Monterosso
ITALY, GREECE & MONTENEGRO Diary : Day 3 - 04th May 2018
Cinque Terre translates to "Five lands" in Italian ( pronounced as CHIN KWA TERRA). The area got its name from the centuries old, 5 fishing villages/towns of MONTEROSSO, VERNAZZA, CORNIGLIA, MANAROLA & RIOMAGGIORE occupying it. Monterosso is the western most Town of the five. These series of sea side fishing towns/ villages, lie in the La Spezia riviera, right outside the border of Tuscany. As such, the La Spezia town is the key providing easy entry to these five. Each one of these are a photographer's delight. They are characterised by colourful buildings that are not so high, built in step down fashion on and around the hills, flanked by waters of the Ligurian sea on one side and green mountains on the other, with various sized rocks playing a major role in shaping feature, unique to each of them. Undoubtedly, a visit here became a part of our Itinerary.
Waking up to a bright day in Florence that morning, we walked down to the Campo di Marte station to take a train to La Spezia. The tickets were booked in advance, online. We reached La Spezia by 9:30 am. We sat on the clean Platform, waiting for our next train to arrive. We chose to visit the farthest, the town of Monterosso first. Trains connect all these 5 places, with tracks cutting through the mountains wherever required. There are also walking trails connecting them which are used widely by tourists who have more time on their hands. The CT train pass offers unlimited train travel between them. As we didn't plan on staying there, point to point tickets worked out cheaper.
We decided to visit only 4 of the 5 towns/villages, leaving sufficient time to explore each of them by the end of day. We booked train tickets to shuttle between the towns/villages of our choice on RAIL EUROPE website. The journey from La Spezia to Monterosso lasted 25 minutes. The train cut through tunnels and displayed some of the best coastal views on one side and mountains on the other. The railway station in Monterosso opened up wide to the beach side. It is the only land of the 5 with a relatively flat layout. We stepped out to a wide walkway, that stood at a certain height , forming a balcony overlooking the beach. The beach side seemed relatively empty at that time. We saw blue lounge chairs with orange umbrellas.
We climbed down a few stairs to get to the beach. The town, from here, seemed to be colour coded. The surrounding buildings were yellow, mild green or mild orangish pink. The blue waters were very inviting, we decided to take a dip. The ladies spent a while frolicking in the waters, while the men watched over the belongings. The so called changing rooms on the beach side were so small, with a sandy floor. There were no latches in few. It however served our purpose. We changed and hopped rocks in a bid to dry ourselves. The beach side had very small rooms, enough to facilitate change of clothes. We walked up to the MONTEROSSO GIANT carrying a part of a beach side restaurant on his shoulders. The 100 year old, 14 ft tall giant is the statue of NEPTUNE, the sea god. Its original structure had suffered a bombing.
We got back to the roadway , called VIA FEGINA and walked slowly to reach its dead end. A walking trail begins at this end. This trail, climbs up to the TORRE AURORA, curves and slides down into the Monterosso town. The trail then continues from further up the town, connecting to the other 4. To the left of the dead end was a pedestrian tunnel also leading directly to the town centre. This tunnel splits Monterosso into old & new town and also occasionally accommodates the few cars of the town.
We chose to explore the flat, tunnel route first. The 'not so long' tunnel led us to a beautiful ITALIAN town square. To our right was a large cemented empty area, at a lower level, lying decorated with huge pots of flowering plants and a chess board painted out on its floor, almost in the centre. This entire area overlooked the sea. As deserted as the beach side looked, this part of the town looked busy enough to be called a city. A yellow bridge ran across at a height connecting one side to another. Both sides were flanked by step down buildings. We walked down to the cemented area before getting under the bridge, to have a peek into the interiors of the town. There were plenty of shops & restaurants.
From the cemented area, a well laid out, short trail led us up the hill. This again connected to the TORRE AURORA. We decided to take a look.