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
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
All images on the website copyright of HettyHikes.co.uk