The weather finally obliged us and started to improve - great timing as these were the days for visiting Portofino and Santa Margherita, and then the much anticipated Cinque Terre. The Cinque Terre day was brilliantly fine which helped show off the area to best advantage.
Portofino is a hideaway for wealthy boat owners and people who have family villas nearby.
Access is by primarily by boat and there are regular ferries circulating around Portofino and other towns in the area. The ferries bring the proletariat to ooh and aah and spend their money in the shops and cafes. But other than that Portofino and S Margherita are lovely spots with nice beaches. Its hard to overlook the local habit of having beach concessions where you pay to hire a space with a deck chair, changing cabin etc - that takes some getting used to!
The Cinque Terre (five lands) are five villages wedged into the steep coastal hills that drop into the Mediterranean Sea. For a long time they were only accessible by boat or on foot. Today there is an expensively engineered road, and I'm afraid there is a railway too - look forward to more on that later.
But we went in by boat which is the funnest way in our opinion. The boats just nudge in to a concrete or rock landing place and everyone gets on/off over a temporary gangway. This is not something you can do safely when there is any sort of rough sea, so the ferry service is often suspended without warning.
The villages are quaint, steep and spectacular. You would quickly get fit living there from all the steps and walking. There is a coastal walkway between the villages but unfortunately (other than the northern part) it is still closed for safety concerns after a landslide injured 3 tourists about 1 year ago. Some of us did the northern part - about 90 minutes walking between Vernazza and Monterosso. This walk was for me one of the highlights of the whole trip. Spectacular views and great to be out in the fresh air. The track was a bit like the Routeburn in its condition and walking challenges - but if we thought the Routeburn was busy then this one was busier (much) and there were blockages on the narrow sections and long delays stuck behind slow groups.
Lunch at Monterosso after the walk was well earned. We had a looong one, in a cafe in the square with trains rumbling past frequently on the viaduct that ran through the middle of it. But no one minded.
Couldn't resist coming back by train part of the way of course. It is a serious train track - passenger trains run every 20 min or so and sizeable freight trains too. Pretty much the whole route through the Cinque Terre is in tunnels due to the terrain. The track pops out from time to time for stations in the open air. But there isn't room for a full length platform so they are extended into the tunnels - very narrow, not much standing space behind the yellow line so quite nerve wracking to be waiting there when a non stopping train comes past.
I think the Cinque Terre lived up to the hype and our long anticipation - a very good day!
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