The Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre (Five Towns) on the Ligurian coast north of Pisa is strung along 18km of serrated cliffs between Levanto and La Spezia, and is one of Italy's treasures. These five higgledy-piggledy villages – Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore – are cut off by mountains choked with olive groves and dry-stone-walled vineyards, where farmers have eked out a living over the centuries.

The Cinque Terre became a Unesco World Heritage site in 1997, which includes a protected marine area, and became a national park (Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre) in 1999. Wine growers still use monorail mechanisms to ferry themselves up and the grapes down these unique lands, and in some cases have to harvest by boat. If the terraced hillsides are not worked, they will quite literally slide into the sea.  (Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/cinque-terre#ixzz28pd9e3jw).

Mo had decided that it was a 'must see' and Diane and I were very happy to see it too.  A friend in New Zealand had planned to walk the five towns a few years ago but the group she was going with abandoned it at the last minute.  We set off at the crack of dawn to get there before the crowds.  We took the train from La Spezia and were at the most southerly town of Riomaggiore before the gates to the walk were manned (tickets permitting you to do the walk were obtainable at the rail station though).

The first photo taken from Riomaggiore shows the extent of the Cinque Terre which stretch as far as the  sunlit promontory in this photo:

The first sector of the walk from the south

We arrived at Riomaggiore very early before the crowds (and before the sun had penetrated the start of the walk - the next photo was taken after we'd completed the walk to the second town and back) which the previous day the girls said had been enormous:

The southern start of the walk

Riomaggiore Station below the town

The wall and pedestrian tunnel (upper level) and rail tunnel (lower level)  

The path cut into the rock face 

Cafe with seating on grating built out over the sea

Manarola station and town from the walkway

Manarola looking seaward

Manarola looking landward

Riomaggiore looking back from the path before sun-up

Riomaggiore's main street looking landward

Riomaggiore port below the railway station

Riomaggiore port looking landward

Finally here is a typical view of the terraces, many of which are no more than 2 metres wide, which are typical of the land around the Cinque Terre which is the steepest in Liguria and which used to support 140,000 farmers and which now supports less than 14,000.  Many terraces have fallen into disuse and the walls have collapsed.  Once one wall collapses there is a domino effect and a whole hillside can slide down into the sea.  Ten days after I took the following photo four Australian tourists tackling the panoramic Trail of Love were seriously injured by cascading boulders, while 1,000 people were evacuated last October when mud surged through two of the area's five villages.

Terraces