The Secret Side of Cinque Terre
By Josh Roberts, SmarterTravel.com
High above the terraced green hills of Italy’s northwest coast, on a breezy ridge-top trail overlooking the Ligurian Sea, I rest for a minute to enjoy the sun and silence. Today is July 18, the very heart of the summer tourist season in southern Europe, and yet it seems I have Cinque Terre all to myself.
I loosen my hiking boots and take it all in, happy to bake a little under the Mediterranean sun. Soon a hunched old man approaches, and I suspect he’s a local because I haven’t seen another tourist since breakfast. He must think I’ve been sitting here for a while—or maybe I just look content—because he stops, grins, and says something that sounds like il dolce far niente. I nod back, because my Italian is dreadful, and it’s not until I hear the phrase again a few days later that I understand.
Il dolce far niente, “the sweetness of doing nothing,” is something of a motto in this part of Italy.
The cliff-clinging fishing villages of Cinque Terre (literally, “the five lands”) have been around, in one form or another, since the Middle Ages, but it wasn’t until American guidebook mogul Rick Steves made them famous that the area became a certifiable tourist trap. Still, not even an army of tourists could diminish the chaotic charm of Riomaggiore and its jumble of sun-washed houses, all pinks and yellows and blues tumbling toward the sea; and nothing could spoil the sloping vineyards of Corniglia, the bustling trattorias of Monterosso, or the simple pleasure of following a centuries-old walking path along the rocky coast.
Nice to read that tourist numbers do not spoil the place for you. The Cinque Terre is still today an isolated region, which explains why its rugged landscapes are still so unspoilt. Maybe the narrow roads help with that! In 1997, Cinque Terre together with Portovenere and the Palmaria islands, Tino and Tinetto were included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List, becoming a national park in 1999. I have been there hundreds of times on my tours and I am also still in love with the area.
Comment by Marco Italy — November 9, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
I would like to come see it.
Comment by segen Teclamariam — May 30, 2009 @ 5:40 am
Just got back from Italy. Cinque Terre was all of it and more. I absolutely loved it. Beauty beyond imagine. The hiking was wonderful and the food and people great. We just happened to be there during sardine fest. Nothing like sitting with the locals and eating fried sardines and bread with a cold Italian beer.
Comment by Lisa — June 29, 2009 @ 7:11 am
I’m planning to visit this beautiful area for the first time in April 2010. Any advice, specifically on the best way to travel between Venice and the C.Terre when I have only a week for both?
Thanks!
Comment by Marietta — September 13, 2009 @ 5:45 am