{"id":20566,"date":"2021-07-02T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/issimoissimo.com\/?p=20566"},"modified":"2021-06-30T18:36:40","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T16:36:40","slug":"walking-ligurias-fragile-five-star-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/issimoissimo.com\/italianissimo\/walking-ligurias-fragile-five-star-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking Liguria\u2019s Fragile Five-Star Landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Rudston Steward is the adventurist founder of Maremma Safari Club<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, guided walking trips to unexplored corners of Italy for curious travellers.<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Captivated by the coastline<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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With almost 8,000km of coastline Italy is blessed with a catalogue of spectacular seascapes,<\/strong> where the land tends to come crashing down dramatically to an immaculate cobalt sea<\/strong>. The Amalfi Coast is the most obvious example, but there are many more scattered around the peninsula\u2019s perimeter, some wild and inaccessible: the Gulf of Orosei in Sardinia, Sicily\u2019s Aeolian Islands, the Gargano in Puglia, parts of the Tuscan Archipelago. But the most poetic, perhaps, is Liguria\u2019s Cinque Terre.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The five villages<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The five villages strung out along this short and startling stretch of coast\u2014Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore<\/strong>\u2014are described by one guidebook as \u201cthe concentrated essence of Liguria at its most tenacious.\u201d Indeed, the land still supports widespread wine production on the impressive dry-stone terraces<\/strong> that scale the slopes, using custom-built rail cars to achieve what must be one of the world\u2019s most vertical wine harvests<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Until recently fishing and seafaring remained a part of the local livelihood\u2014not surprising if one recalls the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley\u2019<\/strong>s description of these waters: \u201cWe sail along this delightful bay in the evening wind, under the summer moon, until earth appears another world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Preserving Cinqueterre<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The flip-side of the Cinque Terre\u2019s achievement in preserving its traditional character, <\/strong>however, is rampant overtourism. With cruise ships disgorging thousands of day-trippers in the nearby port La Spezia, who then overrun the local public trains, the area has become a victim of its own success. During the high season the five tiny towns get completely swamped by crowds\u2014bulldozing the fragile charm of this enchanted coast into oblivion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hiking path through the grapevines in Cinque Terre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Take a hike<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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So, what to do? My usual solution in desperately overcrowded spots is simply to walk away<\/strong>\u2014and then keep walking, for a few hours or days or weeks. It\u2019s amazing how quickly you leave the crowds behind, silence the hubbub, just by taking to the hills on foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the Cinque Terre, however, this doesn\u2019t quite work. It\u2019s such a popular hiking destination that loads of other people are taking to the hills too (many of them woefully unprepared\u2014so much so that the local park authorities had to officially ban flip-flops<\/strong> from the hiking trails, to cut down on the never-ending expensive rescue missions to save injured day-trippers).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just walking is not enough: you have to go higher<\/strong>. One of the saving graces of the Cinque Terre\u2019s network of trails is that there are numerous ways<\/strong> to get from point a to b; the higher and more challenging route you pick, the less people you\u2019ll encounter. So instead of trundling along the easy \u201cofficial\u201d coastal routes check-by-jowl with the bucket-list hordes you can opt to ascend to over 700m between each town.<\/strong> Mount Malpertuso<\/strong>, for example, rises to 815m above sea level, and can be included on a route connecting Vernazza to either Monterosso to the north or Corniglia to the south.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Colorful \u201cGozzo\u201d boats rest in the Harbor of Vernazza.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Timing is everything<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The other crowd-busting weapon is timing:<\/strong> if you have the luxury of travelling out of season the experience is entirely different on the ground. I last walked the Cinque Terre on the cusp of October<\/strong> and November<\/strong>; it was an utterly memorable trip<\/strong> all round\u2014mostly due to my off-season travel dates. Few people in the towns, almost no-one on the trails, no cruise ships, cool autumnal weather perfect for walking, and finally a sea still pleasant enough\u2014if somewhat brisk\u2014to swim in at the end of each day\u2019s walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My most vivid memory of that trip is the stunning descent from Malpertuso all the way to Vernazza\u2019s iconic harbour,<\/strong> without seeing a single soul or flip-flop. I started in the sub-tropical mists of the summit, came down via the vertiginous views of pastel-coloured houses perched upon a sparkling sea, and finally plunged into the bright cerulean water. That, in my opinion, is how to walk Liguria\u2019s fragile and poetic five-star landscape.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rudston Steward walks the landscape of Cinqueterre<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9406,"featured_media":20568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[]},"categories":[288,758],"tags":[321,317,679,319,427],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWalking Liguria\u2019s Fragile Five-Star Landscape - Issimo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rudston Steward shares a walking safari through Liguria\u2019s Italian Riviera coastline and Cinqueterre.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/issimoissimo.com\/italianissimo\/walking-ligurias-fragile-five-star-landscape\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Walking Liguria\u2019s Fragile Five-Star Landscape\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rudston Steward shares a walking safari through Liguria\u2019s Italian Riviera coastline and Cinqueterre.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/issimoissimo.com\/italianissimo\/walking-ligurias-fragile-five-star-landscape\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Issimo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialissimo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-02T10:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-30T16:36:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/issimoissimo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/travel-italianissimo-cinque-terre-liguria-italy-issimo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ISSIMO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ISSIMO\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/issimoissimo.com\/italianissimo\/walking-ligurias-fragile-five-star-landscape\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/issimoissimo.com\/italianissimo\/walking-ligurias-fragile-five-star-landscape\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ISSIMO\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/issimoissimo.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a5664a8ec920d79f3a8e69a65ad4d8af\"},\"headline\":\"Walking Liguria\u2019s Fragile Five-Star Landscape\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-02T10:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-30T16:36:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/issimoissimo.com\/italianissimo\/walking-ligurias-fragile-five-star-landscape\/\"},\"wordCount\":708,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/issimoissimo.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"city guides\",\"italy\",\"italy guides\",\"italy travel\",\"travel\"],\"articleSection\":[\"ITALIANISSIMO\",\"Liguria\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/issimoissimo.com\/italianissimo\/walking-ligurias-fragile-five-star-landscape\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/issimoissimo.com\/italianissimo\/walking-ligurias-fragile-five-star-landscape\/\",\"name\":\"Walking Liguria\u2019s Fragile Five-Star Landscape - 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