Day trip to Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre had been one of my dream destinations for years. Even just last year, I was thinking that it would take years for me to be able to go to this place. Little did I know that I was going to go for an Erasmus in Milan, Italy and that Cinque Terre is really close from Milan. It’s actually the first place that I went to visit just a few weeks after I moved to Milan. I planned this trip with my Erasmus friends at the beginning of September (almost as soon as we met because we all really wanted to go there), so we could have the highest chances of having a nice weather to enjoy our day to the fullest. It took us about 3 hours to take there by train from Milan. While being on the train passing by Genoa we could see the sea through the window and the color was incredible: it didn’t feel like we were in Italy anymore, but rather in the Caribbean. It was so beautiful I just wanted to get off the train and go to the beach. But that was not the goal for this day.

My expectations for this trip were very high: I expected to see wonderful landscapes, beautiful waters and just basically be impressed by the beauty of the place. I had seen so many beautiful pictures before going, I was just hoping that these pictures were not photoshopped and actually represented this place well.

Cinque Terre is located in Liguria, a part of Italy that is on the west coast, and it is made of five villages: Corniglia, Manarola, Monterosso, Riomaggiore and Vernazza.

Since we planned to stay there only for one day (really more like one afternoon because of the train trip), we had to choose which villages to visit before. We decided to go to two of them: Monterosso first, and then Vernazza. We had all heard before that these villages were some of the prettiest of Cinque Terre.

Monterosso is the biggest of the five villages. It was not really what I expected to see from Cinque Terre, although it was still beautiful: the colorful houses are not really on the coast but more in some streets behind. This village was still really nice, and we saw many pretty small streets and shops while walking around there. There’s also a really nice view on the sea, some cliffs and a long beach. I loved the atmosphere while walking in those small and cute streets. It really felt like holidays, with nothing to worry about and where you can find anything that you could be looking for.

After spending a few hours there, we took the train to go to the second village, Vernazza. It’s the easiest way to go from one village to another in Cinque Terre: it’s a special train travelling only between the five villages all day long, and a ticket to get in costs only €4. I think there it is also possible to walk between some villages, but sometimes it turns more into a hike than a quiet walk, and I am not sure it is possible to do it between every of the five villages.

Vernazza was a really wonderful place, I preferred it to Monterosso. It was really what I was expecting to see in Cinque Terre, it was a perfect match with the images I had in mind. All the houses were painted in red, yellow, pink, green and so more, and surrounded by water and some hills. The architecture of the houses was really typical and the fact that each one of them as a different color made it so beautiful.

We climbed a little on the hills (there is a path that was made especially for that) to try to get higher and have a more global view of the village. After walking a few minutes, we found a wonderful viewing point that was arranged for people to get the best view of the village. And that view did not disappoint: there was an amazing view that included both the colorful buildings and the sea. This was the “stereotype” view that I expected to see, and it is probably the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen out of all my trips.

Cinque Terre is definitely a place to go visit if you’re in Italy. If you want to visit all the villages you should probably stay there two days. The two most beautiful villages are said to be Manarola and Vernazza, but the other villages are also really worth seeing! I personally really wanted to see Riomaggiore but unfortunately it was not possible on this day, so I guess I’ll have to go back!

I think the best time to visit Cinque Terre must be from April to September to have a nice weather. It’s probably better to avoid going there during the summer holidays if you really want to enjoy the villages since that’s when there must be the most people. We had the sunshine and some clouds during the day, and the streets were not too crowded, so we could take our time and walk around while taking our time and really enjoy this place and its beauty.

Photo gallery