cinque terre – Meanderthals

Italian Riviera finding new ways to manage tourism impact on historic hiking trails

Jeff — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 15:58:30 +0000

It’s part of 120 miles of undulating trails that flit through pine-scented forests, flirt with postcard panoramas of the blue Ligurian Sea, and snake alongside terraced vineyards as they crisscross the Cinque Terre National Park.

The park, which was established in 1999 and is a UNESCO reserve, encompasses more than 9,500 acres and connects five of the Italian Riviera’s most picturesque coastal villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.

While the trails nearest the park’s borders outside the villages can be relatively peaceful, the path from Monterosso to Vernazza teems with a steady stream of hikers from around the world. There are Americans, Brits and Australians, many of whom seem surprised at the arduousness of the trails.

The emphasis is on Cinque Terre’s winemaking heritage, seeming to be exactly the sort of tourism that park officials hope to encourage, while at the same time they’re struggling to cope with wear and tear on the most popular coastal trails.

Such is the concern about the influx of visitors to the Cinque Terre, which has only 4,000 permanent residents, that park president Vittorio Alessandro implied in February that limits would need to be imposed.

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Hike through vineyards and lemon trees in Italy’s Cinque Terre

Jeff — Sun, 12 Jul 2015 18:08:03 +0000

From the top of a steep hillside covered in lemon trees and grapevines, the village of Manarola tumbles out below, like a handful of pink, orange and yellow blocks that have been shaken, then poured from a toy bag.

Manarola is one of five hamlets strewn a few miles apart along the Mediterranean coast in Northern Italy. Each comes with its own personality, and the best way to see the lot is to pick one as a home base, then spend a few days hiking between them, pausing to sip wine, eat grilled octopus and cool off with a swim in the sea.

Hike up through steep terraces covered with vineyards. Pause to admire a chapel and sip lemonade in the pint-size village of Volastra. Then descend into Corniglia, where you can revive yourself with gelato before striking out for the next town up the coast, Vernazza.

It’s easy to imagine the days when pirates sailed up and down this coast. The people who once lived here used stone watchtowers to defend their homes, which are perched on cliffs and tucked into nooks and crannies molded by Mother Nature. It’s long been a wine-producing region, and farmers planted crops on terraces they cut into the hills.

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Trekking through Italy’s romantic Cinque Terre

Jeff — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 18:02:50 +0000

If you’re going to fake it as a paid-up member of the jet set, then Monterosso, at the northern end of the Cinque Terre, is the perfect place.

Pinned to the cliffs above the Gulf of Genoa on the shin of the Italian boot, the Cinque Terre – the five lands – is the sort of landscape that causes hearts to beat a little faster. This is one of the scenic miracles of the Mediterranean: five small villages hewn from solid rock, huddled facades and pantiled roofs overlooked by churches and fortifications that date back to the Middle Ages.

The sites for these villages were dictated by the freshwater streams that tumble down from the mountain heights. Tiny, dense enclaves arose, crowded around a scoop of harbour, and so the villagers existed, scratching a living from fishing and the olives, grapes, tomatoes and basil they cultivated on tiny terraces hacked from the cliffs.

There are several ways to explore the Cinque Terre. A boat is perfect, but available only to yachtsmen and fishermen. The train is a practical proposition if you’re pressed for time, but this is no place to rush. The best option is a hike from one village to the next along the sentieri, the narrow footpaths used by the villagers since time immemorial.

While you could trek the steep 12-kilometre sentieri from Monterosso to Riomaggiore, the most southerly of the towns, in a day, that would be like jogging through the Louvre.

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