Cinque Terre’s dramatic cover girl
By Rick Steves
Tribune Media Services
(Tribune Media Services) — Italy’s Cinque Terre is a quintet of villages clinging to a bit of rugged coastline between Genoa and Pisa. Long cut off from the modern world, this remote chunk of the Italian Riviera only became easily accessible with the coming of the train.
Each village is a variation on the same theme: a well-whittled, pastel jumble of homes, filling a gully like crusty sea creatures in a tide pool. Locals are the barnacles — hungry, but patient. And we travelers are like algae, coming in with the tide.
Since my mind goes on vacation with the rest of me when I’m here, I think of the towns by number, east to west: no. 1 Riomaggiore (a workaday town), no. 2 Manarola (picturesque), no. 3 Corniglia (on a hilltop), no. 4 Vernazza (the region’s dramatic cover girl), and no. 5 Monterosso al Mare (the closest thing to a beach resort).
To preserve this land, the government has declared the Cinque Terre (CHINK-weh TAY-reh) a national park. For a small entrance fee (about $8 for a one-day pass), visitors can hike the trail connecting all five towns, a trek that takes about five hours.
