Cinque Terra is known for its five fishing villages that are stretched along 9km of Mediterranean coastline. Beginning with Riomaggiore this is the first of the five villages and also where we stayed for the first 2 nights. On the day of arrival we were greeted at the hostel reception to find out there were three sites and that we were required to trek our way up to the peak of the hill with 20 kgs worth of baggage each in heat in excess of 30 degrees, where we would eventually find our place. After recovering from our climb we were amazed to find that the place we were staying at was an Affittacamere (in English it means private house) with balcony and an amazing view overlooking the bay included. We had our private room, or parents room as some would say, while the other six Busabout crew (including Adele who was with us) stayed in one large dorm room, trundle beds included. This place turned out to be a gem as the people we were sharing with were friends we had met in Florence on Busabout. The place was ours to enjoy some drinks and do what we wanted in it, so that’s what we did, within reason of course. We found some hidden rooms with chairs, a spare trundle bed and lounge chairs and setup camp on the balcony for a night in to drink and watch the sunset.
The following day was the Kakota trail of Italy. Beginning at Riomaggiore we set out on the trek along the coast, passing through the other four fishing villages; Manorola, Corniglia, Vernazza and ending at Monterosso. Whilst the walk/trek was quite gruelling at times with endless dirt tracks and countless uneven steps it was all worth it as the views were incredible!! Needless to say we consumed countless bottles of water to rehydrate as it was another scorching day and Dee acquired some nasty blisters as a trophy of completing the trek. As a reward we finished off the day with a swim at the final town Monterosso with a swim at the sand beach (yep not pebbles)!
The following days were spent lapping up the sun lazing on the beaches between the five towns but this time we took the train! A great investment of 3.50 Euro ($5.50 Aussie dollars) was also spent purchasing a blow up tyre to float about in the sea, James also explored under the water snorkelling.
To mix things up our last two nights we stayed in La Spezia (larger town about a 10 minute train ride before Cinque Terra). It was here in La Spezia that we experienced breakfast in the true Italian style. Breakfast consisted of croissants and coffee standing at the counters of the little coffee shops. We felt a little like confused tourists here as the staff didn’t speak much English all adding to the experience. Great strong Italian coffee though!
Cinque Terra was definitely up there for one of the best places we have visited and a must for anyone doing Busabout or travelling Italy in general.
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