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Portovenere
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
Portovenere, Portofino, Porto this and Porto that... The Cinque Terre (Five Lands) area of Italy is arguably one of the most beautiful areas in all of Italy. The port of Portovenere has buildings which look like they're from a postcard.
Portovenere, Portofino, Porto this, and Porto that... The Cinque Terre (Five Lands) area of Italy is arguably one of the most beautiful areas in all of Italy. The port of Portovenere has buildings that look like they're from a postcard and scenes that can put most other ports to shame. Every angle you turn looks like it's set from a postcard.
That is the good news.
The bad news is even after visiting them you'll have no idea which port of Cinque Terre you're in. Yes, each has its own aspects, but after a while each of the Porto-somethings seem to blend.
What is unique to Portovenere? It's a walled city, and thereby very beautiful in my book. Not that I'm an isolationist, but I love walled cities. When you walk through, it feels as if you're walking through another world. No cars are around, people are walking through the city walls, and it doesn't take much effort to picture the people building the wall to prepare against pirates, barbarians and what not.
In the city is a medieval castle on top of a hill that is rather storybook-esque. The castle is worth a look, as well as the church inside. Inside the church in a quiet corner is a statue of St. Peter which is an identical copy of the one in the Vatican.
Behind that castle is Byron's Grotto, a swimming hole which allegedly is the spot which Lord Byron swam from his home to the island of Elba. Personally, I'm not sure if I believe it because it's rather far, but the grotto is obviously a beautiful place to go swimming. There were easily dozens of people there jumping into the crystal clear water and swimming around town.
The other big sight to see is the Basilica of Saint Lawrence. St. Lawrence was martyred by being burned alive on the grid iron. Not burned alive in gridlock (that's what commuters suffer through), but he was burned on the grid iron for not turning over the treasures of the church. The church is a wooden structure with a statue of St. Lawrence and a plaque on the front of the church showing him being martyred.
Lastly, one of the biggest things to do in Portovenere is to use it as a base of operations to visit the rest of the Cinque Terre (Five Lands) area. Each of the towns there is picturesque, and as I've admitted, not very different from the other.
Actually, I'm not being exactly fair. A lot of people warned us coming back to the boat, that the other areas were identical to each other, but it's a bit of a stretch. Each of the towns looks very similar, but it's more of variations on a theme. Each of the towns has excessively similar themes, and the differences between each one is simply how they conformed to their individual caverns and mountainous terrain.
There are four ways to visit the Cinque Terre. One is to walk, but that is not recommended. It can take hours just to get from Portovenere to the next city.
The second, way is to rent a car or taxi, but that can be ridiculously pricey and not reliable. There are usually two or three taxis in town, and if they're busy, you're out of luck.
Third is the railroad, and fourth is the boat. I mixed up three and four because the best method is to use both.
Start with taking the ferry to the farthest town, Monterossa. From there, run to the train station and buy a ticket heading back. The reason you should run to the train station is to just make sure you can take the train back, and it's still running OK. If not, you're stuck taking the ferry back.
Now, you've already spent 45 minutes taking the ferry, so you've seen all the towns you'll pass. After exploring Monterossa and buying some local wines, jump on the train and take it two stops to Corniglia.
Why Corniglia? The path from Corniglia to Vernazza is called the Via de Amore or lovers walk. It's not really for lovers, as it's pretty dangerous, but it's a fine walk. Why is it dangerous? Well, after walking through the walk, there was a sign on the other end saying "Danger: Do Not Enter!" I felt very comforted to know that the sign was going in one way and not the other. Maybe it's only dangerous going one way... We finally took a ferry back from there.
In summation, each of the towns were quite beautiful albeit a bit similar and confusing.
Windstar
Porto Vecchio
Portoferraio
PortoVenere
St. Tropez
Monaco
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