Cinque Terre and Riviera di Levante

Liguria, Italy                                                                                                      All photos by Hetty

25th April to 2nd May 2015                                                      Map of Riviera di Levante, Italy

We wanted to visit the Cinque Terre villages (about half way between Genoa and Pisa):

Monterosso, Vernazza, Corneglia, Manorola, and  Riomaggiore

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We flew from Gatwick, London to Pisa, then took the train to Levanto, where we stayed in an apartment for 1 week. Levanto (next village north-west of the Cinque Terre)  is a great base for visiting the Cinque Terre, as the town centre is flat, with only a slope up to the railway station. It was easy to pop into the supermarkets/ fruit shops on the way home in the evening.

The Cinque Terre villages are car-free, apart from Monterosso, as they are very steep with narrow streets/alleyways, so not great places to stay, but lovely to visit. The railway goes up the coast (often in tunnels) and each town/village has a station, so it is easy to visit them by train, but not by road.

It is great hiking on the old mule tracks, but the walks are neither easy nor flat. Two parts (the easy ones) of the famous Blue Trail (SVA = trail 2), the lower path that linked the 5 villages, are closed due to rock falls. The other trails are open, and involve steep climbs, often on rock steps, and narrow ledges, but the views are wonderful. The paths can be tricky, and are slippery when damp or wet, so we couldn’t hike on our two wet days. There is also great hiking north and south of the famous villages, which is just as difficult, but also great views.

For our hikes we used the Sunflower book ‘Cinque Terre and the Riviera di Levante’ walks, which was good

Link to map and info about the Cinque Terre trails

The photos are arranged in geographical order, rather than date order, as that makes more sense to the viewer.

North-west to south-east:

Chiavari

Sestri-Levante

Moneglia to Deiva Marina

Bonassola

Levanto – where we stayed

Levanto to Monterosso

Monterosso

Monterosso to Vernazza

Vernazza to Corneglia

Manorola

Riomaggiore to Portovenere

La Spezia

 

and we spent a day in Pisa before flying to Malta

 

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