Cinque Terre: Lemons in May in Italy.

 For my 40th birthday, I slept in a lemon garden. (Did you know? Lemons are ripe in Italy in May!) I spent the rest of that month toodling around Italy and France in a little cinque-cento, or, as you might say in English, a Fiat 500.


Italy and France for a month was delicious. I sneaked in a little work teaching engineers about technical writing along the way (to be honest, I find that more like fun, than work, anyway -- meeting colleagues is a nice way to break up a month's holiday, and one office even put us up in a palace for two nights!) It was a wonderful trip, as you'd imagine. I went with my 11-year-old kiddo, and we drove the sweet little Fiat 500 through tiny little streets and roads the like of which you'd never see in Western North America.

To go to Cinque Terre, though, you have to park the car. That's probably why Cinque Terre is the most beautiful national park I've ever hiked in the 43 countries I've visited so far. Cars and their noise and smell and agression won't bother you while you're here -- a proper step back in time. The vistas from the hiking track are unbelievably fairy-tale gorgeous.

The walking track itself, along the stone walls of the five villages, has so much to offer. The marvelous dry-stone engineering is of a type that has stood up for thousands of years, through many floods (though some very big floods have beaten some sections of wall, but villagers rebuild). I heard it said that the walls of Cinque Terre are as long as the Great Wall of China, if you laid them end to end (they're terraced though, and many-layered).
A hike might be like this:

On your left a vineyard,
on your right lemons.
Ahead, an olive grove.
Passing you quickly, German tourists. 

You stop to marvel and enjoy
a centuries-old bridge
Stones held in an arch by... air?

A troop of Americans blazes through.
The trooping tourists have no time to stop and marvel?

If you're going to Cinque Terre, then I say,

Make That Time!!

Further down the track, or rather, up a hill, you see an amazing contraption on a track.

It's a lift, a little railway,
to carry the grape harvest.
These hills used to be completely covered in wine vines.
Now it's mixed, much abandoned.

Ah. Another fast, loud, group passes.
You step aside, breathe deep.
Let them go ahead.
You have time.

After the Americans pass, you carry on
Stop and marvel at an ancient, ancient homestead
The garden is overgrown, but stuffed with edible and medicinal plants.
And lemons, on trees, waiting to be eaten.
Beside oranges.

Stop.
Marvel.
Eat.

What is with the speedy Gonzales thing?
To us, the most bizarre thing at Cinque Terre are these groups of people who zip zip from one town to the next, banging their spiky metal hiking poles against the world heritage site the whole way with apparent total disregard to what they may be doing to their environment -- but from what I saw of these checklist hikers (you know the type -- have you been to Kilimanjaro? Have you been to Cinque Terre? Have you been to Everest?), they didn't see their surroundings, anyway, so how would they know they were damaging it? Talking to each other only, they blaze their way along the paths, determinedly, proudly overtaking others.
Seeing little.

One German man took enough time while passing us to berate my son and I for wearing anything less than his high-tech hiking gear -- all top of the line, of course.

"People have been walking these trails since the Bronze Age,"

I told him.

Do you imagine they wore high-tech hiking boots and carried metal sticks?

Pfft. I believe in doing as the locals do, but most people you'll meet on the trails will be rushing. Thankfully, you don't need to.
Kiddo and I took our time and discovered all kinds of treasures, like orchards, views, and abandoned homesteads from who-knows-how-many-centuries ago, with awesome gardens still intact with medicinal and edible plants. And the lemon trees everywhere! And grapes! And flowers. And stone work, and homesteads hidden behind orchards and up on terraces and down below and... surprises and history and little nooks and crannies everywhere. So wonderful. So much to see.

WHERE TO STAY
I discovered http://www.acasa5terre.it/index.php which has many properties. They're the ones who rented me my lemon garden birthday house in Monterosso-al-Mare. There are a few hotels around, but really, why would you when there are such nice bed and breakfasts and holiday lets? This place is a thousand years old, or two... why not stay in a house as old, as full of life and character and living, breathing history as the air is around here?

A GUIDEBOOK
Before I went to Cinque Terre, I was looking for reference books, and I came across this simple, personally-written guide by a nice couple from Belgium.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/413172
I thought it was worth what I paid for it! Gives you a feel for things for a start, anyway (Lonely Planet just ain't what it used to be, sigh).
That book has maps of the towns and hikes, though some of the hikes were not yet repaired from flooding they had in 2012 or 2013. mind you sometimes people told us trails were closed and we went anyway and they were GREAT! (As I mentioned, Cinque Terre is the most beautiful park I've ever hiked.

WHEN
Looks like the third weekend in May would be THE weekend to go. The Lemon festival in Monterosso, and a special thing in another town. https://dreamofitaly.com/2013/03/05/new-when-to-visit-the-cinque-terre-and-cinque-terre-events-free-italy-travel-advice/

• 3rd Saturday in Monterosso: La Sagra del Limone or the Lemon Festival. Monterosso turns yellow with this celebration of the Cinque Terre’s favorite and most fragrant fruit. Stands sell lemonade and lemon-marinated anchovies and the tourist board sponsors a walk through the lemon groves above town.
• 3rd Sunday in May in Levanto: La Mangialonga — to get a real feeling of the valley and a good dose of full-immersion Italian, try and participate in this progressive lunch, which passes from hamlet to hamlet above the town of Levanto. Each hamlet offers live music, a dish of food and, of course, lots of wine! Participation is limited to 1,000 people so plan ahead.

Other than that, my advice would be to avoid summertime. It was just pleasantly crowded in May, with the trains getting near their full point. I can imagine June to August is probably chaos. Nonetheless, I'm not keeping this a secret -- it was a wonderful place to spend a 40th birthday, and I expect that I'll go back some day.