Day 1 – 09/30/2015 (Wednesday)

We left the Bertini Falls in the interior of Tuscany and we deliver the car in Florence around noon. As already we had walked around the city before, we chose a train to La Spezia at 1 pm and from there we would set off to explore Cinque Terre.

Explaining the Cinque Terre

For those who don't know, Cinque Terre It is located within the Liguria region of Italy and is made up of 5 cute coastal towns (in red on the map), namely: Riomaggiore, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Monterosso.

La Spezia (in blue) is the largest city nearby, but it is still quite small, so you can do everything on foot and from there you can take a train or boat to these 5 small towns.

There is also a small town that is considered the sixth land and can only be accessed by boat: Portovenere (in yellow). This was our favorite, by the way, then try to get to know her too!

All the towns are quite small and therefore accommodation is more expensive, so La Spezia ends up being a great option for those who don't want to spend a lot of money on hotels.

Our accommodation in La Spezia

We arrived in La Spezia in the afternoon and went straight to our guest house, the Affittacamere City Rest (71 euros per day without breakfast), which is right next to the train station.

We were very well attended to and loved the facilities in our suite. We had problems with the wifi at the beginning of the stay, but after we discovered that we just had to turn the modem off and on, everything was fine.

Strolling around La Spezia

We left our things in the room and went out to explore the city. As it was almost 3pm, the restaurants were closed (the siesta (it is very common in Italy) and the solution was to have a snack in one of the cafes we found open. We walked around the city without rushing, going to the port, and when we returned, the shops and restaurants were already open for dinner.

Dining in La Spezia

We chose a restaurant that was highly rated on TripAdvisor for dinner, Hosteria Cicchetteria Marinerei. We were very well looked after by the owner and everything was delicious, especially the Celo lobster. Everything cost 70 euros, including a bottle of local wine. We highly recommend it!

We returned to our suite early and went to bed early to make the most of the next day.

Day 2 – 10/01/2015 (Thursday)

We had breakfast at the partner restaurant (2 euros per person) of our accommodation and walked to the port to catch the 10am boat (we checked the timetable the day before when we walked around the port).

There is only one company that does the boat trip to Cinque Terre and they have different prices/timetables depending on the number of cities involved and the time of year (see photos below of our day). 

One important thing: As there are several boat departure times, you can plan your itinerary around the city without stressing so much about what time to catch the boat to other cities.

Boat trip to Cinque Terre

As the weather was bad, we thought it best to go by boat just to Portovenere and Riomaggiore, because the first is only accessible by boat and the second is the first and main one of Cinque Terre. From there, we would leave by train to see all the others.

We paid 14 euros per person for this trip and it was worth it, even with the bad weather, because the cities from afar are beautiful. The boat is very comfortable and large, but it was full of tourist groups, you know? We sat on the upper deck, which is open, and despite the wind and rain, we loved the view. After a little over half an hour of walking, we arrived at the cute Portovenere.

Portovenere

We followed our guide's itinerary (with lots of stairs!!!!) and passed by several interesting places. Our favorite was the Church of St. Peter, It's a very small church with a beautiful view. I really wanted to get married there. 🙂

Nearby there is a really cool place for diving, Byron's Cave, but since the weather was bad, it didn't work out for us. Our friend who went there and gave us all the tips dived in the summer and said the water was great!

Riomaggiore

We took the 12 hour boat to Riomaggiore, after going through all the places we wanted to in Portovenere, very calmly. Look at this beautiful route Portovenere to Riomaggiore:

We got off at Riomaggiore and we already feel like taking a thousand photos. It is more squeezed between the rocks than Portovenere and super colorful too, so it's easy to find it cute. This view of the city entrance is featured on several postcards and souvenirs from Cinque Terre, so I got that feeling of “WE HAVE ARRIVED”, you know?

We stopped for a fried seafood cone (8 euros) at the restaurant The Cooked Fish, It was delicious! I thought it was a great option for those who don't want to sit in a restaurant and waste a few hours eating.

We walked around the city and I thought everything was really cute. Celo felt like he was in the middle of a big favela, with the colorful little houses one on top of the other, a bit disorganized. It's up to each person, right?

We walked a little through Way of Love, as it is famous for its beautiful views, but it was closed due to restoration work so we couldn't go very far. The little we saw of the view was enough to make us recommend a visit.

Train in Cinque Terre

We walked towards the train station Riomaggiore, where we bought one ticket of the type that allows several stops, as long as you go in the same direction (4 euros per person).

Many people buy the Cinque Terre Card, as it gives you access to unlimited trains and entry to the park to go hiking, but as the weather was bad and we only wanted the trains, we did the math and it wasn't worth it for us.

We paid 24 euros for the two days of transport (but it could have been just 20 euros if we hadn't made a mistake – the explanation is below), when the Cinque Terre Card would have cost 23 euros per person (46 euros in total). See if it's worth it for you and if it is, buy the card at the train stations.

We wanted to catch the 2:19 pm train to get to Manarola at 2:22 pm, but with the confusion at the station and the poor signaling, we ended up getting on the 2:13 pm train and according to this paper, we had to go straight to the last town, Monterosso. We paid for a ticket that allowed us to use several stops, but we ended up using it for just one stop, which would have cost only 2.10 euros and not 6 euros.

Very important tip: Don't forget to validate your tickets in the machines at the train stations. We saw ticket inspectors charging us for tickets several times!

Monterosso

We arrived in Monterosso and we found the beach there to be very beautiful, with crystal clear water even on a cloudy day! Obviously there wasn't a soul in the water, because it was really cold, but it must certainly get crowded on hot days. Take a look:

We left the beach and went to the city center, where the typical colorful houses are located, and we didn't find anything special. The beach is really the highlight of the little town, so don't go with high expectations for the colorful city itself. We visited some cute little churches and walked around the streets, aimlessly, but we didn't fall in love with it.

We bought another train ticket at the station, also the kind that allows multiple stops, as long as you're going in the same direction, and we stopped at the next town, Vernazza. 

Vernazza

It has a very pretty little port and practically only one street. It's cute, but you can see everything in less than an hour. We chose to buy several focaccias different in the restaurant Knock Knock, because besides being cheap, they would satisfy hunger and not take up much time – exactly what we wanted.

Corniglia

We took the train to the next city, Corniglia, and out of anxiety, we didn't read the sign below which is right at the exit of the train station (read it carefully now, please!!!):

We climbed the 365 steps instead of taking the super cheap bus and I really regretted not having read the sign! It was good for exercise, but I can't say the view was worth it, because the weather was really bad.

When we got up there and saw the whole city in less than half an hour, we came to the conclusion that Corniglia will be remembered by us as a city for “cuckolds”, not in the literal sense of the word… lol The thing is that the staircase really is a “cuckold’s program”, you know? The city is pretty, of course, because it’s all colorful and has a really cool view of the coast, but since it was cloudy it wasn’t that big of a deal. Oh, It is the only one of the Cinque Terre that does not have a port.

Manarola

We left there a little frustrated (especially after we saw the sign!!!) and took the train to the next city, Manarola. I think that this is my favorite of the five lands, because I found its outline impressive. You will be able to understand what I am talking about if you go towards the sea and take a path to the right. The view is beautiful, even on a cloudy day.

As we had already visited all the little towns, we chose Manarola to have a leisurely dinner. We went to the restaurant Trattoria The Scogliera and although the food was delicious, we found the place very touristy and noisy. There were only groups of rude Asians when we arrived and this made me a bit angry, I confess. It's really annoying to eat with so much noise and still not understand anything they're saying.

After a while, a Canadian couple the same age as our parents sat at the table next to us and we chatted for hours... what a wonderful chance encounter. We laughed a lot, cried a lot, exchanged many experiences, many stories. It was like something out of a movie, you know?

We were the last ones to leave the restaurant and had to rush out to catch the last available train to La Spezia. I didn't even have time to get their contact details in the rush, which was a shame because it would be amazing to meet them again. Maria Pia is her name and I can't remember his name. I know they live in Toronto and have 3 adult children. Who knows, maybe someone will read this. post and you know them, right…

Day 3 – 10/02/2015 (Friday)

Riomaggiore

We had the same breakfast at the partner restaurant and rested in the affittacamere, because it wouldn't stop raining. We took a train in the middle of the afternoon to Riomaggiore, when the rain stopped a little, and we took the opportunity to eat that cone with wonderful seafood again. The rain started again and we returned to our little corner without blinking.

Dining in La Spezia

We went out for dinner at a well-reviewed pizzeria near our accommodation, the Apple Spin. I ended up ordering a pizza without cheese that was really bad, but Celo's had cheese and was delicious.. What we liked about it was that we didn't see any tourists. Just locals reading newspapers, watching the evening news on TV, etc. We felt like locals for a few minutes!

 Day 4 – 10/03/2015 (Saturday)

We had our usual breakfast and caught our early train to Step on. Read about our trip to Pisa here.

Cinque Terre Summary

We had bad weather every day we were there, but if even with the bad weather the little towns were quite full, imagine how they are on hot days…

For those who avoid tourists like us, I would never go in the summer, but I understand that the crystal clear sea water makes you want to dive in, right? 

Anyway, you have to think carefully before going there and if it's high season, start preparing your patience now! 🙂

Want to know more about THIS TRIP? See the posts below:

• Italy – Rome, Tuscany, Bologna and Cinque Terre (14 days -SUMMARY)
• Italy – Rome and Vatican (4 days)
• Italy – Bologna (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Summary (4 days)
• Italy – Tuscany – San Gimignano and Volterra (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Florence (2 days)
• Italy – Tuscany – Lucca (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Monteriggioni and Siena (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Montepulciano and Cortona (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Pisa (1 day)
• Italy – Cinque Terre (2 days)

If you want to know more about our other trips around Italy, see below:

• Italy – Rome, Amalfi Coast, Capri, Pompeii and Caserta (10 days – SUMMARY)
• Italy – Caserta and Pompeii (1 day)
• Italy – Amalfi Coast (3 days)
• Italy – Capri and Anacapri (3 days)
• Italy – Rome and Vatican (2 days)

Want tips on what to do in Italy? Check out the options from our partner Civitatis below: