World Explorers 2011: Cinque Terre - clinging to the rock-face of the Mediterranean.

Ever since a friend told me about her visit to Cinque Terre - in Northern Italy, I have been keen to visit. We have already done many of the touristy sights in Tuscany, so decided to take the ship’s tour to Cinque Terre. We tried to organise a private tour but it was difficult to arrange - and I am usually really happy to organise private tours - so we opted for the easy way out - figuring that most passengers would go to Florence of Pisa from Livorno. How wrong can you be - there were eight bus loads who descended on these beautiful little villages - I realise the benefits of tourism, and we loved visiting, but I am not sure about the impact on the lifestyle of the villagers and how they feel about all these people gawking through their windows.

Cinque Terre is a series of five small villages and hamlets dating from Medieval times - the 11th century along the Golfo de Poeti - the Poet’s Gulf - since it was a favourite haunt of English poet Lord Byron and his peers. It is a popular walking route along the cliff-face between the villages - taking about five to six hours to complete we were lucky and we travelled by boat between two - it was a very hot Italian summer day.

We all disembarked from the bus at the second village - Manarola - and had a wonderful walk through the narrow winding streets. After a quick coffee break - we then left to walk along the cliff top on a path called ‘Lover’s Lane’ -past the lovers chair - in the olden days, this spot was chosen from the youth of the villages to meet up and watch the spectacular sunsets - the fence behind the lover’s chair is covered with closed locks - legend has it that if the lock is closed and the key thrown into the sea - the marriage will never be broken - the walk was spectacular - breath-taking views around every corner.

We arrived at the gorgeous village of Riomaggiore and boarded boats to travel about fifteen minutes to Vernazza, which has a little beach which is almost in the centre of the village with black sand and sunbathers on the rocks - we have come to expect to see the topless bathers on all the Italian and French beaches and this one was no exception - bikinis seem to be the order of the day whether the wearer is 8 or 80 - doesn’t seem to be any body issues here .. but some very funny sights!!

Bypassing the third village cause there are 400 steps up the cliff to access it, we spent about an hour in the fourth village - Vernazza. John and Anne were on the same tour so we met up under one of the colourful umbrellaed restaurants for a cold drink - lunch was scheduled at the next stop, but we chose to have an entree - sharing a pizza which was delicious with a thin crispy crust. When we received the bill, there was a charge of 2 euros each for sitting at the table - waitress service is more expensive than ordering at the bar inside - and then a tip is expected - a traditional that we are just not used to - and the service wasn’t that good. We are amused by the beaches here, most are large black rocky beaches without a grain of sand in sight - I have to say that this aspect of the Italian and French Rivieras make us really appreciate the wonderful Gold Coast beaches.

Back on the boat, we travelled to Monterosso - our stop for lunch - the whole village seemed to be exploding at the seams with the sudden influx of all the ship’s tours. I realised that this was our last day in Italy, and I hadn’t even had any real Italian pasta - there wasn’t any pasta on the menu - and so our group suggested that we move to another restaurant - which we did. I was embarrassed when we came to order cause no one else wanted pasta - they had moved just for me - good friends!! Have you ever has Heinz tinned spaghetti? I didn’t realise that we were exporting to the Italians - but that was what was served - I was so disappointed but I didn’t want to admit to the others how bad it really was. I guess that maybe they have a problem is transporting fresh supplies into the village for the great numbers of tourists who need to be fed in a short space of time before the bus leaves - another problem of going on large tours. As we walked around after lunch, we saw a number of other more appetizing cafes located further back from the water front.

After lunch, we saved a little space for dessert and headed to the most heavenly Gelato place, I was able to do a pretty good job of convincing myself that the apricot flavour was very healthy - of course fruit is good for you!! On the way back we passed the Alps which looked like they were covered with snow - in fact it was the site of the quarries which produce white Carrara marble - apparently Michelangelo used to go up the the alps to personally choose the pieces for his sculpture - quality control. Throughout this area of Tuscany, the fields are covered with beautiful yellow sunflowers - so colourful - but destined for sunflower oil when they are harvested in a couple of days.