Italy just kinda fits us. Our travel ethos is pretty much: walk around, see some things, eat good food, drink good drink.

Well, Italy certainly has some things to see. But even more than that, it’s got some good food, and some damn good drink. You know that to be true as you look at the map, at the names of cities, and say to yourself, “I’ve eaten that!”

In that vein, on our way out of Como we made a lunch stop in the city of Parma, and you’ve definitely eaten that. For me, a meat and cheese board, with a bottle of wine, is about as close to godliness as we humans can get. And, well, Parma can deliver some of the best of all of that.

Parmigiano-reggiano (parmesan) cheese, and prosciutto di Parma (Parma ham) are what it’s most famous for. But it’s also well known for Lambrusco wine, a sparkling red wine made from Lambrusco grapes, which are grown in the Parma area (as well as other areas in Italy).

We stopped and visited the Salumeria Garibaldi to try all three. An adorable little shop, you can sit down and order an enormous platter of prosciutto and parmigiano, a pasta dish, and a few cups of Lambrusco on the side. Was it a healthy lunch? Not particularly! Was it the perfect lunch? You damn well know it was.

After lunch, we had a little bit of time to walk around and see the town (and let our Lambrusco wear off). I remember we’d read on the internet that Parma wasn’t really anything to see. I couldn’t disagree more! We were charmed by the city. We loved walking along the river, and I’d wished we’d had more time to spend there.

La Spezia

What I remember about the city of La Spezia is searching for our AirBnb in the hills above town, driving up and down the narrow, mostly one-way (how civilized) streets that thatched their way up the hills. Our cell connection was spotty, and Google Maps kept thinking we were there when we weren’t.

Unfortunately, that’s all, because we didn’t spend any time exploring La Spezia itself. It was our base of operations for visiting Cinque Terre, and we only gave ourselves two nights there. Once we finally found the AirBnb, it was back into the Fiat to drive down and visit our first coastal town.

Porto Venere

Just south of La Spezia, at the rocky tip of a little peninsula, is another commonly visited UNESCO Heritage site close to Cinque Terre, the town of Porto Venere. Depending on your viewpoint, you could see Porto Venere as an appetizer for your Cinque Terre visit, or as a worthy alternative main course. I’d encourage you to take the latter perspective, but we’ll get to that.

We parked outside of town–the only option, there are no cars in town–and walked in along the main road. We had a beautiful afternoon for our visit, and the view of town as you walk in is wonderful.

As you walk along the waterfront, and through the narrow streets, the town is terribly charming. Old city walls, colorful building facades, with a castle–the Castello Doria–perched high on the hill overlooking it all. The Mediterranean is a shimmering blue. As you slowly stroll the streets, you have all the space you need to take it all in, or to take a picture, or to just take a breath. The foreshadowing is thick here, I know.

At the tippiest tip of the peninsula is the Chiesa di San Pietro, a church dating back to the year 1198. It’s a beautiful spot, on a rocky outcropping with the sea surrounding you.

Feeling a little run down already, and planning to hike a lot the next day in Cinque Terre, we didn’t climb the hill to see the castle up close. No matter, Porto Venere offered us plenty down at sea level. We had a wonderful, relaxed visit, and just mostly enjoyed the sea breeze and views.

Cinque Terre, Christ…

You know about Cinque Terre, of course. You’ve seen the pictures of the colorful towns practically chiseled into the seaside hills. You know it’s one of the must-sees in Italy.

You know how I know that you know of it? Because you.were.all.there.

All of the world was there! Italy, in general, is drowning under tourists as we’d come to see over the next few weeks, but nothing was like the tourism hell that is Cinque Terre. (Well, actually let me hold off on giving them that title, we still have to talk about the Vatican Museums in a few posts…)

From the moment we got to the train station in La Spezia, we figured we’d made a mistake. It was like the entrance to a stadium for a major event–a huge crowd of people smashed into this tiny outdoor station. Waiting our turn for the ticket station, so we could buy our Cinque Terre passes, was interminable. But, I mean, it’s Cinque Terre! You have to see Cinque Terre right?

Wrong, I say. Don’t do it. Just don’t do it! Look, the Italian countryside towns and seaside towns are not lacking for charm, anywhere. Seriously, we instantly fell achingly into love with every random town we went to in Italy. As I hinted heavy-handedly earlier, Porto Venere, where we were just the day before, is a much better alternative. All the color, beauty, and charm, with none of the tourists.

But, we’re here now, sitting in this rickety-ass train car on our way to Riomaggiore, the first of the Cinque Terre towns. So let’s make the most of it then, and talk about what we did like.

Ahem, I mean… Cinque Terre!

For the six people who weren’t there that day with us, and don’t know what Cinque Terre is, it’s just five microscopically small towns, all close to one another, glued to the coastal hills just south-east of Genoa. It was given the title of a UNESCO Heritage site, and with that came the unbearable floods of tourists.

The five towns–Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso–are connected by a train out of La Spezia. As a tourist, this train is pretty much your only way in, other than hiking in–which is not uncommon: the ‘high path’ trail, which starts in Porto Venere, can be hiked to get to the Cinque Terre towns. We saw hikers returning to Porto Venere when we visited there.

The Cinque Terre pass you have to buy gets you access to this train for the whole day–you can ride it up and down between the towns, hopping on and off as you like. Once you get into the Cinque Terre area, there are plenty of trails you can hike between the towns, including the high path which I already mentioned. Hiking between and through the towns was pretty much our plan.

The internet will tell you that the ‘blue path’ is the most popular trail there… but I don’t know how that can be. Because when we went, in 2018–and even now, I see, in 2021!–a significant portion of the blue path was closed due to landslides. It’s basically unusable between Riomaggiore and Corniglia.

We got off the train in Riomaggiore, took a brief look around, then got back on the train to continue on to Manarola, where we planned to start hiking from. As I said, the blue path–which is closer to the water, and lower in elevation–was closed, so we had to head up into the hills instead. And up. And up and up.

It was steep, and in the full sun it was ungodly hot. But, man, getting up into those hills gets you some stunning vistas.

We continued through these hills to the third town, Corniglia. The view coming down into the town was probably my favorite.

A friend had told us about a place in Corniglia to get cannoli. So, we poked our way through the narrow alleys in town, looking for the spot. Sadly, we didn’t have any luck, so cannoli-less we continued on our hike. From here, we were able to take a portion of the blue path that was actually open, which we followed to the fourth town, Vernazza.

By now, we were well and truly beat, the sun having taken all of our energy. So we ended our hike there, and decided to skip the last town and instead just take the train back to La Spezia, and head home.

Next Time on The Great Italian Road Adventure

We’ve got a stop planned at another famous Italian tourist hell-hole, on our way to our next extended stay. This time, we’ll be heading into the heart of the Renaissance. Stop by soon as we explore the art and culture of Florence!