Hiking the Cinque Terre
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INSIDE: The Secret Cinque Terre 5 Hip, New Rome Hotel 6 Summer Flights from JFK 6 d r a o B Don’t Forget the Plate! 7 m s i r u o T t n e m n r e v o G n a i l a t I Vernazza Sounds of the Past at THE ABBEY OF ANT’ NTIMO dream of S tep insideA the basilica of Abbazia di Sant’ Antimo and it’s S easy to imagine you’ve just walked into the pages of an Umberto Eco novel. Several times a day, the abbey’s small commune of monks assembles here to chant the Gregorian melodies of their medieval predeces- IVolume T4, Issue 2 ALwww.dreamofitaly.com YMarch 2005 sors. Their voices resonate hauntingly beneath the basilica’s vaulted ceiling, mingling with the less harmonious echoes of visitors’ footsteps across the ancient stone floor and the occasional whisper amplified by the basilica’s Paradise Found: Hiking near-perfect acoustics. It’s a sublime juxtaposition of modern and medieval ockythe coves, fallaway Cinque cliffs and yellow stuccoT errerise in tiers among that began over 1200 years ago… Apennine ridges are the back- church towers, castles and pocket-sized Rdrop to the Cinque Terre — five piazzas swirled with café tables. According to legend, this is the site fishing and wine-making villages Fishermen rowing wooden gozzi cast where Charlemagne and his troops perched at improbable angles along a their nets near spurs where sunbathers were struck by the plague while 10-mile stretch of Italy’s bask. returning from their pilgrimage to Ligurian coast just north of Rome in 781. Supposedly, an angel Tuscany. Terraced vine- For the last century or so, appeared to Charlemagne in a dream yards and olive groves the most practical way to and instructed him to make a wine climb slopes still largely approach the Cinque Terre infusion from a dried local herb — a inaccessible by road, a has been by train, an hour’s remedy that miraculously spared the hiker’s paradise stretching journey south from Genoa leader and his soldiers an almost cer- south from Monterosso al Mare to or eight minutes north from tain death. As thanks to God for their Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and La Spezia, the regional rail survival, Charlemagne erected a Riomaggiore. The Cinque Terre may not hub. Coming from either direc- monastery on this site. And to assure be undiscovered, but their remoteness tion, the coast is a flicker of brilliant its holy stature for future pilgrims, he and traditional economies have images glimpsed between tunnels. endowed the abbey with various relics preserved their peculiar, timeless So narrow and sheer are the Cinque of the martyrs St. Sebastian and St. atmosphere. Cars cannot enter the Terre’s coastal ravines that the villages’ Antimo — gifts from Pope Hadrian I arm-span-wide alleys that zigzag from train stations are mostly underground. during Charlemagne’s visit to Rome. harbor to hilltop. In summer, streets I will never forget arriving for my first become outdoor living rooms. Tall Cinque Terre hiking trip some 15 years Charlemagne’s monastery was near stone houses with pink, ochre and continued on page 2 continued on page 8 The Cinque Terre inhabit 10 miles of coastline. “I emerged blinded by the Me diterranean sun, engulfed by the sound of the sea Hiking the Cinque Terre continued from page 1 and of animated voices echoing down the operetta-set streets.” ing the western horizon bordering ed to me that there are more stones France. piled between Monterosso and Riomaggiore than in the Great Wall of Above Manarola this same ancient trail China. Most of this vertical landscape d r a o cuts midway across the slope, linking is planted with the Albarolo, Bosco and B m s i r the village of Volastra to Corniglia Vermentino grape varietals that com- u o T t n e below, via a cluster of weathered hous- bine to make Cinque Terre D.O.C., a m n r e v o es called Porciano. Two thousand years dry, light white wine. Blustery spring G n a i l a t ago, Porciano was a way station where winds are the bane of local grape I La Spezia horses were stabled, and Volastra was growers, which explains why on any of named Vicus Oleaster — village of olive the dozens of paths that scale these ago. Thinking that we were stuck in a groves. Some of the region’s finest vineyards, you come across heather tunnel, I leapt out just before the train olive oil is still made around here, and chestnut tree branches skillfully pulled free of Vernazza’s subterranean cold-pressed from meticulously gath- woven together as windbreaks. station. I emerged blinded by the ered Lavagnina olives, one of the hand- Mediterranean sun, engulfed by the ful of small, flavorful black Wine making has been the sound of the sea and of animated or green olive varieties Cinque Terre’s main industry voices echoing down the operetta-set typical of the Italian Riviera. from antiquity. About 650 years streets. ago, the effusive poet Petrarch This is among my favorite sang of the area’s “vineyards d r a Since that first trip I have returned walks. Along it you o illuminated by the sun’s benev- B m s i regularly to explore all five Cinque see locals tend- r olent eye and much loved by u o T t n Terre villages and the network of ing their olive e Bacchus.” Locals insist that the m n r e 2 v stone-paved paths linking them. and orange trees o village of Vernazza gave its G n a i l Some trails switch back and forth on dry-wall terraces a name to the grape variety t I from sea level to 2,600-foot hog- groomed with kitchen Corniglia Vernaccia, which was in fact backs bristling with pine trees, gardens of zucchini, arti- transplanted to San Gimignano then curl along the contours to nearby chokes and basil. The mountains here in Tuscany in the 1300s and is still coastal or inland villages. Hike uphill may at first glance appear to be a grown there. Of the Cinque Terre’s 45 minutes from Riomaggiore to the wilderness, but they are in fact an 5,000 residents, some 700 belong to the monastery of Madonna di Montenero, immense Mediterranean garden. local cooperative winery. Just about for example, and you weave among Throughout the Cinque Terre, tiers of every family bottles its own private vineyards, olive groves and forests of mortarless terraces — an estimated stock. But the pride of the Cinque Terre pine and chestnut trees that local histo- 1,250 miles of them — hug the con- is sweet Sciacchetrà dessert wine, made rians say were planted when the path tours. One local vineyard owner boast- from grapes dried 40 days in one of the was improved by the countless, breezy old stone canti- ancient Romans in about nas that seem to sprout from the 155 B.C. Subtract the two- hillsides wherever you look. If lane coast road halfway up you are lucky, you might meet the hill and the setting along a vineyard path a wine- does not seem to have maker willing to part with a changed substantially bottle or two of this rare nectar. since. From the monastery’s thousand-foot For sheer hiking pleasure, vantage point, your eye nothing beats the day-long, sweeps over a jigsaw puz- seven-mile coast trail linking all zle of Mediterranean coast- THE CINQUE five villages. To avoid having the line sprinkled with villas, sun in your eyes all morning, villages and castles in the TERRE start in Riomaggiore and work air. On a clear day you can north toward Monterosso. The see the Maritime Alps etch- first leg is easy — a 20-minute The Italian government offers free 20-year cultivation rights to outsi ders willing to tend the stone walls and grapes of the Cinque Terre. Me diterranean sun, engulfed by the sound of the sea of animated voices echoing down the operetta-set streets.” summer resort since the 1920s, with its call le maquis, a heady, perfumed blend own quarter-mile stretch of the Via of rock rose, broom, wild thyme and dell’Amore and a fair share of its rosemary, arbutus (strawberry trees) perennial lovers. The hour-long route and heather. Arched stone footbridges d r a o from here to Corniglia is fly across rushing streams. Every B m s i r markedly different, howev- turn of the trail seems to offer u o T t n e er. It follows the coast for a an even more spectacular see-for- m n r e v o few hundred yards, then ever prospect of nearby villages, G n a i l a t crosses a promontory and dips terraced vineyards and craggy I Manarola down to the former bed of the coastline. first railroad line to reach the area, stroll to Manarola on Via dell’Amore, a built in the 1870s and abandoned In the harvest season, the Corniglia- wide, level, seaside promenade. The about 30 years ago. Crowning the Vernazza-Monterosso section of the dozens of stone benches strategically north end of the mile-long beach flank- coast trail is overrun by grape pickers. sited here are popular not only with ing this trail is Corniglia, the third of Harvesting is still done exclusively by lovers but also with young families the Cinque Terre’s villages and the hand — there is no room for machin- and seniors.