Cinque Terre

Likes & Dislikes

Likes

1. The spectacular geography all along the coastline

2. The setting of Riomaggiore, and the panoramic views it offers, are unbelievable (coastline, houses, cliffs, and the pastel color scheme of the village itself, etc.)

3. Good that we didn’t have to worry about driving, and especially parking

4. The glittering colors of the sea

5. Manarola, because it seemed a bit more laid back than the other villages

6. The harbor district of Vernazza, which could have come straight from a fairy tale, and its fishing-village atmosphere (if you can imagine away the hordes of noisy American tourists)

7. The little gothic church of San Pietro in Corniglia

8. Swimming in the sea in a little bay near Riomaggiore

9. They’ve largely managed to avoid overdevelopment and environmental degradation, and by Italian standards the preservation of ancient monuments has been outstanding

10. Each of the five villages has a totally unique atmosphere, but at the same time there is a certain feeling that unites the whole of Cinque Terre (maybe Monterosso is a bit outside it)

Dislikes

1. In Riomaggiore (especially) the tourist crowds are overwhelming – there’s nothing very romantic about standing in a crowd

2. Schedule constraints on trains and shipping mean a lot of waiting

3. A lot of steps to climb in the heat

4. Some restaurants have been spoiled by the tourist crowds, and don’t really try to offer good quality or value for money. Staff are often tense and overworked

5. Weekends are best avoided, as the crowds become atrocious

6. People stepping on each other’s heels on the trail between Monterosso and Vernazza

7. The run-down conditions of the stations (stinky bathrooms)

8. The locals are not the champions of Italian hospitalityW

9. The proportion of tourist junk in the shops

10. Should have visited 10-15 years ago, when it wasn’t so popular

11. Monterosso is the most crowded of the five in summer

Cinque Terre - Manarola - tourist crowd - m.s. photo

Opinions

“The villages themselves are what first captures our attention – they’re really gorgeous, and their location is spectacular. The whole experience has been partly spoiled, however, by the mass, conveyor-belt quality of tourism here. I felt I was on a fixed, mandatory route, with a given number of items to check off my list. It’s a small area, and there are a lot of people, but once you’ve arrived and got down into the crowded streets of a village, it’s pleasant enough. You can take amazing photographs. Most of the tourists are at least cultured – only the Americans and the Japanese seem a bit obtuse. Looking back, Cinque Terre is on about the same experience level as the Amalfi Coast, though there are considerable differences between them. All in all, don’t miss it! There’s a reason why hundreds of thousands of people visit.

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“It’s worth spending most of your time in Monterossa and Vernazza. Try to get out of Riomaggiore quickly, since although it’s one of the most spectacular villages, it’s also quite small, and you can see everything in an hour. I’d recommend having lunch in Monterossa, because it has the most restaurants, and you can try the local specialty – pasta with pesto sauce. Then you can walk down the far side of the mountain to the spectacular beach. Around Vernazza it’s forbidden to leave the little trail that follows the mountainside, but the panoramic views are spectacular!

If for some reason you miss the last boat, you can always take a train back to the neighboring towns. For anyone planning a cruise for the last day of their holiday, I’d recommend booking accommodation for the evening in Lerici or nearby – a full day of sightseeing can be exhausting, and after so many new experiences, you want to set off for home straight away – especially not by car!” (Gerda, 2015)

Practicals

Transport

Cinque Terre is a car-free national park. Only some locals are allowed to enter by car into this area.

The five villages are connected by several walking paths. The blue path is the main one; the one walked by most tourists. It is a five-six hours walk, but some sections are sometimes closed for maintenance works.

A railway line connects the five villages. From the first village to the last one, train travel takes about 15 minutes.

Cinque Terre - train - g.m. photo

Manarola - boats are parked in front of the houses - m.s. photo

Food

Cinque Terre - seafood plate - l.p. photo

Cinque Terre - street (sea) food - m.g. photo

Shopping

Cinque Terre - Lemon of Monterosso - h.a. photo

Public safety

Cinque Terre - cat - a.l. photo

Others

Beaches

Cinque Terre - beaches - Manarola - s.z. photo

Cinque Terre - Monterosso - Cigolini beach (Bagni Eden) - a.d. photo

Background

Destination in brief

Cinque Terre is an 18-kilometers long, rocky coastal stretch, a national park along the Eastern Riviera of the Liguria Region, in North Western Italy, extended from Punta Mesco to Punta di Montenero. The top tourist attraction is five neighboring villages, from west to east (or south to north?): Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso.Cinque Terre means “five lands.” These five villages are about 10 km (6,2 mi) distance from each other.

Cinque Terre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Cinque Terre is pronounced like this: Chink-qwe Ter-rray with the the double "r" in the word "Terre" having the rolling effect.

Luckily each of the five villages has a distinctive character. What they have in common: all of them are picturesque and extremely photogenic.

Monterosso is the largest of the 5 villages and the only one with proper beaches. But Monterosso is less spectacular, being flat, unlike the other four, which are located on rough mountains overlooking the sea.

The majority of the visitors find Vernazza the most picturesque: a lovely small harbor unfolds in the shadow of a medieval castle and a church.

You need two days to cover and enjoy Cinque Terre. Three days can be too many, one day is too short. You can cover all five villages in a single day by taking a one-day train ticket, but the program becomes slightly hectic. One day is enough if you are satisfied with just shooting a lot of photos.