ROMAN HOLIDAYS -CINQUE TERRE

Dear friends ( Foes and semi foes steer clear off)

My appologies to all of you for not being able to visit your blogs regularly and express my appreciations for all the great postings you have made. I am missing you all.The main reason is, I am working these days, so cant get enough time....gone are the days when I used to cook and blog and read all recipes, learn them and last but not the least lie down on the drawing room sofa ( when SOMEONE is busy with her patients in her clinic) and watch Indian soap on TV. ( The firing from SOMEONE for making the sofa untidy is worth the TV enjoyment ).

Why am I posting travelouges in a cooking blog , is a disturbing question for me and from me..

The answer is simple, friends who cook , they enjoy travelling too...and this is for my friends here and not for the internet ...

So enjoy and do visit these places when you are in Italy.

CINQUE TERRE.

Chinque means 5 and Terre means establishment or villages . When I read cool lassi(e) 's blog on Cinque Terre, I just decided , someday I would see this place , knowing fully , I may not get a chance to visit Italy ever in this birth...But when my new Hong Kong Based employer informed that my 1st assignment would be at Milano, my 1st reaction was that I would see Cinque Terre....I could not belive it ....I jumped at the offer and refused all others. The assignment was for 2 weeks , that means only one weekend. Because of winter off seasons there were no conducted tours..my Italian friends suggested not to go, as it would be bad weather in February etc.

My stay kept on extending ..finally I made it when winter was less harsh and tourists were yet to crowd the place.
Here I will post few photos and rest will be at my picasa . This is just to enjoy the pictures and I am not writing a travelogue as such. Lot of information is available on the net as the place is a major tourist attraction.
The 5 villages maintain their old status. It is not possible to visit all villages and it may be bit boring, unless you stay there for couple of days.
I suggest, you explore one village , Rio Maggiore and take a walk on " Lovers lane " i,e Via dell'amoure" , along the coast to village Marnala and touch all villeges just for the kicks that you saw all 5 of them.
Here we go.
I travelled from Milano to Monterosso , the 1st village, at the north. But generally Milano is not in travel itenary of most people , unless you want to see "Last supper" by Da vincci or where the fashion has reached . So you can approach from south after seeing Pisa ( If you dont lean on to Pisa tower, your visit to Italy is useless..thats what the friends say...so my 3 months visit to italy is useless as I haven't gone to Rome , Florence and Pisa..well...well I had been to Venice twice on weekends ( 2 hrs away) and stayed a week in 98 too. Venice is the ultimate place . it is not on earth...
The villages are connected by trains and you can take walks too . Buy a combo ticket of trenitalia and sanctuary for walk and valid for as many travels as you want . 
Even if I landed at norhtern most village, I went to southen most by a train and walked back to the next  and dropped at all stations took a short walk and take a train to the next. So I can claim I visited all 5 vllages.

I am presnting the photos village wise starting with Rio Maggiore ( close to Pisa, about 2 hrs)

RIOMAGGIORE

It is famous for the world famous Logo , here it is.

At the Rio-Maggiore station, get down and take a lift 38 meters up to the village road.. ( you can take a walk up too...)

The station seen from the top after taking the 38 mneter lift.

On the street

The village at a  glance , here I had one of the best spaghetti , with fresh anchovie... yummy

Riomaggiore boat landing area , the sea was rough , so no boats were plying to other villages

Via Dell' amore

If you are in Chinque Terre , you must take the 800 meter walk along the sea, from Riomaggiore to Manarola or the other way round...just imagine walking the strech, along the sea with your near and dear ones....great isnt it?..Missing SOMEONE along the way was quite enjoyable too...what can be more enjoyable than missing someone, near and dear to you ????

See these photos and tell me , the great walk through Via Dell'amore

Via dell'amore continues , the guy with the back pack is me

The lower windows are on the tunnel of the train line and the upper ones are on Via dell'amore..

See the locks on the railing? The lovers put it there..and the municipality has tough time breaking 1000s of locks every year, to make way for others..I wonder who can break the bond of love when God Himself can not !!!!

Take a break and have a Coffee with someone speclial, take a glimpse of Manarola village at a distance, we will be there soon for esspresso .

Manarola village and the station as seen from Via Dell'amore

The train has arrived from Riomaggiore...we were in a dilema at Riomaggiore, whether to take the train or walk to Manarola...through Via Dell'amore, Thank God we didn't

The way back through Via dell'amore , I wished I could walk back to Riomaggiore and take train to Milan and to hell with other villages.

We arrived at Manarola village..the clock was ticking and we had to catch a train from the last village and we have seen only one , so lets have quick glmpses at others

MANAROLA

This village is 2nd from south

Another glimpse at Manarola

Manarola as seen from the next Village

CORNIGLIA

As I told you, we did not have much time , and hurried to the next village by train. Unlike the other ones, this village is located high on the mountains and away from the sea. But luckily we had the combo ticket of train and sanctuary , so we could take the bus to the village instead of walking up the stairs...

Corniglia railway station

Sea from the village top

The Church at Corniglia

We hurried down to the station and took a train to the next village of  Vernazza , we had only 20 minutes to catch the next train to the last village

VERNAZZA

This village has lot of places to eat... but we did not have time , just hurried to the boat landing area and came back to catch the train
.
From the station and the way to the water front

And the lonely seagul , reminds me of the famous book " Jonathan Livingstone Seagul"

The water front, , boats were not there,  due to rough sea

Finally we arrived at the village from where we started , the 1st one . Monterosso

MONTEROSSO

Some of the photos were taken in the morning when we arrived here from Milano. This is the only village which has a beach, modern hotels, eating joints etc.

The station

The old architectures

The more modern areas of Monterosso

This is the end of my trip to a dream place , will go there again if I come to Milan again