What's a person to do? We must visit the towns of our ancestors, and then having met relatives and made friends we must go back. But then we can not miss the "must see" Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, or those cities providing the economic and commercial heart beat of Italy: Milan, Turin, Genoa, Bologna, and the cities of the Renaissance, and Shakespeare: Padua, Verona, Ferrara, nor Pompeii, Capri, the Italian Riviera, and Sicily, and we have left out SO many deserving places.

When are we going to have time to visit so many of the small "jewels"such as this??
Starting 1,000 years ago, farmers and their families built the isolated "Cinque Terre" 5 seaside villages of Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore in northwest Italy, wedged into mountain ravines or atop promontories above the sea,  25 miles north of posh Portofino, 130 miles from the French border.

Knight Ridder
By Dianne Whitacre
Sunday, November 21, 2004

Visitors who want a break from the crowds of Rome should walk the olive-green hills and pastel Mediterranean villages of the Cinque Terre.

The name means "five lands," but they're actually ancient villages, each wedged into mountain ravines or atop promontories above the sea.

Starting 1,000 years ago, farmers and their families built the isolated seaside villages of Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore in northwest Italy, 130 miles from the French border.

Their simple three- and four-story stone houses are stacked up the hillside, each touching its neighbor. Living so close made defense against pirates easier and saved precious land for growing grapes and olives.

My husband and I visited Cinque Terre in May and hiked most of the seven-mile stone trail that runs high in those hills, connecting the picturesque villages. The train will take you to the next town in 10 minutes, compared with an hour or so on the trail.

But if you want spectacular scenery, start walking.

Cinque Terre's path was built centuries ago by early farmers so they and their burros could move their crops, travel among the villages and reach the harbors. Today, long tunnels take the railroad through the foot of the mountains, connecting the little towns with each other and the rest of Italy. And the old mountain footpath is now part of a national park.

We spent two full days hiking and exploring the five towns, with time to sample their wines, pesto and fresh-caught anchovies.

We'll go back.

We left Milan by train, and arrived at the Cinque Terre town of Corniglia at 10 p.m,
having called earlier to let the owner of the home-like hotel know that we would be very late for our reservations.

We were heading to the Cinque Terre on the advice of travel writer Rick Steves' book "Italy 2004," which emphasizes traveling inexpensively and seeing less touristy sights.

Steves' book says reservations are unnecessary in the Cinque Terre because rooms in private homes are so plentiful.

Tiny population

We walked 15 minutes uphill on the paved road linking the train station and the public square in Corniglia, a town of 500. The owner had arranged for a friend of his  to take us from the train station to the hotel.

Speaking only Italian, she motioned us to follow her through our first of many caruggi - narrow alleys lined with apartments and shops. We meandered on in the dark past dozens of closed doors, walking on cobblestones worn slick by centuries of footsteps.

Our room cost only 50 euros a night - about US$62 - so we weren't sure what to expect. But we were pleased. Our modest third-floor room had a shared bathroom in the hallway and a small balcony with a view of the Mediterranean. There was no beach, just the steep mountains sinking into the sea. And on those misty green hills were stacks upon stacks of terraces that farmers had carved out hundreds of years earlier for grapes.

Stone is easy to find here; flat land isn't.Over the centuries, Cinque Terre farmers made their own flat land by cutting back the slope of the mountains and piling up rock terraces for their vineyards.

As the population grew, terraces were cut farther up the mountains, so today from the air the ribbed hills look like green corduroy.

The next morning we explored our caruggi - Via Fieschi - and found an alimentari (small grocery), delis, restaurants, wine shops, even a hairdresser. Most of the apartments were on the upper floors, with balconies for laundry and flowerpots.

We were the only Americans eating breakfast in a tiny neighborhood store, which sold homemade pastries and cappuccino . The owner's cat patrolled beneath the tables, ready for handouts.

Many Cinque Terre families rent rooms to tourists, so before we left America I
e-mailed one of those listed in my guidebook in Corniglia, who held a room  for our second and third nights.

'Frugal man's Riviera'

Cinque Terre and its beautiful but workaday towns are known as the "poor man's Riviera compared with posh Portofino 25 miles north. I'm sure Cinque Terre is thick with tour groups in the summer, but we saw only one bus of Germans during our spring trip. Most visitors appeared to have driven cars or arrived by train. Their daypacks showed they planned to hike.

Visitors often stay in one town and hike the Cinque Terre trail to explore neighboring villages. The longest hike takes five hours, from Monterosso on the north to Riomaggiore on the south. You can also take a north or southbound train in the morning and spend the day walking back to your hotel, exploring each town along the way.

We met dozens of hikers on the trail, a few Americans but mainly Germans, Brits, Swedes and several bold feral cats. Some cats would stop for a rub and a taste of American beef jerky. Others just shared the path with us, going on their own journey.

The stone trail takes you miles through the terraced olive groves. Around occasional bends you'll see a breathtaking view of the next seaside village, its pink, green, blue, yellow and tan houses spilling down the steep hillside to the Mediterranean.

Exotic flora

Many of the vineyards and groves have been abandoned and are wild with a volunteer forest. I saw azaleas, poppies, sweet peas, mustard, Queen Anne's lace, peonies, roses, snapdragons, succulents and century plants. They were growing along the trail and on the edge of the villages, in the tiny yards of the newer houses - those only a century or two old. The owners didn't waste space with grass, but filled their few feet of dirt with lemon and olive trees, artichokes, garlic and basil.

We spent two hours on a tough but panoramic hike between Corniglia and Vernazza, just enough time to work up an appetite for exploring Vernazza, splitting a bottle of wine and deciding on a restaurant.

Cinque Terre is known for its pesto, anchovies and limoncino, a drink made from the peel of the locally grown lemon, mixed with sugar and alcohol. Its sciacchetra is a white dessert wine made from almost-raisins.

Vernazza is the most spectacular of the villages and the most photographed. (When we returned home, I noticed a watercolor of Vernazza among paintings on display in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center.)

A narrow hook of land creates a quiet harbor, the center of this colorful village. A dozen small boats were pulled up onto the sand, others tied nearby. There was a castle ruin to explore, outdoor restaurants, shops and an old church.

Our last town was lovely Monterosso, a small resort with a white sandy beach and clear blue water. We had hiked five miles that day and planned to take the train back to Corniglia. That gave us time to explore and gather supplies for the picnic dinner we planned for our seaside balcony - prosciutto, gorgonzola, olives, artichokes. Then we found a sweet-smelling bakery for crusty bread and tarts. The proprietress also sold wine, and offered us paper cups and asked if we wanted the bottle opened.

We hesitated. Surely we couldn't drink wine on the train. The woman looked at us like we were from another world. "Of course you can drink wine on the train," she said. "This is Italy."

Taiwan News Online
http://www.etaiwannews.com/Travel/
2004/11/21/1101005283.htm