Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Breakwater:
If you're visiting by boat, you'll start here anyway. From this point, you
can survey Monterosso's old town and new town (stretching to the left, with train station
and parking lot), and actually see all
cinque
of the
terre
from one spot: Vernazza, Corniglia
(above the shore), Manarola, and a few buildings of Riomaggiore beyond that. The little fort
above, which dates from 1550, is now a private home.
These days, the harbor hosts more paddleboats than fishing boats. Sand erosion is a ma-
jorproblem.Thepartialbreakwaterisdesignedtosavethebeachfromwashingaway.While
old-timersrememberavastbeach,theirgrandchildrentruckinsandeachspringtogivetour-
ists something to lie on. (The Nazis liked the Cinque Terre, too—find two of their bomb-
hardened bunkers, near left and far right.)
The fancy €300-a-night, four-star Hotel Porto Roca (on the far right) marks the trail to
Vernazza. High above, you see an example of the costly roads built in the 1980s to connect
the Cinque Terre towns with the freeway over the hills. The two capes (Punta di Montenero
and Punta Mesco) define the Cinque Terre region. The closer cape, Punta Mesco, marks an
important sea-life sanctuary, home to a rare sea grass that provides an ideal home for fish
eggs. Buoys keep fishing boats away. The cape was once a quarry, providing employment to
locals who chipped out the stones used to build the local towns (the green stones making up
part of the breakwater below you are from there).
On the far end of the new town, marking the best free beach around, you can just see
the statue named
Il Gigante.
It's 45 feet tall and once held a trident. While it looks as if it
were hewn from the rocky cliff, it's actually made of reinforced concrete and dates from the
beginning of the 20th century, when it supported a dancing terrace for a
fin de siècle
villa. A
violent storm left the giant holding nothing but memories of Monterosso's glamorous age.
•Fromthebreakwater,walkintotheoldtown.Atthetopofthebeach,noticetheopeningsof
twobigdrains,readytoletflashfloodsripthroughtownwithout destroying things.Walking
under the train tracks, venture right into the square and find the statue of a dandy holding
what looks like a box cutter.
Piazza Garibaldi:
The statue honors Giuseppe Garibaldi, the dashing firebrand revolu-
tionary who, in the 1860s, helped unite the people of Italy into a modern nation. Facing
Garibaldi, with your back to the sea, you'll see (from right to left) the City Hall (with the
now-required European Union flag beside the Italian one) and a big home and recreation
center for poor and homeless elderly. You'll also see A Ca' du Sciensa pub (with histor-
ic town photos inside and upstairs; you're welcome to pop in for a look—see “Nightlife in
Monterosso,” later).
After the 2011 flood, it was on this square that the National Guard set up an emergency
tent, used for staging emergency deliveries, community meals, Christmas Eve Mass, and the
New Year's Eve disco. In the aftermath of the flood, many moving stories emerged. Old
ladies who couldn't help dig, helped cook. People worried that Laura, whose bakery—loved
