Lubertadventure: Cinque Terre

We arrived after a four hour drive from Santa Fiora in Cinqueterre (Five Lands – or Five Villages) .

Cinque Terre has to be one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen. Our room had a view of the Ligurian Sea. Our hostess, Lorenza (Casalorenza) met us at the point of no return for cars in Riomaggiore, the southernmost 5T village – where no cars are allowed unless on official business and helped us with our luggage to Casalorenza.

I had, by that time, developed what has turned out to be walking pneumonia, a deep, deep cough and very congested lungs. When I began to cough, Lorenza said she would go to the pharmacia and get me some medicine. I joked that all I needed was a Moretti (Italian Birra) and a good Italian wine. Lorenza shows up at our door five minutes later with two bottles of beer and a bottle of wine!

We went to our balcony and drank in the spectacular view (Not the beer and wine). Last year we visited Cinque Terre after leaving Corsica. Unfortunately, Lorraine fell coming down a mountain there , so she was not able to do a lot of hiking with her badly sprained ankle. This year, we were determined to do all the trails – all five of them. We soon learned that two of them were closed. Mudslides come down the mountains and tragically, they smother the cities. One such in 2009 killed eleven people. The latest closed two of the trails we wanted to hike.

Cinque Terre is a National Park and World Heritage site. The five cities are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso, and, at one time, you could walk the connecting paths between them all, from Monterosso to Riomaggiore. We resolved to do as much as we could, so Day One we took a bus to a hillside village of Volastra, then walked for 60 minutes straight down through olive groves and vineyards.

The next day we took a boat ride to Vernazza, and hiked from there to Corniglia, almost 2 hours in total, the first half a steep climb, and the second a scrambling descent. The path was broken by lookouts that offered stunning views of the mountains and sea. Strangely enough, my lungs did not bother me, and I found it easier to hike up than down. Lorraine found the climb difficult, but trooper that she is we finished the hike and treated ourselves to an authentic Italian Pizza in Corniglia.

The next day the paths were to be closed because of a big storm was coming in. My shining moment came when the park official was trying to explain this in Italian to a Frenchwoman who did not understand, and I translated from Italian to French for her!

The storm, when it did come, was more of a hurricane: Pounding rains and shrieking winds. We couldn't leave the room for hours, but when the storm subsided, Lorraine was able to take some spectacular pictures of the sunset.

After four beautiful days in 5T, we left for Switzerland, en route to Germany and Austria.