Cinque Terre: Manarola & Monterosso

One of my most favourite days spent in the Cinque Terre was a day of eating, swimming and micro adventure. By chance, the day we chose to explore Manarola and Monterosso – two of the best swimming spots of the area, was the warmest day of our holiday.

With our morning ritual locked in (by day 2!), we sipped down our coffee at the espresso bar at the bottom of our building and then crossed the road to Rosi’s bakery. Ligurian focaccia is slightly different than other types we had eaten. It is crisp, with a tight, white crumb. Yet also moist from the lashings of olive oil coating it’s surface.

Choosing which focaccia to eat each morning for breakfast was almost as hard as choosing which gelato to have for dessert. Our favourites included roasted potatoes with rosemary, or stracchino (runny, mozzarella-like) cheese with tomato. Learning how to cook this type of bread is high on our 2018 to do list.

As the famous Via del Amore ‘Lovers Walk’ is still closed between from Riomaggiore to Manarola (following a dispute in the council after the devastating 2011 floods), we took to the train to our destination.

Manarola places second in our list of most beautiful Cinque Terre villages. It is thought to be the oldest village in the area, with the cornerstone of the church dating from 1338. We walked to the east of the village along a path that looks back onto the main town. We sat in the sunshine on a bench carved into the rock wall.

At first this was the perfect position to admire the stunning old town, but it then proved a place to wait out the barrage of tourists who arrived with the first load of tour buses/boats/groups.

These groups pushed past us on the track that would have lead onto Corniglia if the track were open, then most double backed realising the route was closed. The bulk of the crowd had passed and emptied from the city in less than 10 minutes. We were glad we had the time to stay and explore and weren’t rushed out of town. It made me wonder how many people have missed the best parts of these beautiful towns on these stop-in-for-a-photo tour.

Back to us and our beautiful day – we sat in the warm against that wall for another while, watching the sun rise further and change the colour of the old buildings as the light flattened throughout the morning.

A walk through the backstreets proved the charm of this town. Curving streets, mimicking the lines of the ancient terraces above - planted with grapevines and olive trees. Houses with stones lining around the edge of the rooves, a homemade way of keeping the tiles down tight. There was real character to the place.

We headed to the line at Nessun Dorma – a friend had recommended this place to us and we were told to be in line before it opened for lunch. The 20 minute wait was worth it, even before the food arrived – the view back over the town was spectacular. We accidently ordered our weight in sliced meats and bruschetta. We watched numerous tables come and leave, downing their obligatory white wine faster than we finished our first line of meats. It was brilliant, so we took our time.

Filled with delicious local food, we waddled back down the path and to the harbour – it was swimming time. No rocky beaches here, just a small jetty to jump off, into the cool turquoise waters. Bliss. We dried off on the cement and got back to the station to head to our afternoon destination.

Monterosso is the largest and most westerly of the Cinque Terre villages. We searched for gelato, an important afternoon ritual and were happy to be cooled by such delciious means.

To be fair, we didn’t give this town much of our time – it seemed too big and too busy for our relaxing day – but we found it the least charming of the villages. But to be the worst of a great bunch, is no shabby feat!

We headed straight to the best part of the town - it's sandy beach, where we wiled away the afternoon with swims, beach beers and books. Perfection.