After years dreaming about the Cinque Terre after seeing the beautiful photos on Instagram, we organized a day to visit them. We were unlucky with the weather because unfortunately it was cloudy with drizzle, but it was still beautiful and will be the excuse to go back with the sun!
To be able to visit all the 5 famous cities of the Ligurian coast, first of all you need to reach Levanto or La Spezia, from both start the hiking trails and express trains that connect the Cinque Terre (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore). We took the train from Milan to La Spezia and purchased the Cinque Terre Train Card valid 24h directly online which allows unlimited journeys on trains that run approximately every 20 minutes connecting Levanto-Monterosso-Vernazza-Corniglia-Manarola-Riomaggiore-La Spezia and access to all the hiking trails, at a cost of € 18.20 per person. Alternatively, if you are more sporty than us, you can buy the Cinque Terre Trekking Card which costs € 7.50 for one day and allows you to access all the hiking trails that connect the Cinque Terre on foot.
We decided to start the day from Monterosso and then go down to La Spezia from where our return train would leave. Once in Monterosso we started the day with a breakfast with focaccia with olives because as soon as we arrived the scent of focaccia was irresistible! And then we headed to see the statue of the Giant, which is located at the end of the Fegina beach, is 14 meters high and represents Neptune.
We continued the morning reaching Vernazza. We did not visit attractions, we simply strolled through the streets of each city admiring the colors of the houses without following a particular path.
For lunch we opted for an excellent plate of trofie with pesto, but if you prefer not to waste too much time you can take focaccia and fried take away to eat on the street in every city!
We didn’t stop at Corniglia just for the terrible weather we found, but we would have been able to visit that city too. Corniglia is the only one that is not located directly on the sea.
The day continued with Manarola , famous for the view from above on all the colored houses on the cliff and for the Instagram addicted also famous for the restaurant Nessun Dorma from which you can have lunch with a magnificent view. To book a place in the queue to eat at this restaurant you need to download their app, register and virtually queue from the app as soon as they open at 11:30. We tried at 12:00 and we had 37 people before us, on a rainy day! In any case, the view is the same going towards the restaurant, in fact we took these beautiful photos from the path:
Finally we reached Riomaggiore which, thanks to the two rays of sun that came out for a few minutes, gave us some super photos!
And don’t forget to follow all our travels on our Instagram account Perfectlyimperfecttrips
