Travel guru Rick Steves has hyped the Cinque Terre so much on his Europe TV program (check your local PBS station for times) that it almost seems like we had already been there. And when we arrived at Sestri Levante near the Cinque Terre coast, it looked like we may never actually get there!
During medieval times each of the five (cinque) towns developed in the shadow of its own castle, protection from marauding Turkish pirates. The towns, perched on steep hillsides above the sea, prospered from fishing and vineyards but remained isolated from each other and the outside world. Today they are connected by roads, the railroad and a hiking trail with countless ups-and-downs. At least they were until last October when the area received 500 mm of rain in only six hours, washing out roads, causing landslides and dumping five meters of mud into the towns.
We took the train to Cinque Terre; since the floods the railroad is the area's only reliable link with the outside. We usually enjoy train travel, especially the views, but the trip from Sestri Levante to Riomaggiore was mostly inside the hills, not over them. The gap for the station at Vernazza is so tiny that we actually got off the train inside the tunnel. Italians are world-class tunnelers, the groundhogs of Europe, probably a tradition from mathematicians and engineers like Fibonacci and Leonardo da Vinci.
Our Cinque Terre experience was different from Rick Steves's - and probably from yours. No great Mediterranean vistas with fine wine under cerulean skies. No scenic walks from Riomaggiore to Manarolo, Corniglia, Vernazza and on to Monterosso. The sparkling Med was gray on this cold, rainy day. We found only one restaurant open in Riomaggiore, but the food was fantastic. Much of the trail was washed out, who knows when it will reopen. And Vernazza, the jewel of Cinque Terre, is still digging out as is neighboring Monterossa. One local told us that there is only one bar open in Vernazza, everything else, he said, is "broke."
It would have been difficult for Cinque Terre to live up to its reputation in the best of times. On this nasty winter day, after the devastation, it was impossible. But we are willing to give it another chance someday when the sun is shining and the soft breeze is blowing off the sea.
