Impressions of Italy (Part 2)

Part 3 - Landscapes of Liguria

Liguria is one of Italy's northern provinces and is known for its "Italian Riviera", lemon groves, anchovies, a very potent liquer known as limoncello and pesto sauce. Probably also for stacks more things, but that's the limit of my memory.

The lemon trees were like weeds, growing oh-so-ho-hum-just-minding-my-own-business from gardens to cliff sides. The ones in the place where we stayed were monstrously huge.

From our base in the town of Levanto, we were mere minutes away by train to the Cinque Terre ("Five Lands"), a string of five villages nestled in the cliffs overlooking the Ligurian sea.

Here's a shot of the park in Levanto's main piazza, a slow minute's walk from the beach.

Lots of old people sitting around yakking, young mothers yikkety-yakking (faster than oldies, so they get a yikkety) and kids playing. More gelato shops than you can shake a cone at.

Truly la dolce vita.




Cinque Terre is usually packed with American tourists in the spring/summer months, thanks to travel writer Rick Steves. Hence our choice of the lesser-known but very charming Levanto as home base.

The villages are accessible via train (abt two minutes btwn each town), road, boat (except Corniglia) or more popularly, by a marked hiking trail that can take btwn five hours for the whole stretch btwn Monterosso to Riomaggiore to however long your miserable stamina requires.

The best part about the hike are the views of the villages and the sea. We only did a short stretch, about 2 km, from Riomaggiore to Manarola so that Snowie's knee wouldn't be too taxed. Here's the view from the trail.

The next village after Manarola (heading west from east) is Corniglia, but since it's right on top of a very high cliff with no beach, we skipped it and took a train to Vernazza.

Vernazza is probably the most pretty of the villages, with a crystal-clear harbour (remember the pretty fish?) and colourful houses & boats neatly bookended by its church with an arabian-esque dome on one side and the look-out tower on the other.

Took this shot of the village, golden in the light of sunset, from the top of the tower.



On the way down, I passed a cafe which being tucked some way up amongst the crevices of the cliffs, offered a spectacular vantage point to get this picture.

I have no idea why it's so blue here, the side facing Corniglia when it was so golden on the Vernazza side. Probably the camera settings.

Imagine spending a breezy evening outside, under the deep blue sky, slowly sipping coffee with a plateful of bruschetta, looking at this.

Shiok.

Having spent quite a bit of time in Vernazza to make Snowie cry and to have dinner, we gave Monterosso a miss, especially since it had gotten really chilly, and trained back to Levanto.

Despite it having turned out to be only Tre Terre (three lands), it really was an experience of a lifetime to have watched the sun set over a breath-takingly beautiful region. Snowie loves the sea and I love mountains/cliffs, so yeah, this leg of the trip in particular goes straight to a special place in our hearts.