Day 43: Pink, Peach and Mustard in the Red, White and Green.

Date: Saturday 10^th May
Staying: Camping Arenella – Deiva Marina, Italy
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Pacifier - Shihad

I know you’re all in suspense: Did our intrepid travellers indeed make it to Cinque Terre? Were they thwarted by the evil train timetable and striking workers? Will we ever see under Cam’s beard again? All this and more will be answered in today’s blog.

Knowing how anxious we were to be off to the villages, the nice receptionist was delighted to tell us that the trains were indeed running, so by 10am we were off to Riomaggiore. Technically it is the fifth village but, being the furthest away, we thought we’d do that one first.

Three of the five villages (Riomaggiore, Manarola, Vernazza) are built into narrow valleys that open out onto the waterfront, with either side of the valley being built up with houses in the traditional peach, pink and mustard colours with forest green shutters. The clear Mediterranean sea washes up at the base of the villages, exposing the huge stones beneath the surface. For a little effort, each village has spectacular views that are well accompanied by coffee. The third village (Corneglia), is high up on a hill (even from the train station you have to walk up), with views down the coast in both directions. The first village is Monterosso al Mare, and is more a waterfront town with two sections – beach at one end, and the old town at the other. It’s more like Lido is to Venice, as there is traffic in Monterosso, whereas the other villages are more or less traffic-free.

Despite having a whole day, there’s no mucking about if you want to see all five villages. Cam resolved to walk between Riomaggiore, Manarola and Corneglia, while my dodgy foot and I took the train with the roving tourist hordes. For all the tourists, it’s still beautiful. It’s nice to dream of a life involving throwing open your shutters in the morning, breathing in the sea air, chatting to your neighbours on the step, having a kip in the afternoon, then long evenings of lazy dinners which start late and finish late. It took us until nearly 7pm in the evening to see all the villages (and even then we cut Montorosso a bit short), but there are so many shops to poke around in, and if you stopped for gelati in every place, well you’d never make it (we stopped for one in Vernazza with the most biting lemon sorbet I’ve ever had).

So there you have it – the intrepid travellers made it. Tune in next time for more tales of adventure and woe. Same blog time, same blog channel.