Living History in the Cinque Terre
Living History in the Cinque Terre
It is no secret that I love the Cinque Terre. In addition to its obvious charms of the sea, landscape, food and people, one thing that I most enjoy is that I find it easy to connect to Cinque Terre’s history.
The first and most obvious way is hiking the paths that link Cinque Terre’s villages. The paths range from moderate difficulty to strenuous, from very narrow, one foot wide to two person. There may be switchbacks and stairs made from rocks or stone, with or without handrails. While today people maneuver these paths with hiking books and walking sticks, as I hike them, I like to imagine their original use: as the only land connection among the villages and the “roads” by which people carried their grapes and farm produce into the village.
So instead of walking sticks, they carried baskets of grapes on their shoulders. When I see a local carrying something on their shoulder, (like my suitcase!) I always think, “ah, the Vernazza way.”
When I want a short but strenuous hike in Cinque Terre, I like to hike to either San Bernardino, a 45 minute all-uphill hike. One day, having returned and feeling rather good about it, a local said to me, “San Bernardino? I used to do that 6-7 times a day during grape harvest, with baskets of grapes on my shoulders, from the vineyard down to the village.” Six or seven times a day. Now, every time, I do that hike, I think of walking in the same footsteps of people who used that trail for work for hundreds of years. I also think how strong they were (and still are) to build those trails and then walk them that often!
My other short hike is to Santuario della Madonna di Reggio, the sanctuary above Vernazza. It is another 45 minute uphill hike, arriving eventually to a large courtyard. On a hot summer day, it is a pleasant escape from the heat below. But is also interesting to imagine its original role, when the people from the village would escape into the hills to escape the invasions by pirates.
The plaques on the outside of the Church and the inside of the Church attest to its historical role as a sanctuary and its importance to the village. Still today, there are community events that take place in its courtyard, under the old trees.
The other connection to history that I always feel and enjoy is the food. And the food that most represents Cinque Terre to me is the anchovy. They are each a direct connection to the history, remaining unchanged for centuries. Being isolated as they were, seafood was the main staple of the diet here. As anchovies were abundant, there are many ways to eat them. On the menus of the restaurants, you will see “acciughe insalata”, (salted) acciughe al limone (with lemon), tegame (an anchovy casserole), acciughe fritti (fried), to name the most common ways. Even people who think they don’t like anchovies, do like them when eaten here, fresh from the sea.