We are planning to revisit Cinque Terre in May. I am looking for updates on how they are recovering from the flooding damage and which towns are best to stay in. thanks
We are planning to revisit Cinque Terre in May. I am looking for updates on how they are recovering from the flooding damage and which towns are best to stay in. thanks
The town of Vernazza and half of Monterosso al Mare are still doing major repair work to their towns. The remaining 3 towns were never affected by the floods, although some trails were affected and have yet to fully reopen.
There is an American woman who follows the progress of the repairs in a blog called "Little Paradiso", so you might want to look it up on the web.
The three towns of the Cinque Terre that were not affected by the mudslides are the three southernmost towns. Going south from Vernazza, they are:
Corniglia, which is perched on the hillside (about 300 steps from the train station or a short ride in the litle shuttle bus operated by the Cinque Terre National Park)
Manarola, which is on the water and is built up the hillside
Riomaggiore, also on the water and is built up the hillside
You can reach all of these towns by train. When checking train connections using the Trenitalia website, http://www.fsitaliane.it/homepage_en.html make sure to use the name of a town. If you specify Cinque Terre, you will not get any results.
Remember, too, as Mushroom pointed out, one part of Monterosso was affected but not the other. I believe the unaffected part of Monterosso is the "new town," which is the side with the broad beach and several hotels and B&Bs. It was built up at the end of the 19th century into the 20th century.
It is easy and inexpensive to go from one town to another by the train system. While staying in Manarola, we went to Monterosso for dinner on two different occasions.
We also enjoyed lunches in Volastra, a little village above Manarola with several B&Bs and a casual and very good restaurant/bar, Ristorante & Bar"Gli Olivi"(Ligurian cuisine with fresh fish and trenette) http://www.ristoranteulivi.it/gli_ulivi/
It was a pleasant hike from Manarola up to Volastra and back. You can also go to Volastra by the Cinque Terre shuttle bus. The path is built of stone steps most of the way and very scenic, passing olive trees, an abandoned little stone house, all the while with views of the harbor. Once we went up by the bus and walked back down on the path.
Thanks for asking this, Richard. My husband & I spent a superb, memorable night in Monterosso back in '05 during a 2-week Tuscan vacation and I've been wondering how the towns are faring. We fell in love with the place. Sure hope they're able to recover.
We should have restaurant reopenings and so forth up in a few days.
Also, as one poster noted, the New Town was more or less unaffected, and the Old Town, though heavily damaged, is being worked on. Most, as you see from the list, will be reopened by Easter.
Vernazza opening information can be accessed through their website, savevernazza.com
Thank you for thinking of us as we rebuild - it means a lot :)
Thanks for your updates. If you could post similar information on the Fodor's message board, it would help people. There seems to be a lot of misinformation over there.
I posted one earlier, but I'll pop around a little and see if I can help clear some things up. There seems to be so much misinformation, you're right. Thank you!
