Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tourism. It has facilities typical of the Riviera's resorts—beachfront bars and rows
of umbrellas and beach chairs for hire. (Incidentally, there's free access to the
beach only where you see no umbrellas.) Not surprisingly, there are fewer stairs
and hills to negotiate here than in the rest of the Cinque Terre. In a region lack-
ing “to do” sites, it also has one of the few listed attractions: the 17th-century
Chiesa del Convento del Cappuccini, perched on a hillock in the center of town.
It's also worth taking a look in the adjacent Church of San Francesco to view the
17th-century van Dyck painting of the
Crucifixion,
as well as work by the prolific
Ligurian artist Luca Cambiaso. The biggest drawback here is that, even when
night falls, the voices you hear all around you are unlikely to be Italian, and the
“new” residential part of town, west of the railway station, is ugly; make sure you
book in the more charming historical center, accessed through a large tunnel
(though to be sure, walking through here on a weekend feels like you're being
processed through a sausage factory). Perhaps it's obvious, but I'd be remiss if I
didn't say that Monterosso al Mare is my least favorite village in the Cinque Terre.
GETTING THERE
Given the torturous roads and lack of adequate parking facilities (a privilege for
which you also have to pay around
12 per day), the Cinque Terre is best accessed
by train.
Trains run the length of the coast from dawn to around midnight once
or twice an hour. Genoa, home to the closest international airport, lies 70 to 90
minutes west by train; La Spezia, the eastern gateway, can be reached in a mere 10
to 20 minutes. (Incidentally, Florence lies about 2 hr. away via La Spezia—and a
mid-morning intercity connection costs as little as
€
7.50.) A fun way to get here
is
by boat
—ferries ply the waters from as far afield as the Tuscan Archipelago in
peak season (July-Aug), but there are regular trips running from Portovenere and
the Portofino promontory from Easter to the end of October (for contact details,
see “Getting Around,” below).
GETTING AROUND
Travel between the villages is also easiest and quickest
by train
(it usually takes
about 5 min. to go from one village to another); a ticket costs between
€
1.10
(weekdays) and
€
1.20 (weekends), and is valid for 6 hours, so you can use it more
than once to get between the villages during this time (don't forget to validate it
before travel at the yellow machines posted at stations).
But because most of the journey is through the mountains, this is not the most
scenic way to travel, so plan to incorporate at least one
boat
trip into your hiking
itinerary (it takes 25 min.-2 hr. to walk between villages; see below). Boats working
the water on this stretch of coast include those of the
Consorzio Marittimo
Turistico “5 Terre Golfo dei Poeti”
(
%
0187-732987;
www.navigazionegolfo
deipoeti.it);
they run from Riomaggiore from about 9:20am (from Monterosso at
about 10:30am) till 5pm (later in peak season); there is no service from November
to March. You can purchase a ticket from Monterosso to Riomaggiore for
€
€
8;
return is
€
12. The cheapest run is between Monterosso and Vernazza, at
€
5.
Travel within the villages is only possible
on foot
—easy enough, given their
tiny size. Almost all tourist services—ATMs, grocers, wine shops, delis, and vari-
ous eateries—are strung along the main street that runs up from each harbor. The
park also has methane
buses
running relatively regular services (hourly or twice
