Cinque Terre: 5 Italian villages that you have to visit

Hello, hello! Today's entry is very special because I am going to talk to you about Italy. I have only visited this country twice: The first time I visited Venice and Pisa, and this time, Summer 2018, I went to Cinque Terre. For those who aren't aware, Cinque Terre is made up of 5 villages located on the coast of La Spezia, by the Liguria Sea. Thus from the start, maybe you don't know this area, but I am sure that you have seen these incredible photos many times, with the tiny colourful houses mounted on top of one another, next to the sea. So, Cinque Terre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a national park. But well, leaving the theory to one side and getting started with the practical stuff, in this post I am going to tell you my experience on this trip, that if I had to describe it, it would be the most inspiring place of all.

To start, I am going to talk to you about the five villages that make up Cinque Terre and the things to bear in mind about each of them. I am also going to talk about what I thought, tell you places to go to eat, the expectations I had and what the reality was like once I was there.

I am going to start in the order that they appear on the map, from La Spezia to Levanto. The first village is:

Riomaggiore

It was the only village that we visited on the first day. We arrived there from Pisa airport after getting a couple of trains. It was four in the afternoon and we wanted to make the most of the whole day, so we went around looking at the small streets, the restaurants, the souvenir shops, and noticing all of the curiosities of the place when we were going to sleep. We left our things in the room; it was quite big and comfortable, and it was in the centre of the town. If something was to characterise Riomaggiore it would be its steep terrain, as all the houses are built on a really steep area. To get to our room, we had to go up and down a hill every day. A short but intense journey. This, in addition to the abrasive heat on these days, made us end up dying of thirst. Therefore we felt the need to go in the sea almost all the time and this was exactly what we did on the first day. After visiting a bit of the town, we went to the bathing bit. There weren't many people, which surprised us, as Italy is incredibly popular, especially in summer. It was a really nice feeling. We were in the rocky area, with the cliffs. We took our towels, left our things and went in the water. The temperature of the sea was perfect, especially if you compare it to that in Galicia. It wasn't difficult to get in, I would even go so far to say that I didn't care if it was a bit colder, because of the views. Also, it was very clean, despite us going in a bit where small boats and dinghies come and go regularly. Here we spend a good amount of time, swimming offshore to see the little coloured houses from a different angle, and how pretty it was! Afterwards, we jumped off of the cliff tops (I jumped from the smallest ones) and sunbathed. It is a calm place where you can relax, there are hardly any tourists and you can just hear the sound of the sea. It isn't the best place to go swimming in Cinque Terre, which makes it less busy than the other ones, and at the end of the day that is a positive thing for me. After, we got our things together and went to the other side, where there was an enormous area of rocks built to stop the waves and protect the boats. We sat down here, as from here you have the best view of the town. The light was perfect for taking photos, so I'll leave mine here for you, I hope you like them.

In addition in these two retreats, you can also go to a stone beach, simply by following the road towards the sea which surrounds the whole coast. Here you could be more comfortable as there is more space, with perfect sea views. There are also small cement areas to leave your towel and go for a dip. However, at dawn, they are occupied by fisherman.

In terms of eating, we weren't very original and we ate at the same place both times that we were there. You should know that the restaurants on the coastline are ridiculously expensive. You have to go towards the outskirts of the town to have more choice and save a bit of money. And before anything else, I should say that the majority of restaurants add a service charge, so a euro or two will be added to the price of your total bill.

Meal time! Going to restaurants is my favourite hobby! And even more so if this involves eating Italian food! We ate and had dinner in a pizzeria called Veciu Muin. The waiters were really good and friendly, we practised our "itañol" a bit (a mixture of Spanish and Italian) with the waiter that served us. We ordered Vernazza pizza and pizza with mozzarella and Serrano ham, it was so good! For dessert, Tiramisu. It was a decent price considering the quality and location. On the second day, we ordered pizza with mozzarella and pesto and a salad. We had the tiramisu again, and then an espresso to finish. It has a terrace, which is always a positive. I completely recommend it, although there are lots of restaurants in the area, so it's a question of going around looking at the menus and working around your likes and budgets.

For sure, Riomaggiore was my favourite town. It is a lot more homely and calm than others like Manarola or Monterosso, which I will talk about in a bit. For me, Riomaggiore is a combination of the best parts of the 5 towns: places to go for a swim, calmness, good restaurants in terms of quality and price, the essence of the town with its tiny houses and in general, a nice atmosphere that invites you to relax and enjoy yourself.

Manarola

First off, I have to say that I love the name. Coming from La Spezia, it is the second town. To go to the town from the train station, you have to cross a kind of tunnel which connects both places. Once you are in the town, you can feel the essence of Cinque Terre. Little coloured houses with green shutters, tiny souvenir shops, restaurants that draw you in with the smell of Italian food and also corner shops. Going down the main street, you will end up at the sea and therefore the place to go and have a dip, which is quite big. As in Riomaggiore, there is a whole row of rocks where you can put your towel and relax (normally there are fewer tourists in this bit). If not, it is also possible to lie on the edge of the shore where there is a cement path, to the side of the small boats. You can swim freely, or if you are a bit more daring, you can go up the big rocks to throw yourself off of the cliff tops. When we went, it was full of people, old and young that were doing somersaults; plunging in headfirst or backwards and everyone was clapping. These cliff tops were higher than those in Riomaggiore so it was quite amazing. In front of the cliff, there was a line of tourists who were watching the atmosphere and taking photos of the sea and of all those people who were jumping off of the highest rocks. The water was very clean and it was incredible to open your eyes whilst swimming underwater because you could see everything really clearly.

Following the main street of the town, which is a very intuitive thing to do, you can get the best views of the whole town of Manarola, like in the photo I've shown you. It is true that Manarola doesn't have quite as brightly-coloured houses as Riomaggiore (the photos that you can see on the internet are really touched up and the colours are really saturated) but it still has a charm about it. Following the path, you will come across a restaurant with breathtaking views. We didn't have the chance to try it because we weren't hungry, and also, there was a massive queue of people waiting to get a table. Also from here, you can see the other side of the town, what lies beyond and from here there's a panoramic view, that although it is very different, it is worth seeing: the sea blending in with the green countryside of the Cinque Terre. If you keep walking and look beyond the view of the little houses in Manarola, you will come across more places to go for a swim, and of course, they are more tranquil as the bustle of tourists don't come out that far. A little tip for you.

In conclusion, you definitely have to visit Manarola. If you are on a tight schedule, don't miss out on seeing this town on your trip.

Corniglia

I think that everyone would agree that Corniglia is the town with the least charm out of the five. Some Italian friends told us not to waste our time there, that not even they had been there because it is totally different from the others and it's not worth all the effort. Saying that, we went first thing in the morning, with nobody there, and I have to say that we liked it. It is far away, at the top of the mountain, so right when you leave the station, there is a bus waiting that, with the day ticket for 16 euros that we had bought before, the journey was free for us. There are people that went up on foot, but with the heat that would have been unthinkable. When we got there, we had already had breakfast and we were already full up, but there were some restaurants that served enormous bowls with yoghurt, fruit and cereals which looked really good. If you don't know where to get breakfast, I think that this is a good place. In terms of the others, they are kind of like the others, but smaller. Small shops with funny souvenirs, Italian food, small houses full of details and sea views, very nice sea views. To go back, we took the bus again and we had an hour waiting at the station for the next train. We had an hour waiting at the station because there was a storm that day and something was damaged, and the time was how long it took to fix it. Finally, we got on the train which took us to our next destination: Vernazza.

Vernazza

Vernezza was town number four, and in my opinion, it's a must-see. When we went it wasn't sunny, but this didn't mean that we didn't go for a swim. In fact, at the end of the day, it worked out in our favour because there weren't too many people in the water and we could enjoy it by ourselves. There was a small sand beach where there was a goal and kids shooting penalties. There are also restaurants, ice-cream shops, small shops and lots of alleys decorated with big flower pots and plants in lots of different colours, like the houses. Between the vegetation and this muggy heat, that threatened to later become a storm, it seemed like we were in the Amazon. After going for a dip and taking some photos under the water, we got ourselves together and decided to go down part of the path that led towards the next town, To get there, we had to go down narrow and claustrophobic streets; which was cool because we could see how the locals lived and the journey that they have to do every day to get to their houses, completely uphill. Right before the path starts, at the beginning there was an employee from the National Park that warned us to go along carefully, as this area is prone to landslides. We didn't go very far, we went up until we reached this place which, for me, is where you can experience the best views of Vernazza from. You can see all the little houses covering all of the hill, the port, the sea, the beach, the church, etc. Here are some of the photos that we took. It rained a bit; as you can see the sky wasn't as blue as we would've liked, but we were lucky because at the end of the day it cleared up and it turned into incredible weather which invited you to go in the water.

Monterosso al Mare

This is the furthest town when going from La Spezia. It is probably also the most-visited one because it has the largest and most extensive beach area. I had read hundreds of positive comments about this town, and I have to say that when I went, I was disappointed. It was full of tourists, everywhere, which was tiresome at some points, and moreover, the beaches were private. In the next post, I will talk more in-depth about this, giving some advice on how to avoid the situation of having to pay for something that, in my opinion, is not worth the money. If you want to enjoy Monterosso, go first thing in the morning, but you will still have to pay if you want to go on the sand. For me, simply from this, I'd now bail on spending a few hours here, I prefer to be laid out on the rocks without so many people around me and most likely end up enjoying more of the scenery and the atmosphere.

The funniest thing that happened to us in Monterosso was when it started to rain and a storm broke out so we had to run to take refuge; the best place to do that that we came across was a restaurant. While the mass of water came down, we were happy with our shellfish risotto and some grilled vegetables. It was a bit expensive in comparison with the rest of the restaurants in Cinque Terre, but sometimes you get a bit ripped off. Anyway, the food was really good, so, it passed. The restaurant was called La Barcaccia and it is on a fancy street off of the main street of Monterosso. They had a terrace but we ate inside, but there were hardly any free tables (you could see that a lot of tourists had had the same idea as us). There was also a lot of people and the pizzas looked really good. Well, it's unlikely that there's a pizza in Italy that doesn't look appetising. Here I've left you some photos of the menu, to make your mouth water.

To sum up Monterosso al Mare, for me, it is the town with the least personality out of those from the Cinque Terre. The houses aren't so crammed in with one on top of another, it reminded me more of a normal city with apartments on the coastline - with the difference that these ones are older and not so modern. It may sound exaggerated, but this was the feeling I had, especially from the parasols and monochromatic deckchairs all placed in a straight line. Let’s move on. The positive of this is that I now value Galician beaches a lot more, where you don't have to pay and they aren't so crowded like these ones. Even though the water is a thousand times colder in Galicia, the scales are still tipped in favour of the Atlantic. Even so, I think that in low-season and at the start of the day, Monteresso could be a completely different place to the version of it that I saw: with a lot more charm, peace and tranquillity. We should give it another chance.

And that is the post for today! It has been a post full of information, and the next one will be the same. Cinque Terre offers a lot of things, so I hope that you'll be interested in the next post, especially if you are going to travel there. In conclusion, this place bathed by the waters of the Liguria sea seems perfect, especially if you know how to go about it well, organizing it bit by bit and knowing the pros and cons of each town. My advice is that you see what interests you the most and the best thing to do is to adapt it to your likes; this is how you can enjoy your journey the most you possibly can through these five Italian towns.

I hope that you have enjoyed this post and I will see you very soon with a lot more content. Specifically, tomorrow I will upload another entry, with more general advice that I hope that you will keep in mind if you travel to Cinque Terre. See you soon and thanks for reading.

Photo gallery