Blue Trail Cinque Terre Hilltop Towns Tuscany

The Sunday Times January 5, 2020 9 C WWALiSA if you want to bypass the first BLUE TRAIL Monterosso bit of the track, to Manarola, Vernazza, left, which is under repair (£6.50, CINQUE TERRE and Manarola Vernazza or £14 including the train; are linked by the • Corniglia www.parconazionale5terreit). In their delicious array of Sentiero Azzurro • There's little to choose * ice-cream shades,the five Manarola— between the villages: they're fishing villages ofthe Cinque all ridiculously charming. Riomaggiore Terre cling to the cliffside Corniglia is the quietest and Portovenere• above the Ligurian Sea. 2 miles the hardest to reach, but They're linked by eight miles worth it for the excellent ofthe Sentiero Azzurro, seafood lunch at La Posada; which winds up through a Manarola has the best wine, national park, along terraces a sweet Sciacchetra; and of olive groves and vineyards, Monterosso has a sandy beach. hugging the contours ofthe But for us it has always been coastline tighter than a Vernazza, with its tiny harbour nonna's elasticated waistband. and excellent negronis at the It's gloriously pretty, but Ananasso Bar. does attract a crowd. Spring is If you've a day to spare, walk best: the weather is good and the eight eye-popping miles visitor numbers are down.Stay of the Blue Trail east from at the friendly Cinqueterre Riomaggiore to Portovenere — Residence, in Riomaggiore fewer people, higher views and (doubles from £152, B&B; the option to come back by sea cinqueterreresidence.it), and (from £12; incinqueterre.com). plan your walk to Monterosso — east to west. A Cinque Terre Marco Brizzi offers guiding Trekking Card gives you access from £168 a day(www. to the trails, and a train option parconazionale5terre.it). lets you hop on and off, useful Fly to Genoa with BA but since Stromboli erupted From here, a day's travel HILLTOP TOWNS TUSCANY VOLCANO in August, access has been over land and sea will take monitored on a day-to-day you to the middle of Sicily and WALKS SICILY basis. The mountain puts on to Etna,the daddy ofthem all an almost daily display of — at 10,991ft, with more than Florence • If you're the kind of adrenaline pyrotechnics, spurting red-hot 300 cones and four summit junkie who thinks trelddng in molten rock high into the sky — craters, it's the largest volcano Tuscany looks tame, how about a thrilling backdrop to a night- in Europe. After a four-hour San Gimignano Colle di hiking up a volcano? Italy has time descent. climb, with your guide in tow, Val d'Elsa more than a dozen. Ofthese, you'll be rewarded with views Vulcano and two ofthe most from the edge ofthe savage Volterra• Siena active, Stromboli and Etna, all Stromboli crater to the very limits ofthe • 10 iniles part ofthe Sicilian archipelago, Tyrrhenian Sea island. Magnificent. offer extraordinary landscapes for walking. OVulcano Exodus has seven nights in Italy's boot was made for After the deadly White Island • Milazzo Sicily, withfive days ofguided walking. And there's no better eruption in New Zealand last walking on Vulcano, Stromboli place to start than the hilltop month,it should be noted that r-- Sicily and Etna,from £1,249pp, B&B, towns of Tuscany, rich with all Italy's licensed volcano Ionian includingflights to Catania fabulous art and architecture, guides are required to adhere Lna Sea 20 miles (exodus.co.uk) groaning with delicious food to Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica Continued on page10 e and wine,and surrounded by e Vulcanologia risk assessments glorious landscapes. and read daily activity reports, Kick off a week's hiking with so that Sicily's craters, thermal a circular walk round the walls springs and black beaches can of medieval Volterra, with its all be experienced safely. noble 13th-century Palazzo dei Tackle the Aeolian Islands Priori and great Pinacoteca first. Take a ferry from Milazzo (art gallery); don't miss Rosso to Vulcano for a gentle Fiorentino's heartbreaking introduction to the volcano Deposition from the Cross named after the Roman god of altarpiece (Volterra card £14; fire. Its Fossa cone has been comune.volterra.pi.it). quiet since 1890, but a hike up Next is a 15-mile trek to the crater at 1,280ft reveals northeast along well-marked that the mountain is only tracks through woodland and sleeping. Fumaroles spurt wheatfield to San Gimignano, vicious-smelling gases and the once home to 72 medieval rocky ash paths shift under skyscrapers, of which 14 your feet. Vulcano has a remain. Take time to visit the Trace Volterra's Etruscan, Roman and medieval history calmer side: the mudbaths and Santa Fina chapel, with its hot springs that will soothe Ghirlandaio frescoes, while d'Elsa, famed for its artisan favourite is II Palio), watching your aches after the climb. you rest up for 48 hours(L11; glass-makers. the passeggiata go by. Stromboli, a two-hour ferry www.sangimignanomusei.it). The final leg is 15 miles, ride away from Vulcano, is Refreshed, set off on a part ofit along the Via Inntravel has a seven-night another beast entirely: if you're seven-miler through the more Francigena, the ancient self-guided walk in Tuscany walking independently, hire a typically Tuscan scenery of pilgrims' route to Siena, where from £865pp,B&B, including certified volcano guide to lead vineyard and olive grove, you should arrive just in time maps and luggage transfers you up(from £24pp; magma across the River Foci to the for a richly deserved aperitivo (inntravel.co.uk). Fly to Florence trek.it). It's a good three-hour fortified town of Colle di Val in a cafe on the Campo(our with BA or to Pisa with easyJet climb to the summit,at 3,031ft, Vulcano last erupted in 1890.

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