Cruisers? Or Tourists?

Jun 18, 2011 80 0 0

Cinque Terre, Italy

A visit to the Cinque Terre (Five Lands) prompted us to ask this question. Are we cruisers, or are we tourists? The Cinque Terre area was named for five tiny Italian villages wedged into a series of coves between sheer cliffs. It became a Unesco World Heritage site, and was praised by travel writers around the world, so the Cinque Terre has become a very popular place. Before our visit, we met some cruisers who told us that the Cinque Terre was full of “tourists” and hardly worth the trip. We ignored their comments and went anyway, first by boat and then by train. We pulled Berkeley East up to some moorings just outside of one of the villages, Vernazza, and were met by a man in a dinghy who handed us the mooring lines, told us the mooring was free and offered us a ride into shore, also free. We chose to take our own dinghy, but quickly headed to town and had a great lunch in a restaurant overlooking the ocean.

The tour of the village took about five minutes, as it is very, very small. It was full of people from around the world, many of which were American. Was it touristy? Yes. But it had a kind of charm and was well worth the visit. The view from our boat was beautiful, with a sunset we would not have wanted to miss. As we were leaving Vernazza, a couple called to us from shore and asked if we owned a Hylas (our boat brand). We turned around and ended up having a nice fifteen-minute conversation with the owners of a Hylas 46 that is currently in Annapolis, another experience that we would not have wanted to miss. We also visited Monterrosso by dinghy. It is much larger than Vernazza, so less crowded. There, we stopped at an enoteca and tasted the wines made in Cinque Terre. Each village has their own wines, some of which were actually very tasty.

The next day, we anchored Berkeley East in Le Grazie and took the train to visit the remaining three Cinque Terre villages. Each village had its own character and each was very busy, some might say “touristy.” We hiked the ridgeline between Corniglia and Manarola, with spectacular views that we would not have wanted to miss.

The path between Manarola and Riomaggiore was paved, compared by some to Disneyland. We came upon a man who was taking a photo of his wife and we offered to take one of both of them. They posed in front of a wall and we suggested that they turn around so the view would be behind them. They pointed to a tiny lock that they had placed on a line in the wall and said “no, we want a picture with our lock.” We must have looked confused and they explained that there was a custom, you put a lock on this path called “Lovers Lane” and you will be together forever. It was sweet, and touristy, but the couple walked off arm in arm deliriously happy with the experience. Again, this was something we would not have wanted to miss.

As cruisers, it is easy to think that because we live on our boats, we are not really tourists. Because we shop at the local markets, and use the local laundry, we often feel that we are not really tourists. Because we sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, it is not difficult for us to assume that we worked harder to get here than the average tourist. But the couple that ate bologna sandwiches for a year so they could afford to honeymoon in Europe, or the man who took a second job so he could teach his children about other countries and cultures, or the women who saved all their lives for that once-in-a-lifetime trip, in their own way, all worked just as hard as we did to get here. And, the fact is, if there were not so many wonderful tourist-oriented things to do in the Mediterranean, we wouldn’t be here. A tourist is someone who visits places away from home for pleasure. A cruiser is someone who travels to different places by boat. A traveler is someone who is on a journey, or who uses a particular form of transportation. So we have decided that we really are sometimes tourists, sometimes cruisers, most of the time we are travelers.

The Five Lands

Monterosso