Adventure in Cinque Terra

After visiting a couple more Florence museums on Sunday (Pitti Palace, yet another Medici study in opulence which we nearly had to ourselves when we arrived, the Galileo -- including two of his original telescopes and other instruments -- and the Baptistry of the Duomo -- a separate building outside the church) we left the city by train toward the north, changing at La Spezia, and arriving at the southernmost town of the Cinque Terra ("five lands" of the Italian riviera), Riomaggiore.

Riomaggiore, the first of the Cinque Terra towns.

Riomaggiore, a tiny village, built in a narrow ravine emptying into the Mediterranean Sea, is steep to climb but worth the effort. On the way up from the rail station we visited two small churches decked out for the season. At our hotel, Franca, the owner (who speaks little English), who had been waiting for her only customers of the day to arrive, offered us a nice room in the main hotel, or a self-catering apartment up some steep stairs in the heart of town.

Mary sips a glass of wine in our little apartment.

We took the latter, because it was cute, clean, private, and -- well -- romantic (we’re not too old for that, even six decades on). We could come and go as we pleased and even had a little kitchen to fix our own breakfast or chill a bottle of local wine. The market was just across the street, and Franca just had to shout up to the neighbor’s window from the street below to let her know that there would be someone in the apartment for a couple nights.

A shout up to the neighbors' window alerted the neighborhood to our presence.

We had an excellent meal in the restaurant across the street, but there wasn't much else open. One other restaurant looked inviting, but we saw that already seated there were 7 or 8 U.S. university students we had encountered on the train earlier in the day. They were loud, apparently did not know one another well (we speculated that they had merely run into one another by staying in the same hostel the night before), and some didn't even seem to know where they were going or why -- just that someone had suggested the Cinque Terre for the day, and they were along for the ride. They struck us as very immature, and made us glad for our group of Luther students we’d be back with next week.

We set out on the Cinque Terra trail.

Next morning we bought our day pass for Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre, which allowed us to hike the trails and ride the local train all day. We then set out on Via del Amore -- the very easy paved trail from Riomaggiore to the town of Manarola only a kilometer away. The trail got its name from the fact that the five towns were all very isolated for centuries, accessible only by boat. When the railroad came in, and later the hiking trails and national park were established, it was possible for young people to meet, date, and marry someone from the next town -- something very rare before. So this trail got the name of “lovers lane” and the railings are covered with padlocks attesting unending bonds of local lovers, as well as thousands of tourist couples. Yes, we’re old romantics, but no, we did not add a lock to the path.

Lovers' locks on the Via del Amore

At Manarola we visited the church and hiked through the vineyards, including one family vineyard decorated with dozens of life-sized religious figures that are lighted on the nights of religious festivals. This is the work of one local man who made it his mission after surviving a rare illness. We then caught the local train, because we weren't up for a more strenuous walk, and because signs told us part of the trail was closed due to a mudslide. We skipped the third town of Corniglia because it didn’t sound very interesting in the tour book, and rode on to Vernazza.

Life-sized religious figures walk the vineyards at Manarola

We were told when we bought our park pass that today was the first day Vernazza was reopened to tourists, but we didn't really understand why it might have been closed. When we got there, it became clear. In late October torrential rains created mud slides and flash floods in the area. A huge wall of mud and water had washed through Vernazza two months ago. The locals seemed incredulous that we could not know this (stupid Americans!). Nothing was open in Vernazza, and work is underway to restore gas, electricity, water, and sewer service to the town. We visited the 14th century church to find it nothing but bare stone, and filled with pallets of food being distributed to needy residents. We felt as though we had intruded on a tragedy, which we had. After climbing to the castle ruins to take in the view, and walking around a bit more to take in the devastation, we got back on the train.

We couldn't really bring ourselves to photograph the worst of the destruction a Vernazza.

At Monterosso al Mare, the fifth and final town, things were not as bad, but many shops were still gutted. The church had been cleaned up, though one could see the water damage on the walls. A couple of restaurants were open, so we got lunch, climbed to the ancient convent for the view, and enjoyed a cold drink at a cantina along the shore.

St. Francis of Assisi (who probably  never set foot here) shows off the Cinque Terra to a wild wolf from the convent above Monterosso al Mare

Returning to Riomaggiore, we learned that a railway strike scheduled for the next day may make it difficult to get to Siena, where we have a non-refundable hotel reservation. Between natural disasters and labor disputes, our luck seems not to be very good! We bought a ticket for an early morning train to Pisa because the ticket agent seemed to think we could get that far before the 9 a.m. strike deadline. Then we’ll see.