Our ship docked in Livorno this morning and we took a Princess Shore tour to Cinque Terra, about a 1 1/2 hour drive from Livorno. Our tour guide was Sevilla and hte driver, Luigi are based in Florence and we, along with 4 busloads (44 passengers in each) headed north.
We arrived at La Spezia, a port town serving military, merchant and private ships to pick-up Graciella, our local guide for the day. Graciella has lived her whole life in Cinque Terra and has witnessed many changes, both good and bad. The region is noted for its white wines, Extra virgin olive oil, and seafood products caught locally. The 5 villages were only accessible by boat until fairly recently when roads and rail lines were constructed transforming the sleepy little villages into destinations for local Italian and other international tourists. Many walk the promenade along the waterfront that links the 5 villages, a walk that normally takes 5 6 hours.
The vineyards are terraced up the seaside slope and were constructed by hand by the local farmers. Olive orchards cover many of the 'inland' slopes and are harvested by harnessing gravity and nets attached below teh branches of hte trees to collect the fruit.
we began our tour in the second village, Manarola and walked the promenade above the shoreline to Riomaggiore, where we boarded a train to the third village, Vernazza. The toour was supposed to include a cruise aloing the coastline, but the organizers opted for the train as the seas were deemed too rough. All hte villages are quaint settlements with winding cobblestone streets and stairways snaking between the buildings to the upper levels. After a brief stop in Vernazza, we again returned to the train platform, with at LEAST 1000 others to await the train. It then became a gong show as people abandoned queues and surged forward elbowing others I
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