Cinque Terre by Boat

May 2, 2012

Today is our day to take the ferry boats and visit some of the towns of Cinque Terre.  The boat service was closed yesterday due to high seas, but we really think it is because it was a holiday J  The waves are crashing over the cement dock, but the pictures just don’t do it justice.  David took some video of the ferry boat while it was loading and unloading passengers while they struggled with the up and down rocking.  We will have to post it when we return to Missoula as we don’t have enough bandwidth here. 

This shot is of David on the dock where we will be picked up by the ferry.  There is just enough room for the bow of the boat to come in to the left of that rock.  Then they have a ramp coming off the bow to allow passengers to embark. 

Danika  and Jason waiting patiently for the ferry…

The boat was full when it arrived from La Spezia, but most of the passengers got off in Riomaggiore, so we were able to get great seats.   And this is our town, Riomaggiore, from the water.  We rode the ferry several times throughout the day, so I put all of the pictures together of each town – just in case you were wondering how the weather changes so quickly J

Next we travelled to Manarola.   On the way, the waves were so big, that the spray was coming over the railing and getting us wet.  

Unfortunately, it was too choppy to stop in Manarola, so we were just able to get pictures from the boat.  The good thing is that we can easily walk to Manarola from Riomaggiore, so we can do that later.  So, here is Manarola from the water…

Next we went by Cornelia.  There is no dock for the ferry here, so again, we are limited to seeing it from the water.  Fortunately we were able to spend time in this town yesterday.

Then it was on to Vernazza.  This is coming into port.

There were not many places open.

They are still doing quite a bit of clean up (seven months later) on the beach.  You can see the bulldozer on the left…

Still, it was beautiful to be there…

This is a poster that they have hung up in town that shows the extent of the devastation.  It is just incredible how much work they have done.

This is from Vernazza looking towards Monterosso (behind Jason’s head).

The waves were crashing over the dock while we waited for the next ferry.

Leaving Vernazza...

Then it was off to Monterosso.  The ferry doesn’t go to the modern part of the town, so we only have a picture of the old historical center from the water.

We walked through town and stopped at the church.

Then went up the side streets and watched the locals cooking…

Checked out the shops…

Then we went and bought lunch to go and headed to the beach where Jason continues to try and teach me to skim rocks…

We walked over to the modern side of Monterosso too.

Then we caught the ferry again, you can see Vernazza in between the rocks…

We actually rode the ferry several times getting on and off in between Monterosso, Vernazza, and Riomaggiore.  It was so nice and relaxing to be out on the boat just watching the scenery go by.

When we finally returned to Riomaggiore we decided to get some takeout and eat on the balcony because our view was better than any of the restaurants in town.

After dinner we decided to do a little rock climbing.

 The barnacles looked really interesting to me…

We had to take a few last pictures of our town…

Then we watched the sun set together, so nice J

After that, we wanted to walk the Via Dell’Amore over to Manarola at night, so off we went.  It was almost a full moon too…

There are hearts overhead at the beginning of the walk.  They are covered in locks…

Danika and Jason were having a great time…

Those are all locks hooked onto the railing as well.

There are also lights every so often to light up the cliffs and water below…

 

It was such a lovely walk at night. When you come back from Manarola to Riomaggiore there is this beautiful mural that is lit up at night.

We had to take our last night shots of our town before going off to bed.  It is going to be hard to say goodbye to this town that I have fallen in love with.

Buonanotte,

~Mary