Our adventures along the northeastern Italian coast took us to two great Caravan-Motorhome Campsites. After our tour of Campania, it was time to do a little research into the best sites to base ourselves next and for the first, we picked Marina 3B, just south of Lerici in the province of La Spezia. From this base, we planned to visit Lerici and a boat tour of the famous Cinque Terre.
Marina 3B
Not sure but I believe the Campsite’s main business is the Marina, campsite has 250 permanent pitches. We visited on June 2022 and of the 250 touring pitches most were taken. We found plenty of room though, besides the marina car park, not popular as there was a little noise while the patrons visited the restaurant but it quieted down later. Plenty of supermarkets close by and there is a little shop on site with fresh bread etc, basics. The tunnel entrance to the site is one lane but easy enough to navigate with the caravan.
Quote
Travel feeds the soul with freedom and adventure it creates the time to free the mind of the past and future and stimulates present thoughts. Thoughts of what’s happening now, and what’s happening now is reality – Anotherdaymeandering.
Lerici
With basecamp setup, we commenced our exploration of the region and the first stop was Lerici, a picturesque part of the Italian Rivera. It’s also connected by ferry to the Cinque Terre and Portovenere. It was only a 20-minute drive from our campsite. The problem in this town like many others was very little and very expensive parking. One of the main sights of Lerici is its castle which since its first founding in 1152 was used to help control the entrance of the Gulf of La Spezia.
Cinque Terre
Lerici is where we took the ferry to the famous Cinque Terre a string of centuries-old fishing villages where the ferry drops you off and picks you up as you discover each one at your leisure. Cost 30 euros each for the day. But… the parking set us back that much again !!! There is also a train which takes you to all the villages too… but it was just so lovely to be out on (and in) the water. There are five villages on this trip but we only visited four and they were:
Monterosso al Mare
This is a full days trip and of course, we stopped for lunch at our first drop-off in Monterosso al Mare. The beach at Monterosso runs along most of the coastline and is well-used by tourists and locals. The beach is the only extensive sand beach in the Cinque Terre. As expected Monterosso is overrun by tourists in the summer months 😎.
Vernazza
This town is divided into two distinct parts: the old town and the new town. The two areas are divided by a single tunnel that caters to pedestrians and when visiting you could see why there were very few cars in the town.
Historically, many of the villages on the Mediterranean were walled to protect against attacks from the sea. This area of the coast was often attacked by pirates. It was In 1870, that the Italian government built a railroad line along the coast, which opened the Cinque Terre to the outside world.
Access to Cinque Terre by car is limited. Trains run from La Spezia to all five towns within Cinque Terre, as well as to major regional and national destinations. The Cinque Terre railway stations are located on the Genoa-Pisa line. There are also many walking trails that run between the villages. The most popular path is known as the Sentiero Azzurro (“Azure Trail”), used to connect the five villages. Due to the unstable environment, landslides frequently cause parts of the trails to be closed.
Riomaggiore
The Sentiero Azzurro section from Riomaggiore to Manarola called the Via dell’Amore (“Love Walk”) has been closed since late 2019 and is expected to reopen in 2024. It is still possible to walk between these villages, although the trail is both steeper and longer than the closed path along the waterfront.
Porto Venere
Once we saw the village of Porto Venere we instantly recognised it. It was during a cruise way back in 2006 that we called into this village. We celebrated our return by jumping into the water. In fact, we did this in almost any place that didn’t want payment. So many of the Italian beaches are only accessible after handing over Euros. Our time in each village was limited as the boat operates on a schedule but it did bring back memories and allowed us time to have a good look around, anyway can always come back again, right?
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