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Travels: Cinque Terra Italy

Above: Manarola Cinque Terra City by Edward Fielding

Cinque Terre was a breath of fresh air after touring the Eternal City of Rome for three days, the hill town of Volterra and the walled city of Lucca. this string of sea side towns was a vacation within our vacation.

We were on the “Taste of Italy” Rick Steves tour with a small group of Americas and the first thing we did after enjoying a welcome reception of cheese, Italian meats, wine and Aperol Spritz was to walk down to the docks and jump in the cold Mediterranean sea.

It was late June the the entire trip was in the middle of a heat wave so the cold water felt so refreshing.

Monterosso Al Mare Cinque Terra Italy Watercolor by Edward Fielding

Cinque Terre is a string of centuries-old seaside villages on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline. In each of the 5 towns, colorful houses and vineyards cling to steep terraces, harbors are filled with fishing boats and trattorias turn out seafood specialties along with the Liguria region’s famous sauce, pesto. The Sentiero Azzurro cliffside hiking trail links the villages and offers sweeping sea vistas.

UNESCO World Heritage Site inscription

Cinque Terre is a great place to explore the old buildings, small alleys, restaurants, shops, bakeries and hiking paths among the wineries. It’s a resort as well as a working fishing village. Basically unassailable, trains pop out and back in tunnels bringing tourists in and out. Between the villages one can take the train or boat taxis. The other option is to hike the trails up at the top of the cliffs.

The only problem we ran into was the condition of some trails as landslides from heavy rains had basically wiped them clean off the mountain sides. Some of the trails between towns were inaccessible but there were plenty of other trails up to the top of hillsides where scenic graveyards lookded down on the villages.

Italy Poster by Edward M. Fielding

The Aperol Spritz captures the entire experience in a glass! Colorful, bubbly and refreshing!

  1. FILL A WINE GLASS WITH ICE.
  2. COMBINE PROSECCO DOC FOLLOWED BY APEROL IN EQUAL PARTS.
  3. ADD A DASH OF SODA.
  4. GARNISH WITH AN ORANGE SLICE.