{"id":2649,"date":"2015-05-05T15:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T13:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinqueterre.it\/2015\/05\/05\/content-enchanting-cinque-terre-fiat-free-italy\/"},"modified":"2021-09-22T11:55:14","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T09:55:14","slug":"content-enchanting-cinque-terre-fiat-free-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinqueterre.it\/de\/2015\/05\/05\/content-enchanting-cinque-terre-fiat-free-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Enchanting Cinque Terre: Fiat-Free Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vernazza: My favorite Cinque Terre village.<\/strong> By Rick Steves<\/p>\n

The Enchanting Cinque Terre: Fiat-Free Italy<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m up early in my favorite village on the Italian Riviera, as the morning sun touches the tip of Vernazza\u2019s bell tower and greets a peaceful world. The air is damp, cool and refreshing as I wander downhill, passing underneath the train tracks. I enjoy the fact that the town is traffic-free, and realize that my favorite Italian towns are all this way.<\/p>\n

Fiat-free Italy…just the way I like it.<\/p>\n

The Cinque Terre \u2014 as this stretch of five towns along the Italian Riviera is called \u2014 is located in northern Italy between Pisa and Genoa, and it\u2019s the lowbrow, under-appreciated alternative to the French Riviera. There\u2019s not a museum in sight, just sun, sea, sand (well, pebbles), wine, swimming, hiking, and pure, unadulterated Italy. Each town fills a ravine with a lazy hive of human activity \u2014 callused locals and sunburned visitors. While the Cinque Terre is now well discovered, I\u2019ve never seen happier, more relaxed travelers.<\/p>\n

Until the advent of tourism in this generation, the towns were poor and remote. Today, tourism stokes their economies and each is well connected by hourly trains. But traditions are resilient, there\u2019s not a chain store anywhere, and each of the five villages comes with a distinct dialect and its own proud heritage.<\/p>\n

To preserve the Cinque Terre\u2019s natural and cultural wonders, Italy has declared the region a park \u2014 towns and all. Visitors buy an inexpensive day pass to hike the scenic trail that laces together the unique communities.<\/p>\n

Riomaggiore<\/strong> \u2014 the most substantial non-resort of the five towns \u2014 is a fascinating tangle of pastel homes that lean on each other like drunken sailors. A cliff-hanging trail leads from the beach to old Nazi bunkers and a hilltop botanical garden.<\/p>\n

The next town, tiny Manarola<\/strong>, is a tumble of buildings bunny-hopping down its ravine to the harbor. You can hike up to Punta Bonfiglio \u2014 for a bar on a bluff between the cemetery and the sea \u2014 or enjoy tasty treats born right here: pesto on your focaccia, washed down by crisp local wine sprinkled with Mediterranean twinkles. Talk about going local.<\/p>\n

Corniglia<\/strong>, with its mellow main square, is the quiet town \u2014 the only one of the five not on the water. From the train station, a footpath zigzags up nearly 400 stairs to the hilltop town. According to legend, a Roman farmer originally settled Corniglia, naming it for his mother, Cornelia, which is how Corniglia is pronounced in Italian. Residents claim Cornelia\u2019s son produced a wine so famous that vases found at Pompeii touted its virtues. Still, today, wine remains the town\u2019s lifeblood. Following the pungent smell of ripe grapes into an alley cellar, I find a local who lets me dip a straw into her keg.<\/p>\n

Monterosso<\/strong>, the Cinque Terre\u2019s only resort town, comes with cars, hotels, rentable beach umbrellas, crowds, and a thriving late-night scene. Its historic center cradles Old World charm within crooked lanes and hole-in-the-wall shops.<\/p>\n

With the closest thing to a natural harbor \u2014 overseen by a ruined castle and an old church \u2014 Vernazza<\/strong> is the jewel of the Cinque Terre. Its action is at the harbor, where you\u2019ll find restaurants, a bar hanging off the edge of the castle, a breakwater with a promenade, and a tailgate-party street market every Tuesday morning. While the old men putter with their tough little boats, the day\u2019s last bit of sunshine seems to sweep the old women and children into a warm corner in front of the church.<\/p>\n

Leisure time is devoted to the passeggiata (evening stroll), as locals do their vasca (laps), wandering lazily together up and down the main street. After three days in town \u2014 sitting on a bench, gelato in hand, enjoying the endless \u201cciaos\u201d and parade of neighbors \u2014 I feel a part of the scene.<\/p>\n

I cap my Cinque Terre days on the breakwater with a glass of sciacchetra dessert wine. At midnight, the Mediterranean is darker than the sky \u2014 except for bobbing lanterns on the horizon. By night, old-school fishermen are seducing anchovies into their nets. By day, the same guys are seducing me with a way of life that refuses to give in to the modern world.<\/p>\n

 https:\/\/www.ricksteves.com\/watch-read-listen\/read\/articles\/the-enchanting-cinque-terre-fiatfree-italy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vernazza: My favorite Cinque Terre village. By Rick Steves The Enchanting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Enchanting Cinque Terre: Fiat-Free Italy » Cinque Terre Consorzio Turistico<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cinqueterre.it\/de\/2015\/05\/05\/content-enchanting-cinque-terre-fiat-free-italy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Enchanting Cinque Terre: Fiat-Free Italy » Cinque Terre Consorzio Turistico\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vernazza: My favorite Cinque Terre village. By Rick Steves The Enchanting 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