Things to do in Cinque Terre | Travel Guide | wandermoore

C I N Q U E T E R R E

Pronounced Chink-qwe Ter-rray

Cinque Terre is the second love of my life, (The first love being my sweet husband that carried my purse all over Italy and never complained, not one single time.)

Seriously. This place is pure magic.

After a few days in Rome, we headed to the coast to hike the famous trails of Cinque Terre.

Cinque Terre translates to mean "Five Lands." The five lands are the quiet fishing villages along the coast. Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore.

After hours of research I decided it would be best to stay in Monterosso. It didn't have as many steps and VRBO had tons of availability. If you're looking for the relaxing beach part of Cinque Terre, Monterosso is the town for you. In the busy season, they rent out chairs and umbrellas along the beach. It's also on the farthest end of the train. It would be best to stay here or Riomaggiore to prevent backtracking. Gasp!

This was the first view we saw when we got off the train in Monterosso. It was cold and rainy but still so beautiful.

After a long day of traveling from Rome and stopping in Florence for most of the day, we were ready to put our backpacks down and have dinner. Little did we know we we're going to have the best meal of our entire trip.

If you are visiting Cinque Terre and most specifically Monterosso, I

highly recommend Ristorante Belvedere.
If you're in Rome, it's worth the 5 hour train ride. No joke.

Ristorante Belevedere has a fantastic view of the Ligurian Sea. The entire side of the restaurant that faces the water is all windows. It was storming while we were there so we got to watch the lightening strike while we enjoyed our meal.

I had shrimp pasta and Matt had the black and white pasta with squid ink.

Black and white pasta with squid ink.

BLACK AND WHITE PASTA WITH SQUID INK.

Do yourself a favor and get the black and white pasta with squid ink.

It's one of the top 10 best meals of my life.

Moving on to where we stayed...we used VRBO/Air BnB for our entire trip. This VRBO was the PERFECT location for hiking the trails.

We stayed here and loved it so much!! The room was literally SO CLOSE to the trail. It was clean, easy to find and just perfect!

This is where the trail begins. The guard booth where you purchase tickets in a little ways into the trail. There's a guard booth near the beginning of the trail in each town. The people of the town keep up the trails so be sure to buy your tickets and support the people that help create this memorable experience.

The next day this is the view we woke up to. I stood at the bottom of the steps just staring. Half of me still in disbelief that we were finally there and the other half sore from all the steps we climbed in Rome, haha.

We noticed a family coming down the steps so we waited on them to pass since the steps are so narrow. When they got to the bottom they let us know that the trail was closed. Bummer. It had been raining so much that the trails were dangerous as most of the trail doesn't have guardrails. Super bummer. We decided to take the train to the next town, Vernazza, to explore.

Ever since Cuba, I've been obsessed with taking clothes line photos.

I love that there are hardly no cars in these little towns. More boats than cars actually. There are only a few roads accessible by cars. If you're in a hurry you can spend five minutes on the train and be in the heart of the neighboring town. If you aren't interested in hiking but still want the views, there is a ferry that runs between all the towns.

We found a bride and groom. The photographer in me couldn't pass up the chance to take their photo.

Cinque Terre is the most beautiful place on earth!!

Taking the train through the Italian countryside was a memory that I will cherish forever.

If you plan on hiking the trails, it's very important to dress in layers. You will be hot while your hiking but once you arrive in the next town you'll want a jacket to throw on.

Here's a photo compilation of me almost getting soaked from a huge wave!

We decided to walk a little way onto the trail heading towards Corniglia. We knew the trail was closed but I thought we could at least see the view.

The further we went, the more beautiful the view.

Here's Matt, carrying my backpack purse that we picked up in Florence at the leather market.

Once we got to the guard stand I didn't not want to have to turn around. Matt realized I was upset about it being closed and had a little chat with the guard. I don't know what Matt said but the guard let us pass! Told us it was muddy and to be careful.

The views on the trail were stunning!!! I'm so thankful we got to experience this view.

Some of the trail had guardrails, most of the trail did not.

This was as flat as the trail would be. It was mostly steps either up or down. Haha

There is mesh on the side of the trail in some areas. This is to prevent landslides. In 2011 several people were killed in a mudslide. Be safe on the trails if there has been recent rain.

The rocks which make up huge steps are slippery. Be sure to wear shoes that have good traction.

Starting one of the major climbs about a quarter of the way into the trail.

The next little town over (pictured above) is Corniglia.

I asked Matt to take this photo because I thought we were almost to the next town.

Spoiler alert: we were not close. Only half way.

We knew we were half way because dead in the middle of the trail is the cutest little juice shop and they had a sign that said "you are half way there."

I had the lemon/orange juice and it was surprisingly delicious! I'm a sucker for fresh squeezed juices.

This was our view while we sipped our juices.

After we finished our drinks we hit the trail, super stoked to see Corniglia.

Steps. Steps. Steps.

So many steps. These aren't normal size steps either. They were huge!!

We finally made it!!

Speaking of wifi...free wifi doesn't exist in Cinque Terre.

Corniglia was my favorite of all the towns based on quaintness alone.

I had to showoff this beautifully ran down staircase to nowhere.

After exploring the town we decided to take the train to the next town, Manarola. These were the steps to get to the train station. I was super thankful that we were going down and not up, especially after the hike. There are 33 flights of stairs total. Plan accordingly, haha.

This is where the trail ends into Manarola. This is where you want to be for THE view.

Manarola was the town I was most excited about!! Manarola has the iconic view of Cinque Terre that you see in all the photos. The exact view that I looked at online for so many years.

As i mentioned before, Cinque Terre is made up of five fishing villages. All of the colorful buildings are what make Cinque Terre so stunningly beautiful! The reason all the buildings are painted differently is so that the wives could signal to their fisherman husbands that dinner was ready. They would hang a white towel out of their window and the husbands on the boats could easily tell which house was theirs.

If it were up to me, I'd still be standing in this same exact spot. When I say Italy left an impression on my heart, this is the moment I'm talking about.

This is the view the opposite way, around the corner.

This sign cracked us up. The symbol for Corniglia is so true. So many stairs.

Nessun Dorma is the restaurant that has seating in perfect view of all the colorful buildings on the cliff. It was so good!

Nessun Dorma doesn't have hot, dinner food. They only had cold appetizers and sandwiches. We got a quick snack while we waited for the sun to set. This was the best mozzarella I've ever had. The view in Manarola is beautiful in the day light, but I had my heart set on seeing this colorful seaside town all lit up in the dark.