the bus service came to the rescue ...
The ramble took us eight hours, and some of the track was as steep (a thousand feet straight up at the start!) and difficult as we have ever walked - we were slightly tired!
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| On arrival at Porto Venere, we went to the far end of town to check out our route for next day - over the spectacular crag! (Photo taken from"Byron's Grotto" - where the great man used to go and meditate, apparently) |
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The tiny, but ancient Chiesa di San Pietro dominates the seaward view
as the sun prepares to set |
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View of the piazza in the evening - our hotel is in the foreground, and forms
part of the city walls |
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Chiesa San Pietro next morning - mainland on the right, islet of Palmeria
to the left |
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| The town from the harbour - our track runs up the side of the city wall on the right |
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Shifty character in the main street. Ancient grain/wine standard measure visible at the
left of the archway |
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| On the path, the first view back - snow-capped Apuan Alps just visible in the distance |
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| Last view of the little church |
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| New vistas open up to the north |
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View back over the bay of La Spezia to Tuscany and the snow-capped
Appenines this time |
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A lot of spring flowers along the paths - this is an early Sea Squill - can grow
up to a metre in height |
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| Looking back - islets of Palmaria and tiny Tenetto in far distance |
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| The major naval port of La Spezia, Appenines and little clouds in distance |
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| A lot of this trail was in woodland of Holm Oak |
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Having reached our destination - Riomaggiore - we got the bus to Manarola (which
we prefer!) This is the view at sundown seen from our B&B |
you certainly did the cinque terre in a most unusual, brave, courageous way! bravo! this is one hike ( two, actually)you'll never forget
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