Tour Day 14, Santa Margherita, Portovenere, Cinque Terre

Santa Margherita

We were going to leave on our day’s adventures a little later than usual this morning which gave me time to walk around Santa Margherita before breakfast. You will notice in the photo that most of the shutters are still closed.

Santa Margherita

Leaving Santa Margherita

Heading Toward La Spezia

La Spezia

Arriving at Portovenere

Portovenere

Cinque Terre

Riomaggiore

Manarola

Corniglia

Vernazza

Monterosso

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Santa Margherita

Santa Margherita and the Virgin Mary statue.

Santa Margherita

Another view.

Santa Margherita

The Victor Emmanuel II statue.

Santa Margherita

Close–up of the Victor Emmanuel II statue.

Santa Margherita

Statue of Christopher Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo).

Santa Margherita

If you look carefully at the shutters on the front of this building, you will see that the bottom shutters are only painted on, a tromp l’oeil effect (painting something to look real), but the top row of shutters are real shutters. You’ll see shutters, balconies, windows, etc., painted on buildings to look real on other buildings in Santa Margherita, an art specialty here.

Leaving Santa Margherita

What happens when a large tour bus (ours) meets a truck on a sharp curve on a two–lane road. Our bus needed to be where the truck was in order to make the turn––the truck and all the cars behind it had to back up for us.

Heading Toward La Spezia

We traveled on the extension of the cliff road that we traveled on to Santa Margherita yesterday. We went through many tunnels and after we got through a tunnel we could see little villages either in coves by the water or in the hills such as this village.

La Spezia

A local guide met our group and led us to the boat that would take us first to Portovenere and then to the Cinque Terre (this was an optional tour). On the boat was an Elderhostel group. They were hiking in this area as were a number of other groups. After noticing that I had had a conversation with two of the Elderhostel group, one of our Australian tour members asked me who the group was. I answered: Our most fit Americans! The boat dropped the group off at Palmaria, an island off the coast, where they were going to spend all morning hiking. This photo is of La Spezia.

Arriving at Portovenere

The town of Portovenere.

Portovenere

A close–up view of the town.

Portovenere

Close–up view of the San Pietro Church seen in the last two on the left.

Portovenere

Photo of the village and an old castle.

Portovenere

Entrance to the street leading up to the San Pietro Church.

Portovenere

Walking up the street.

Portovenere

Menu sign outside a restaurant that we passed.

Portovenere

Another restaurant sign.

Portovenere

Paolo, our Trafalgar tour guide.

Portovenere

Stairway connecting one steep street to another steep street.

Portovenere

View of the Church of San Pietro. This black and white church is from the 13th century and is built on a stone promontory.

Portovenere

Close–up view of the Church of San Pietro.

Portovenere

The Grotto Byron seen from the rocks near the church.

Portovenere

Plaque commenorating Lord Byron’s feat. However, our guide said it is all hype and that Lord Byron never made this swim.

Portovenere

This girl sitting in an opening in the sea wall made many of us very nervous.

Portovenere

View of Portovenere from the church.

Portovenere

View of the inside of the Church of San Pietro.

Portovenere

Statue inside the church.

Portovenere

Unusual door of the Church of San Pietro.

Portovenere

Another view of the door.

Portovenere

If you want to use the toilette at a cafe, you usually first have to buy a cup of coffee or such. However, I asked the counterperson at a cafe if I could use its facilities. I should have expected something when she pointed to the toilette door and indicated “please do.” At least this is the only one such toilette that I encountered in Italy.

Portovenere

Scene leaving Portovenere.

Portovenere

A view from the sea of the Church of San Pietro.

Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre is made up of five self–contained very picturesque villages that once were only accessible from the sea. Today, there still is no road linking all of them, but there is an ancient footpath (hiking trail) that does connect them (hence, the number of hikers in this area). Surrounding the villages are vineyards from which the local dry white Cinque Terre wine is made. The five towns from the direction that we are coming from are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. This is a photo of Riomaggiore.

Riomaggiore

A close–up view of Riomaggiore. We picked up and dropped off passengers here.

Manarola

Manarola, the second Cinque Terre.

Manarola

A close–up view of Manarola.

Manarola

Another view of Manarola.

Manarola

And another view of Manarola.

Corniglia

Corniglia, the third Cinque Terre. Corniglia is the only Cinque Terre that is not right on the sea.

Corniglia

Closer–up view of Corniglia.

Corniglia

Another view of Corniglia.

Corniglia

And another view of Corniglia.

Corniglia

A close–up view of Corniglia.

Corniglia

Another close–up view of Corniglia.

Vernazza

Vernazza is the fourth Cinque Terre. View of Vernazza.

Vernazza

Another view of Vernazza.

Vernazza

We got off our boat at Vernazza using this gangplank. Not only did it move up and down, it also moved sideways on wheels on the dockside end of it. However, once on it, I didn’t find it scary, but, then, it remained steady when I was crossing it. I put a movie on this site showing passengers getting off and on it––Go to Movies, Western Europe, Italy, “Off and On the Boat at Vernazza.”

Vernazza

The harbor and piazza at Vernazza.

Vernazza

Another view of Vernazza.

Vernazza

View of the buildings lining the harbor.

Vernazza

Interesting connectors between the buildings.

Vernazza

View of the piazza.

Vernazza

Another view of the piazza.

Vernazza

Street scene.

Vernazza

Street scene.

Vernazza

Another street scene.

Vernazza

Colorful building.

Vernazza

Statue on side of a building.

Vernazza

Close–up of the statue.

Vernazza

Street scene.

Vernazza

Another street scene. Close to the time that we were to leave, a dramatic thunder and lightening storm had started, although during it the sky remained sunny. We got back on our boat, successfully negotiating that gangplank, and left Vernazza for Monterosso.

Monterosso

Monterosso is the fifth Cinque Terre. We also disembarked at this village.

Monterosso

Another view of Monterosso.

Monterosso

Time for lunch. A specialty here is Seafood Risotto. I had pizza but was given a taste of the risotto by my tablemates––excellent.

Monterosso

Another street scene.

Monterosso

And another.

Monterosso

And another.

Monterosso

I met up with my tour group and we visited this old church (“old church” here means that I don’t know how old the church is and I don’t know what its name is).

Monterosso

Inside the church.

Monterosso

Note the skeleton on the wall. I don’t know its meaning.

Monterosso

Street scene on the way to wine tasting.

Monterosso

Another street scene.

Monterosso

And another street scene.

Monterosso

We went to a wine shop for wine tasting. I didn’t do any wine tasting, as I preferred just to walk around the village. But here is a photo of the Cinque Terre wine for sale.

Monterosso

Seen on my walk around the village.

Monterosso

Another interesting scene.

Monterosso

We walked along the boardwalk on our way to catch a train to take us to Rapallo, a town near Santa Margherita.

Monterosso

Our tour group waiting for the train. It had started to rain again.

Monterosso

Our train. We were given the experience of riding on a local Italian train which made many stops.

Monterosso

Our tour bus picked us up at Rapallo and took us back to our hotel in Santa Margherita, which it is also raining.