The Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre

If you harbor any doubts about the ability of Italian transportation engineers to dig tunnels, go check out the train line that runs through (not past or over or along . . . through) the coastal terrain of the Cinque Terre. That line consists of one improbable kilometers-long tube that winks into daylight at each of the five clefts in which the five towns of the Cinque Terre are shoehorned. At night as you drift off towards slumberland in your pensione you smile drowsily at the rumble of distant thunder, but the rain doesn’t come. That thunder is the auditory product of trains passing through the mountains around you.

You reach your pensione by rappelling down from the train station, and you reach the grocery-and-wine shop by climbing back up with pitons and carabiners. Unless you happen to possess a pair of piston-like twenty-year-old knees that can handle the stairs.

Back in your great-grandparents’ day before the railroad and the asphalt road arrived, the locals hacked trails into the terrain and visited between towns by foot. These days people come from the world around to pretend they are 19th-century peasant olive farmers off to visit Zia Sophia over the mountain in Monterossa. Despite the sweating and the puffing and the screaming knees, that stroll is if anything underrated.

As is the ferry ride back to Riomaggiore and the birra that awaits you.

17 thoughts on “The Cinque Terre”

  1. Hey, you are determined to entertain us. THANKS. But a climber you are not…pitons?
    Unlikely.
    What a trip. It reminds me that I have not traveled Italy for a long time. Putting it on my bucket list. Thanks again.
    Take care.
    Jean

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  2. I love your guys Excerpt Posts. I can tell the writing is done by Bill. The sense of humor is unmistakable.

    I hope when time, spirit, and space exists that Bill will be able to do a little “feeling” as well about life, death, and family. All in good time and no need to rush.

    We love you both and think you are great and appreciate being included in your journey.

    Thanks, Blessings, and Peace…

    —
    Tom Ellis

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  4. Ok, you’re having way too much fun now. It’s time to come home, we need you here. (but if I were you I would ignore that and extend by a few more weeks)

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  10. I’VE DONE MY SHARE OF TRAVELING….NOW I LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT OTHERS WHO CAN STILL MUSTER THE STEAM AND MUSTARD…PLUS …..BIG ITEMS LIKE……TIME AND MONEY….THANKS FOR THE UPDATES….I LOVE ITALY TOO…….FLORENCE

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  11. Thanks, Bill and Lori, for the wonderful writing and pictures. We love being included and can only imagine the fun you are having together on yet another adventure! We love you both! Jackie and Michael

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  14. I’m not sure which is more inspiring the unparalleled vistas depicted In those photos or Bill’s unbelievable ability to create imagery via story-telling. Bill, I have traveled quite a bit and your narration would have really punctuated each of those trips so nicely for my friends and family. 😉 So happy you guys are having such fun and allowing u
    us a peek at your adventures. Love you both!

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  15. Monterossa!! That is the place where the picture at the top of our stairs was taken!! Did you go there? Love the stories, as always! Miss you both! xo

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