The Cinque Terre on the Beautiful Italian Riviera

Vernazza

The Cinque Terre, which means five lands in Italian, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and consists of five charming towns along the Italian Riviera. This was the second destination of our Italy vacation. We stayed for three nights.

I was inspired to visit the Cinque Terre by Rick Steves’ Cinque Terre: Italy’s Hidden Riviera. It looked so beautiful. And it lived up to everything I hoped.

We traveled a little over four hours by train from Rome to the Cinque Terre. We decided to make Vernazza our home base. There are no large hotels in Vernazza. There are establishments that have a few rooms to rent. Most places require reservations to be made by email or fax. We stayed at Trattoria Gianni Franzi in a double (king) room with a private bath and a balcony overlooking the sea, from which we could see the boats illuminating the waters to fish for anchovies at night. The room rate was 100 Euro per night, and we took advantage of their offer of a 10% discount if we paid cash.

View from Our Balcony

An important thing to know about Vernazza is that it is full of stairs. There are streets strictly consisting of stairs. Any route to your room will most likely involve multiple flights of stairs, and that’s before entering the building where your room is, which will most likely have, you guessed it, more stairs. While incredibly charming, this does create a difficult situation when you are going to your room for the first time with your luggage. Try to pack light. I’m not great at packing light, but I did have one rolling bag and a duffle bag, which was much easier to negotiate than Romeo’s rolling checked bag and rolling carry-on bag. Also, try not to forget anything in your room when you set out for the day! Yes, this happened once.

Streets of Stairs

First and foremost, make sure you get a pastry every morning for breakfast from Il Pirata delle Cinque Terre, owned by charming twin brothers. Their croissant with special cream and panzerotti with ricotta are literally to die for. You will thank me.

Pastry at Il Pirata delle Cinque Terre

There are three ways to get between towns; train, boat, and hiking trail. There are many beautiful trails in the Cinque Terre, not only between towns, but also up into the hills. The Cinque Terre is more about the charm and beauty of the towns and scenery and the gorgeous hikes than the actual sights in the different towns.

On our first full day we took the train to Monterosso al Mare. Monterosso is more of a resort town than the other four. When we arrived, there were crowds of cruise ship day trippers, so we first headed up the Zii di Frati (Switchback of the Monks) to be away from the crowds and to visit the Church of the Cappuccin Monks and the cemetery, and to take in the view of the town. We then headed back down the hill into the old town for lunch, then visited the Church of St. John the Baptist. Monterosso also has a large sandy beach at which you can rent chairs and umbrellas. After Monterosso, we returned to Vernazza and visited the church and the castle.

Manarola

The next day we explored the other three towns of the Cinque Terre. We started by taking the train to Riomaggiore. We explored this small town and then walked the easy La Via dell’ Amore to Manarola. After Manarola, we hopped on the train to Corniglia, where we ate lunch and enjoyed gelato before heading off on the four kilometer hike between Corniglia and Vernazza. This is a beautiful hike with gorgeous views of the sea and should not be missed. Judging by what the people we passed going the opposite way said, going from Corniglia to Vernazza was the easier direction. We ended the day on the rocks watching the sun sink into the Mediterranean Sea.

View of Vernazza from Trail Between Corniglia and Vernazza
(our room was in the pink building with the horizontal white stripe below the castle)

The next morning we caught the early 7:00 a.m. train to Venice. But of course, while my husband waited at the station with our luggage, I ran up the street to Il Pirata for our delicious morning pastries.

It is easy to fall into a slower pace while in the Cinque Terre. I had a few more items on the itinerary that we just didn’t have time to do. Some of those were the Anchovies Salting Centre in Monterosso, the World Wars Monument in Vernazza, and the World War II bunkers and Santuario di Nostra Signora di Montenero in Riomaggiore.

Anchovies with Lemon at
Trattoria Da Sandro

Be sure to try the trofie al pesto, a hand rolled pasta served with pesto, which is the region’s signature pasta dish. Also try the fresh anchovies with lemon (acciughe al limone), which are available on days when the sea was calm enough for the fisherman to go out the night before. Even if you think you don’t like anchovies, give them a chance. In addition to Il Pirata, we had excellent meals at the restaurant from which we rented our room, Trattoria Gianni Franzi, as well as at Gambero Rossoand Trattoria Da Sandro. Be sure to make your dinner reservations in the morning before heading out, as the restaurants are small and can fill up quickly.

Vernazza and Monterosso were ravished by flash floods and landslides caused by unprecedented rains in 2011. This was debilitating to the towns. They have made a remarkable recovery, but this is yet another reason to visit this part of Italy, to make sure their economy is bolstered by tourism so the towns can be enjoyed by travelers for years to come. Some of the trails are still closed, but will hopefully open soon. See the websites Save Vernazza and Rebuild Monterosso for information and travel advisor updates.

I used Rick Steves' Best of Europe to plan the Cinque Terre portion of our Italy trip.