Broken all cruise records today in La Spezia.
Three huge cruise ships with 14,500 passengers are in port today.
If you are now at the Cinque Terre, hide on the highest trails until the hordes of Cruiseders have done pillaging the villages. Take women and children with you.
https://www.lanazione.it/la-spezia/cronaca/corciere-la-spezia-1.4578951
whoa. G.O.O.D. L.U.C.K. to the locals.
We have been in SML this week and all of our friends are telling us to go to CT. Heck no! I’m afraid it’s ruined irreparably.....I will never go there again. We did however have an incredible lunch in Camogli today. By no exaggeration, the best Zuppa di pesce of my entire life. I will never forget it!
INCOMING!!!!! 😱
I’d really like to know what Rick Steves thinks about the CT now that it’s been overrun with tourists. Does he think his hand in the local tourism was beneficial or detrimental? He’s a smart guy with a great intellect and philosophy so that’s what makes me curious as to his ideas on it now.
That's about three times the population of all five CT villages or 15 percent of La Spezia's population. Imagine if 1.2 million cruisers docked in NYC one day.
Ugh, so glad we saw it years ago 😢
WOW absolutely nuts!! it's only the beginning of may with all summer left for them cruiseders.
like girasole, i have so much empathy for the residents having to deal with this invasion.
thanks roberto
aloha
I’m not sure Rick Steves is to blame.
He may have contributed to make the area known to North Americans, but it was inevitable that sooner or later it would have been discovered by the cruise industry. La Spezia always had the goal to develop their cruise tourism business even before the 2015 cruise dock expansion.
Blaming Rick Steves for the invasion of the Cinque Terre is like blaming Columbus for the death of many native Americans. If it wasn’t Columbus, it would have been someone else later. America would not have remained “undiscovered” forever, just like the Cinque Terre.
The biggest reason for the crowding is human nature. We revel in the confirmation of our great judgement when we are surrounded by other people. A recent post on this site about crowding elicited numerous comments that said essentially, 'sure it's crowded, deal with it and go anyway'.
I don’t see anybody here blaming Rick Steves...including me. I said he had a hand in it.
Adding:
Gee, hopefully the towns won't begin crumbling under the weight of so many people!
I hope the locals make a ton of money - enough to take the whole winter off and then some.
At dinner tonight in SML and heard three of the six couples in a restaurant talking about Rick Steve’s. At the train station and hear the only English speaking people talking about going to Monterosso and Rick Steve’s. It’s not bad to say that fame has ruined this place via Rick Steve’s. It is what it is.
I don't think it is all Rick Steves--there were people there from all over--but I do think his perspective would be interesting. His personal travel ethics seem opposite to what has been created at CT. I do blame cruises though--what a scourge on humanity!
The following is intended as humor
Perhaps someone can get a surplus submarine and prowl the waters off CT and scare off the cruise ships.
With the "terror" Brexit has caused, a few sightings of a periscope should do it.
If not, " Fire tubes one and two!"
