Exploring Italy, Pt. 6: Cinque Terre (2023)
- Aug 17, 2025
- 7 min read
If you've jumped right into this part of the adventure, this is where we've been:
Now, for the travel journal, visiting Cinque Terre...
Most people are familiar with at least the name Cinque Terre, right? These are colorful, oceanside towns in northwest Italy, comprising Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. Translating this region's name from Italian, these "Five Lands" are among the most picturesque places in all of the world. Here's one of them (Riomaggiore):
Perched on steep hillsides, there isn't much room for these towns to grow. Lodging and road traffic are limited, so we determined the best way to explore this area would be to stay in the nearby city of La Spezia. From here, the best public transportation options to get into Cinque Terre are by train or ferry.
Driving in from Verona, we first have to get rid of the rental car in La Spezia. That turns out to be no simple task. The local rental agency should be open right now... but it's not. We planned our day primarily around getting the car dropped off before the place closes, which should be in one hour from now, yet there's not a soul around.
We place an international call to this business, and the phone just rings and rings. We walk around the building, and that doesn't reveal anything helpful. We find an email address, send a short "How do we get this dropped off?" message and pray for a quick response. That never comes so, eventually, we leave the car in what is hopefully a public parking lot across the street, take dozens of pictures/videos of the vehicle's location and condition, drop the key fob into a slot in the front of the building, send a follow-up email about where the car is, then walk away. We really don't feel good about this, but there isn't much else we can do.
We take the public bus further into town, then walk the rest of the way to our lodging. After getting settled in, we head out and explore La Spezia. It's been a long day so, after dinner, Janine retires back to our room. I'd like to explore a little more while there's still daylight, so I head out for a walk. It doesn't take long to discover La Spezia is hilly! At least one staircase intersects another, where you can go to the left and further on up, or go to the right and head down toward the city center. I head further up.
Eventually, I reach Castello San Giorgio, which is a castle dating back to the 1300s. These days, it functions as an art and history museum but, at this hour, it's closed. With the evening closing in, it's time to head back to our lodging. Getting to this spot, I had walked up and up and up... Luckily, getting at least part of the way back down is easy, because the San Giorgio lift is within sight. This is basically a glass elevator car that functions like a funicular. I'm not carrying any money; is it free? I hit the button, the car comes back up the hill, the doors open, then it takes me down. I didn't have to pay a thing. Awesome!
Cinque Terre Day 1:
In the morning, we plan on taking the train to the furthest of the Cinque Terre towns (Monterosso al Mare), then backtrack by hiking south to the next town over (Vernazza). At 10 AM on a Monday and on the verge of summer, the La Spezia train station is a madhouse. The queue to buy the Cinque Terre train pass goes out the shop, along the front of the building, then alongside it. Joining the line, we are at the back of the building, and I’m guessing 150 people are ahead of us. An attendant tells me tickets can be purchased on the Trenitalia app, but my internet connection has been so spotty in this country, and the app download stalls out. The line moves a little quicker than I was expecting, and we buy the day passes (as of 2023, no validation needed - you just need to write your name on them).
From La Spezia, the train ride to Monterosso al Mare takes maybe 20 minutes. When we get into town, we explore a little bit, then start looking for the trailhead… and can’t find it. We take the path that seems most logical, up, so we climb some stairs and already feel some burn in our legs. Again, no signs here indicate any trails nearby, so we wait for some hiking blogs to load with our lousy internet connections.
The first few pages Google offers up aren’t helpful, so we hike down another set of stairs. We land in what feels like another little village, but it turns out to just be another part of Monterosso al Mare: the “Centro Storico” or “Town Center”.
Refilling one of our bottles at the fountain, a few sweaty, fit people nearby are speaking English. I ask if they just hiked the trail - they did, and they let us know we still need to keep walking further south to find the trailhead.
We ascend some rocky stairs and finally - fiiinnnnalllyy! - reach a ticket booth, signaling the official start of the trail. Since we have the Cinque Terre Card, there isn’t any additional fee to access the trail, which is otherwise about 7 euros per person in 2023.
Onward we go! Right off the bat, the elevation gain is tough. An old, rocky footpath going up and up and up equals burning quads.
The trail goes up some more, past rows of grapes and monorail tracks used to access and harvest grapes on the steep hillsides.
With some stops along the way to take some photos and catch our breath, the trek can take an estimated 2.5 hours. Some other pages say “a little over an hour”, and we did have people pass us who seemed to be intent on setting a world record. It sure was hot out, and we didn’t rush. The view along the way is gorgeous.
We really should have packed more water. If you do this hike, don't be ridiculous: be sure to take water, and wear appropriate footwear. We always see someone on these treks wearing flip-flops. It's absurd and dangerous.
After about two hours, Vernazza comes into view:
Once we've descended down the path into town, we rehydrate and dust off. I don't know if my shoes will ever be clean again!
In town, we eat a light lunch, have a look around, then take the train to the next stop, Corniglia.
Corniglia is the only village of Cinque Terre that isn’t right off the train stop. You can hike up to it or, with the pass, hop on a shuttle and take that up to the town center. Otherwise, we see a few people pay the shuttle driver directly for transportation, and the ride takes about 5 minutes.
Corniglia has the look of a classic Italian town, with its narrow streets and hanging laundry overhead. There’s a wine shop here, and this is my chance to try the local dessert wine, Sciacchetrà (sounds like "shockey-trah"). It’s very sweet and delicious. The custom here is to dip biscotti cookies in the drink, so I do, and that’s delicious, as well.
Cinque Terre Day 2:
For full day # 2 in Cinque Terre, we've set aside some beach time. We head to Monterosso al Mare again and rent two chairs and an umbrella for 35 euros. This seems to be the standard rate. Not having a reservation, we end up in the back row (of 5). That's okay, though: we have a nice, straight view of the water... until a couple chooses the chairs directly in front of us.
We spend the whole day here, soaking up the sun and people watching. Today truly feels like a vacation.
Cinque Terre Day 3:
For our last day in this area, we take the scenic route, opting to visit the villages by ferry. The boat departs from the La Spezia port - when it actually does - considering the first boats of the day are already running way behind schedule.
Once we get going, along the way, we see old forts, churches, a castle, and colorful towns we never would have otherwise known about. Porto Venere looks fun, with its connected, pastel buildings lining the waterfront.
To recap, during the past two days, we visited Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, and Corniglia. The Cinque Terre towns for us to still explore are Manarola and Riomaggiore.
We step off the boat at Manarola and navigate past the long line of people waiting to board. It takes just a minute to walk into town, where the vibe is similar to the other seaside fishing village in this area: old, colorful buildings that line narrow pathways, friendly locals, and maybe too many tourists. I can certainly understand the love/hate relationship with the latter, so we always try our best to be respectful and patient wherever we visit, and to be good representatives of our homeland.
For lunch, we pick a restaurant and, luckily, get seated on the balcony upstairs. That offers a prime view of the main walkway below, while we are seated right next to some beautiful flowers. It really feels like Italy, seeing laundry hang drying on a balcony across the way.
I've been wanting to try trofie al pesto, which is thin, short pieces of pasta twisted into a corkscrew shape by hand and tossed in a pesto sauce. The dish originated in this region and is a summertime specialty, when fresh basil is at its peak. The pasta is chewy, and the sauce is delicious.
After eating pasta, taking a stroll from Manarola to Riomaggiore seems like a great idea. Sometimes storms wash out the path, but the Via dell'Amore walkway between these two towns can be a nice option (and requires payment to access).
Riomaggiore is probably the most scenic of the "five towns", with its small harbor being flanked by a cluster a of vibrant tower houses. A lot of people are enjoying the relatively calm waters here. Swimming wasn't at all on our radar today so, unfortunately, we left our bathing suits back at our room in La Spezia.
This wraps up our time exploring Cinque Terre. Next, we will visit Milan and Lake Como, then wrap up our vacation in Switzerland.
"Exploring Italy, Pt. 6: Cinque Terre, Milan, Lake Como (2023)"
Written by: Justin Kilmer
Critiqued by: Janine Kilmer
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