Livorno was the second-to-last port of call on my 12-day Holland America Lines Mediterranean cruise in May. Located on the northwest coast of Italy, Livorno grew from a small village to a booming port when the Medicis developed it into their primary shipping point in the 16th century. Today it is Italy’s second-largest port, an important industrial city hosting healthy shipping and fishing businesses as well as a NATO installation and the Italian Naval Academy. It also welcomes a number of cruise ships every summer, as it provides easy access to the major tourist attractions of northern Italy. The majority of those visitors don’t spend a lot of time in the city itself; much of the medieval and Renaissance structures were destroyed in WWII bombing runs, and the lure of Pisa, Siena and Florence is a  mighty force. I will admit that my sisters and I, too, chose to spend our long day away from our port city.

As we planned our itinerary prior to embarking on our cruise, we looked long and hard at our options for Livorno. Florence was very tempting, but it would involve at least four hours of bus travel to and fro, leaving an unsatisfactory amount of time for even a cursory sampling of all it can offer. Excursions to Pisa didn’t seem to offer much beyond a visit to the structures surrounding the Piazza dei Miracoli. Sister Ann, who works for Holland America and spoke with a number of coworkers who were familiar with Tuscany, provided us with the answer: go to Cinque Terre. “Discovered” about 20 years ago by travel writer Rick Steves, the “Five Lands” region has become a popular destination while retaining most of its ancient aspect and charm.

We departed from the port around 7 a.m. and headed north, following the route of the Aurelian Way. The countryside was lovely, with fields of still-ripening grain extending to the green hills and Appenine peaks in the distance. The highway skirted Pisa, and through the early-morning haze we could faintly make out the silhouettes of the Duomo and the Tower. Approaching Carrara, what appeared at first glance to be glaciers and snowfields high on the mountains’ flanks were revealed to be the marble quarries from which that famous stone comes. Passing through Carrara, on either side the road is hemmed in by miles of stone yards, stacked with enormous 12-ton blocks of marble, primarily in gleaming white, but in shades of gray to black and red, too. Carrara also marked our passage from Tuscany into the region of Liguria.

After about an hour our coach arrived in the port of La Spezia at the head of the so-called Bay of Poets. A large and modern city, La Spezia has its share of lovely churches, piazzas and public buildings, and its perfectly shaped harbor makes it a natural for the navy’s navigation school and a crowded marina popular with yachtsmen. Leaving the city behind, we began winding up into the hills north and west, finally getting closer views of the old hill towns with their towers and church spires. I hadn’t expected the heavily wooded slopes here, picturing skinny cypress and sparse pines where instead grew large and lush trees of many types.

We had gained at least a couple thousand feet in elevation as our route angled west toward the sea when at last we broke out from the vegetation and got our first sight of the steep mountainsides plunging down to the water far below. Even from my vantage on the hill side of the bus, I felt a little squeeze in my stomach from the precipitous drop, but I soon ignored that sensation as I took in the literally jaw-dropping views. Once past the initial impact of that stunning vista, I began to notice details: sprinkled here and there were small clusters of stone buildings clinging to the rock, and stretching from hilltop to shore and as far as the eye could see were stone-walled terraces. Some seemed to be barely a yard wide and had to have been built by mountain goats, for the slopes here are at least 70 degrees. In some places there were signs of damage and erosion, but most curved around the mountainsides, seeming to hold the entire landscape back from sliding into the sea. Our guide told us that in this region encompassing some five miles of coastline were thousands of kilometers of these drystone walls which, taken end-to-end, would stretch farther than does the Great Wall of China. Incredible!

We followed the road as it gradually wound down towards the water below, all the while shaking our heads at the incredible engineering feat of these terraces built centuries ago and sustaining the humans who built and tended them with the grapevines which grow from them, irrigated only by what falls naturally from the heavens. Leaving the bus, we made our way the rest of the way on foot to the first of the towns we would visit in Cinque Terre. It is the only practical way to get around here, for everything is squeezed in between the mountains and the sea, with little room for motor vehicles or roads to accomodate them.

More on my adventures in this lovely region, tomorrow.

–Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader

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