Cinque Terre

I’ve been anticipating our stay in Cinque Terre for a long time and, honestly, from everything I had learned about this area, had very high expectations. We were not disappointed. Our five days in this exquisite Italian paradise will remain in our hearts and minds as some of our best travel memories. Each of us has already planned our return!

We chose to make Monterosso al Mare (the northern most of the five cities) our base because we heard it had a nice beach area and it sounded quiet. After visiting all five cities, I really don’t think you could go wrong staying in any one of them, but we immediately fell in love with Monterosso and felt at home. It’s still a very quiet time to be traveling through the Cinque Terre, so the town and hiking trails were all ours. Monterosso is a tiny village, fairly flat, with a beautiful beachfront. We arrived with no reservations, walked through the pedestrian tunnel and stopped at the first hotel where we met Marco. Marco had no rooms available in his hotel, but he called his brother, Matteo, and set us up at Hotel Villa Steno, through town and set up on a pretty hill overlooking the town. Matteo and his wife, Carla, run Villa Steno and it is just beautiful. We had a two room suite with a huge balcony overlooking the town and crashing waves. The property is surrounded by lemon, tangerine and olive trees and ate night there is a steady serenade from hundreds of toads. The limoncino made from lemons picked on the hotel property is so good!

The first days we took off from Monterosso on the hiking trail that connects all five villages. The leg from our town to the next town, Vernazzo, is the most challenging, but the scenery was well worth it and we were thrilled to be back in nature. Along the way, we had incredible views of the next towns, olive groves and terraced hills of vineyards. Vernazzo is a colorful little town with a natural harbor area that is positively perfect. We stopped for some pesto pizza (the ligurian pesto from this area is to die for!) and salad down by the water, then headed back to the trail toward Corniglia.Corniglia sits up on a rocky hill and has a beautiful outlook at the top. By the time we reached Corniglia we had been hiking for about four hours. We decided to train back to Monterosso.

Along the trail we started talking with an American couple, Sussi and Larry, who live in northern Washington. We instantly connected and ultimately ended up sharing two fabulous meals with them. Sussi and Larry are down to earth, bright, and incredibly well-traveled and we just loved spending time with them. The girls were really inspired by their kindness and their travel stories – especially Larry’s stories about shearing sheep in New Zealand and picking tomatoes in Australia! We parted ways on a shared train to La Spezzia, but we have no doubt that we weren’t saying “good-bye”, but rather “until next time!”

On our third day we trained down to Riomaggiorio in the pouring rain! We still had a blast. We ran down to the Marina to have lunch at Dau Cila where Fausto served us great wine and three different types of bruschetta. We took some great photos and ended up talking with another fun couple from Newport Beach who there on sabbatical, painting in Cinque Terre. We decided to skip Manarola and head home to stay dry.
The time we spent wandering around Monterroso was so peaceful. We bought some local olive wood products for our new kitchen, ate at our favorite restaurant, Alta Marea, run by a really sweet couple, Anna and Marco, and walked up and down the beach collecting sea glass for Madeline. Matt and I ran up to the hill to the cemetery and we were the only ones there. We walked around for quite a while, reading family names and looking at photos of those who had passed. The Capuchin monk’s monastery sits below the cemetery, so we popped in just before service began. It was time to go back to the hotel to collect our bags to move on.

The thing about Cinque Terre that made it so special was that we connected with literally everyone we came in contact with. People are happy here – why wouldn’t you be? I felt a little like the main character in the movie Local Hero (you have to watch this movie – a classic). It’s hard not to fall in love with this place and fantasize that maybe someday we’ll be the couple running the Hotel Villa Steno, or some great restaurant or olive oil specialty shop. We can’t wait to return- maybe next time with our bikes!