Cinque Terre, which means Five Lands, comprise the five small coastal villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso. They are part of the UNESCO world heritage and we visited them during our last Italy trip. We reached Cinque Terre villages by train, as it is the easiest way to get there due to the very limited parking options once you reach the villages. La Spezia is the closest train station to the villages that is connected to major cities across Italy, including Florence, our previous stop. From there is quite easy to reach all the different villages via the local train.
Riomaggiore
Riomaggiore is the southern-most of the 5 villages, dating as early as the 13th century (some sources even mentioned settlements around the 9th century) and was our base for 3 days. Despite not having any major attractions, this is a lovely town to explore, full of photographic opportunities.
We spent our first afternoon there, visiting the Church of St. John the Baptist, situated in the upper part of the historical centre of the village not too far away from the Castello, built in the 1260. The Castelo served as local cemetery for a while but is now mainly used a a cultural learning centre. There is honestly nothing amazing about the building itself but I still recommend to go there to get great views of the Ligurian sea.
We then had a snack at Il Pescato Cucinato, one of the many restaurants of Riomaggiore’s main street, Via Colombo. We had a delicious fritto misto, a variety of fresh fried local fish and seafood. A bit salty but quite tasty!
A bit further away, we had a quick look at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta that was built in the 16th century.
We continued to explore the town, walking amongst the colourful houses and up and down the hills, to get some great views of the village.
We finally went back the harbour, following the “Marina” sign to get the iconic view that made that village so famous! There is not a beach in Riomaggiore itself, but if you follow the path around to the left of the harbour, you will reach some large rocks where you can sit down and watch the sunset.
Monterosso
We spent the next day exploring the other villages starting by taking an early train to most Northern villages, Monterosso. Monterosso is actually made of two towns, the ‘old’ town and the new town connected to each other by a tunnel. We visited the old centre first and had a coffee outside, before hiking the trail 2 that starts in the new town, on the other side of the tunnel.
You have to pay a small fee of €7.50 to use the blue path that will lead you to the next village, Vernazza. The money is used to pay for the conservation of the Cinque Terre National Park which is not too bad. The first 45 minutes of the hike were quite hard as you have to climb A LOT of steps. It is not easy and I had to take a lot of break. The path is winding through olive orchards and vineyards and is offering dramatic views and can be quite narrow at time so you should reconsider if you are really scared of heights. If you attempt this hike, take a lot of water with you, especially during hotter months. It took us roughly 2 hours to hike, with a lot of stops to take pictures.
Once you reach the top, the path is getting flatter and you can start to see Vernazza in the distance.
The views of the coast were really amazing. When the trail begins to go down, the views of Vernazza was really breathless.
Vernazza
This village was to me the most picturesque of all, I really enjoyed that place! The Church of St. Margaret of Antioch that was built in the XI-XII centuries is very iconic, overlooking Vernazza’s small harbour. We enjoyed some food in this amazing location and sampled some of the best gelato we had in these villages.
We continued the trail that would lead us to the third village, Corniglia. The trail starts just above the train station and the most amazing views of the village are within the first 10 minutes of walking from the station. The town is just as picturesque from the back as it is from the front! We continued wandering through some olive groves for about 1h30 before reaching our next destination, Corniglia.
Corniglia
We arrived in the town end of afternoon and quite tired after all that hiking.. it was time for another ice cream 🙂
It is the only Cinque Terre settlement with no direct sea access, but the narrow alleys and colourfully painted houses are really worth a visit!
We called it a day and went down the almost 400 steps to get to the train station and take a local train back to Riomaggiore.
Manarola
Next day we hike from Riomaggiore to Manarola via the 531 hike, a trail that climbs through the vineyards and offers gorgeous panoramic views. It was really steep and demanding for the first part of the hike as expected, but the view were greater than I could have imagined.
Once you have climb, the challenge is not over! Going up was hard but going down into Manarola was as difficult due to the uneven and not well maintained path and steps.
Manarola is may be the oldest of the towns in the Cinque Terre and very famous for its wine, Sciacchetrà, a liquored wine with 18% of alcohol.
The best advice I would give you if you wish to visit the Cinque Terre is to choose one of the villages as a base and travel to the others. We chose Riomaggiore as our base and I will still make the same choice. It’s easy to travel to and from main cities in Italy and the town has a lot of accommodations and place to eat compare to other villages! It’s not as big and touristy as Monterosso, and still has some quiet and charm (as most people stay in Monterosso).
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Wow amazing post !
Beautiful descriptions and photos ~ I’m for anyplace along the sea, and this truly looks like a little oasis. A great sense and feel of a good life to be lived there.
Walk. Dine. Swim. Repeat. So fine there!
This looks like such incredible hiking. Such picturesque photos. Love how the buildings just hug the cliffs. Amazing!
Cinque Terre is probably one of the most astonishing and picturesque places in Europe. I really hope to get there soon. The 5 villages all seem truly charming. Which one did you like best?
Beautiful trip! That’s a cute pic of the two of you in Corniglia. Italy is still on our list but it seems like Canada keeps pulling us back. Got back from BC about 3 weeks ago, the grizzly tour was the highlight. 10 days and it still didn’t feel like enough nature time. You guys put Banff on our radar (thanks for this!) when you mentioned it and we are planning to go this winter. Icewalk, snowshoeing snowtubing here we come. We love snow and kind of want to see mountains. Glad to see you back! How are you?
I loved my time at Cinque Terre. A truly special place. Would love to hike it with my boys one day.
Beautiful images Gin!
looks like a fab walk
Cinque Terre is quite something isn’t it. You captured some really beautiful images.
So beautiful places! Colourful and sunny. I hope one day I will manage to see them all.
Looks like a lot of stairs climbing is required! Good thing there’s plenty of ice-cream to make-up for all the sweating…such a rewarding climb then…I’ve always loved to see photos of Cinque Terre with all the beautiful buildings all around but I guess it also comes with a lot of stairs…haha
I just adore that there are neither cars nor electric poles… it looks like a very kind place with long days if you live there. Of course inside homes everything has to be quite modern (and that’s) good, even the boats are of the simple kind. Thank you, Gin. n_n
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It looked like quite a lot of uphill hikes and steps around Cinque Terre! But those sea and rock views are absolutely amazing! Sounds like you and Le were very fit going up. I’d much rather walk the other way and go downhill 😀 Now I was wondering why at some times Le seemed to be wearing the hood/hoodie over his head? It looked like such a sunny, warm day!
Wow, this looks like a beautiful trip!
A friend of our visited Cinque Terre in 2013. She couldn’t stop talking about it! lol…Your pictures are gorgeous and I understand why she loved it. That trail looks tricky at parts. Bad for the knees I suppose. 🙁 Le’s become quite the poser! lol
Wow, amazing views!
Wow, beautiful. I have never thought of visiting here but you make it look very tempting.
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I adore the Cinque Terre, so lovely to revisit in your post. We hiked in the opposite direction – how well I remember all those steps but definitely worth it for the gorgeous views.
Looks beautiful. I had the chance to visit there when I was in Italy back in 2005 but decided to go somewhere else. Every time I see photos of it I wish I’d gone there.
What beautiful photographs. That part of the world is still on my bucket list, but in the meantime, I could enjoy it through your eyes. Thank you.
Hello Gin, great to see your post today! As always lovely shots 🙂 Hope all is well.
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I’m happy to see that the trail from Monterosso to Vernazza to Corniglia is open again! Did it continue the rest of the way even though you decided to do Manarola later? We loved our time hiking the 5 towns so much, and it was so sad when the Sentiero Azzurro was closed. Your photos are great and really take me back to that lovely place!
Fantastic landscapes and villagescapes. And the food looks yummy too! Thanks for sharing your trip!
Quelles superbes photos ! je vois ces images avec beaucoup de plaisir , je suis allée à Cinque Terre voici qq années et j’ai trouvé cette région magique ! Merci pour avoir raviver ce souvenir 😉
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How beautiful! The houses are just lovely, and the sea views amazing. I keep wondering what it smells like there 🙂