The journey to the water

Take a ride with me, let’s go to the water: you’ll stand on the coast of the “Five Worlds”, on a warm summer evening. Deep below the sea plays with a blue never seen before. The sun sinks into the horizon, thick chestnut forests rustle around you.

Before you read, please note: this post was translated with the help of Deepl.
If you find any errors – please have fun first and then give me a hint.

You feel the journey deep in your bones. In every single one. Your back hurts, your backpack has been pulling hard on your shoulders, for hours. You don’t want to ride another metre on this bike, but your helmet is lying in the grass, you enjoy the smell of the maquis and forget even the damp, sweaty leather that sticks to your skin.

You came from Vinschgau to Bolzano, drove through the Adige Valley past Trento to Verona. You crossed the seemingly endless Po Valley, through the ancient city of Mantova to Parma, the city of the Parmesan.

You have experienced the Passo della Cisa on the passenger seat of my Ducati – the most beautiful way to cross the Apennines. You have survived the traffic in La Spezia and marvelled at the snow-white yachts in the harbour. And now you look down from the heights over the Riviera di Levante and feel happy to have arrived in the Cinque Terre, the “Five Worlds” – five small villages clinging to the Ligurian cliffs.

Monterosso

Only a few more kilometres, then the journey to the water is over. A few minutes more, along a narrow road lined with dark forests, then the door of the hotel opens for you. No desire is greater than that for a cold shower. You fall into your soft bed and dream of the heat in Verona, of the pumpkin sellers and the dilapidated farms in the Pianura, of the views on the passes and are occasionally woken up by the train that runs through the night not far from your hotel room.

In the morning, the sun warms your skin on the hotel terrace, and while you drink your cappuccino, you hear the sea roar. One of the thousands of cats of the Cinque Terre watches you, unafraid.

Slowly you make your way along the promenade on the beach, past the fishmongers, always smelling the salty scent of the sea and the spices in the small gardens. You don’t choose the tunnel to reach the old town of Monterosso, but climb up a narrow, steep path on the rock that separates the two parts of the town. You can’t take your eyes off the sea below.

Around every corner you will discover something new: adventurous wine terraces built into the mountain, abandoned cemeteries on the hills, houses that are unbelievably nested into the hillside and again and again godforsaken, dilapidated paths through and over the mountain.

What you won’t find are discos, cinemas, lines of cars and noise.

The heat in the afternoon becomes unbearable. You make your way to the only sandy beach in the Cinque Terre – it is three minutes away from the hotel. It’s probably crowded – but after a little climb around the “Gigante” you lie down on a lonely, big rock and let the clear water cool your feet.

The afternoon passes quickly, you spend the evening in a restaurant on the promenade. There is fresh fish, rice, pasta with pesto, with mussels, with meat or vegetables, dessert with nuts and chestnuts – and the smell of heavy, sweet white wine, the divine Sciacchettrá of the Five Worlds, is always in the air.

Vernazza

The train, the only sensible means of transport here, takes you to the next village. There was little space when the station was built, so you have to get off in the middle of the tunnel. You look around and see the Cinque Terre at its best: particularly narrow and winding streets, particularly colourful fishing boats, particularly colourful house walls, particularly lazy cats … and when you climb the hill behind the village, you will be rewarded with one of the most beautiful views of the sea.

Corniglia

You can only get to Corniglia by train. Or by boat. Or on foot. But once you’re there, you’re far from being there…

The village lies on a rock high above the sea, and to visit it you have to climb countless steps. Watched by lizards, you complete the climb and experience the most original village of the Cinque Terre. Corniglia is so remote that very few people come here. There is no hotel and only two inns – if you are looking for peace and relaxation, then this is the place for you…

Manarola and
 Riomaggiore

are the other two worlds. Here, too, you walk through narrow alleys, climb winding staircases and marvel at the many different colours with which the houses have been painted.

Farewell 
from the Cinque Terre

Five Worlds. Five days … On the sixth day, you return to the hectic north through the hilly hinterland of the Ligurian coast. In the evening, on the eastern shore of Lake Garda, in the small nest of Marniga, you are once again happy to get off the bike for the day.

Marniga

Over a pizza with nuts and truffle sauce, you look across the lake, see the lights on the other shore and the villages high up on Tignale, and the aches of the long ride disappear. The homemade wine soothes your slightly numb legs.

In the small bay below Marniga you go into the water for the last time the next day. It’s not as clear as in Monterosso, but warmer, and it doesn’t taste salty … You are no longer far from home, you are relaxed and content.

The motorbike holiday ends with the journey home via Madonna di Campiglio, through the Val di Sole, over the cool Gampen Pass and through the congested Vinschgau Valley.

Will you ride
 with me again?

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