Cinque Terre....or Not

I arose at 6:00 yesterday morning, eager to be on my way to Cinque Terre on the west coast of Italy, near the Italian Riviera. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and warm and I was in good spirits. On my way out the stone gate to the city, a woman entering in her station wagon, cut the corner too close and ran over my wheeled backpack containing my computer. What’s worse, she didn’t even stop to see if was my bag she’d hit or my foot. Such flagrant disregard for my person! I should have looked more closely to see if it was actually one of those hideous marionettes driving.

The trip northwest through Florence, Lucca, and on to La Spezia was uneventful, if a bit long at 4 hours. I traveled through at least 10 tunnels, including one hair-raising one which exited on a sharply curving, narrow bridge crossing a deep gorge just outside Lucca. Yikes! It was enough to give me a heart failure. Worse yet, in one of the tunnels, a motorcycle was driving down the center line, passing cars right and left. Made me wish I’d taken a Valium for my nerves before I left home!

In La Spezia I got my first glimpse of the blue, blue water of the Ligurian Sea. The harbor was full of ships and I saw the rigging of what looked to be a masted schooner, but I could not see the body of the ship itself due to some sort of retaining wall.

C inque Terre or “five lands” is not far from La Spezia, and I stopped at the conveniently located tourist information center upon entering the park, only to find it closed. My blood sugar was dropping so I headed to the attached restaurant, closed again; and then tried the local specialties shop, also closed. I was beginning to detect an unfortunate trend.

The area is absolutely breathtaking, steep mountains dropping precipitously into the turquoise waters. Houses cling to the steep mountainsides by some mysterious fashion, and the land is cultivated by a series of steep terraces planted with grapes vines and olive trees. The narrow road was just barely notched into the hillside with few guardrails to protect the unwary traveler. The frequent cyclers and hikers just added additional hazards to make the route much like a dangerous and life-threatening obstacle course.

Eventually I turned off the main road onto a local village road and the real fun began. The road was one lane wide, and extremely twisty, with switchbacks and blind curves and only a few narrow areas to pull off to the side in the event one car needed to pass another. After 15 nerve-wracking minutes I passed a parking area on the right, but elected to continue in toward the town. One thing I have learned is never to park in the first car park I come to as it is often located a mile out of town. As I made my careful approach into the village saw a sign showing a roundabout, so thought I’d turn around there and go back to the parking lot. Great idea, but just then a hat wearing lady gave me the evil eye and lowered a cross bar across the road barring my access and making me feel unwelcome. Now what was I to do? I was on a one lane road with a metal railing on the right to keep me out of the bay, and a steep hill on the left. Fortunately, there was a small, upward sloping drive way to the left, so I negotiated a complex series of maneuvers and managed to turn the car around under the disapproving stare of the Gate Keeper and a number of tourists who’d stopped to enjoy the show. I fancy they were laying down bets as to whether I could successfully turn around or would nick the metal railing. Ha, I showed them! At any rate, my nerves were now frayed and I didn’t feel welcome in the town, so I headed back out.

Back in La Spezia, I stopped by McDonald’s for a terrible Big Mac and a tour of the toilet paperless bathroom. I exited the autostrada in Carrara to look for a hotel thinking I could stay the night and explore the area another day when I wasn’t so tired. Think again! I drove around Carrara for an hour and never saw one hotel, guesthouse, B&B or anything of the sort. Carrara is a good-sized town so how could it contain no hotels? Granted, after an hour of driving up and down one-way streets trying to avoid Vespas and cars that stop in the middle of the street for no apparent reason, I didn’t want to stay in Carrara either. Incidentally this is the town where the world famous white marble is mined, and large blocks were visible here and there all over town, looking like a series of misplaced icebergs.

Next stop was Montecatini Terme, a city famous for its natural springs, and which contained a multitude of hotels for those there to partake of the curative waters, however I either could not find parking to inquire about a room or I located nearby parking only to be told the hotel was full. It had become one of those hamster-in-a-wheel-never-getting-anywhere kinds of days. Finally, 11 hours after setting off, I returned home. Next time I will make a hotel reservation and save myself the headache!