The Cinque Terra – more stunning villages clinging to the cliffs

We got to the Cinque Terra easily by train. Prices here are way higher than Florence. We are paying about the same for our apartment as in Florence but it is about one third the size. Our bed is in the kitchen! The bathroom is so small you can barely dry yourself after showering.

Today we took the train from Monterosso where we are staying at the north end to Rio Maggiore at the south end, and did the 5 villages walk back. It was great – see photos. Quite a bit of up and down and stunning scenery. It’s a bit of a worry that we only walked 10 km and ascended maybe 180m and we are exhausted – that
is nothing compared to what we’ll be doing on TMB next week.

John has been learning Italian for a couple of years now and is finding our group’s pronunciation of Italian a trial. Cinque Terra is pronounced Chinkwa Terra but Graeme insists on Sankwa Terra. Meanwhile Sue can’t get her head around duomo (cathedral), pronounced dwommo – she insists on doomo. John keeps correcting but to no avail. Surprisingly I still remember the bit of Italian I picked up over 30 years ago when my mother learnt Italian and played recordings constantly at home.