Indulgent Sojourns: Random Adventures in Food, Wine, and Travel: Arriving in Monterosso al Mare, Hiking to Soviore

We return to Monterosso al Mare, Cinque Terre, Liguria, Italy for a week-long adventure of hiking, dining, relaxing, and enjoying the fabulous Mediterranean coast and climate. It's a long trip over (but, well worth it), connecting in Heathrow to Milan, then taking four trains to Monterosso. Normally, we take the Malpensa Express train from the Milan airport to Milano Centrale and catch a train direct to Monterosso (or the Leonardo Express train from Fiumicino Airport in Rome to Roma Termini and an express train up to La Spezia or Monterosso). However, today is the day before a threatened major train strike, service is disrupted, trains are cancelled, and trains are late. We take great advantage of the Trenitalia app to plan each leg of our rail journey as we work our way to Milan, to Genoa, across Genoa to another station, then (finally) on a train going to Monterosso. We arrive to be greeted by the beautiful beach with its colorful umbrellas and the fresh flowers and fruit around the city.

Beach

Flowers and fruit in Monterosso

We check into our room in Hotel Villa Steno, overlooking the town, admire the view, and head down the street for a quick wine and anchovy sandwich dinner at Pan e Vino.

View across Monterosso from Hotel Villa Steno

The next morning we rise, enjoy a fabulous breakfast at the hotel, and start our first hike up to Soviore, just above Monterosso. We enjoy this hike every trip as it give us great views, brings us to the beautiful Santuario Nostra Signora di Soviore, the oldest Marian Sanctuary in Liguria, and often serves as the start to longer hikes to Levanto, to other Cinque Terra villages, or further back into the mountains. As with most hikes, we start by heading up from the sea.

Getting started

We quickly rise up above the lower trees and get great views of Monterosso and the surrounding area.

Views of Monterosso

Continuing up

At the top, we pause for a drink of water, admire the views across the hills, and then continue down the road from Soviore to the intersection at Colla di Gritta where, at the fork, we follow the road on the right down toward the Monterosso train station across from on the beach. We find a new pedestrian path is being constructed alongside the road from Soviore to Colla di Gritta and appreciate that we will soon no longer have to walk in the road to travel this route.

Santuario Nostra Signora di Soviore

View toward Levanto

Descent to Colla di Gritta

Walking down from Colla di Gritta, we get views of the other side of Monterosso (we are staying in the old town and the train station and main beaches are in the new town, to which we are now descending).

Views descending

We enter town, head over to the train station on Via Fegina across from the beach, enjoy the flowers in bloom, then find our lunch at a small stand just outside the train station: cones of fried fish (anchovies, shrimp, and whitefish) with small bottles of wine.