My Cinque Terre Villages Guide
The cinque terre or five towns were the first Italian destination I visited that made me fall head-over-heels for Italy. That's right, it wasn't one of the big destinations I'd seen on my Contiki tour some years before, but the view from our guesthouse bedroom in Monterosso and the sound of birds chirping after a 30+ hour travel journey from Australia that made me start to fall in love with this country. It helped that that morning after said crazy travel day we wandered down to town and stumbled upon the lemon sagra! The entire town of Monterosso was decked out like a big yellow lemon with tiny children running up to offer us slices of lemon dipped in sugar, and adults offering limoncino. I first visited in May 2017 for three nights (not nearly enough) and whilst the weather was mild it was still not quite warm enough for swimming and already very busy with tourists. Thus, when I had the opportunity this June and experience the cinque terre villages without the usual horde of tourists I jumped at the chance. Read on for my top picks if you're considering visiting yourself.
Where is Cinque Terre?
First things first, the cinque terre literally means five lands and refers to the five gorgeous towns nestled along the coast in Liguria. The area is northwest of La Spezia and south from Genoa. The towns include Monterosso al Mare (the biggest), Vernazza (normally considered the prettiest), Corniglia (up high on the cliffs), Manarola and Riomaggiore.
How to get to Cinque Terre?
The easiest way to get to the cinque terre villages is by train. This is because the villages are all pedestrian-only (besides Monterosso) and whilst there is parking available it's at an absolute minimum. When we visited this June we considered driving from Turin, and had the option to try our luck finding paid parking in the Manarola carpark or drive to La Spezia and then train to the cinque terre which is very quick. By the time we worked out the cost which would have been at least 20 euro a day for parking, not to mention the cost of petrol and taxes getting there, the convenience of the train won. It's very easy to move between the villages via train and they offer a fast and reliable service too. If you decide to stay up at one of the sanctuaries in the hills instead (for example Volastra), it would be recommended to drive.
Best place to stay in Cinque Terre
All of the villages are absolutely gorgeous and have their own feel to them, so you really can't go wrong. The first time I visited I stayed in Monterosso and loved it. It's the biggest of the villages and has an old and new town, it has a sandy beach and there are lots of restaurants and shops. If you value convenience, it's a great option and being the biggest village it also has the most accommodation options. We stayed at a clean and simple B&B called Manuel's Guesthouse. This time, I wanted to try a new village so we stayed in Manarola. I remembered it from four years ago as being quiet, small and beautiful and it was even better than I remembered. We stayed a short walk up the hills which was hard on legs but meant we had an amazing view looking out to the sea. Corniglia would be a great home base if you weren't as fussed with being directly by the sea and wanted somewhere really quiet (it felt the least touristy to me). Unfortunately, Vernazza seemed to be a little less charming and a little more touristy so I was glad we didn't stay there. Riomaggiore is another popular choice but we didn't have time to visit on this trip so no new comments to add to that town.
Things to do in Cinque Terre
We had grand plans of a daily hike but in the end we just did the Manarola to Volastra trail on our first afternoon. The walk actually continues if you choose past Volastra all the way to Corniglia, but we decided to turn back as it was pretty uphill already and quite tiring. Some other activities you can consider:
Hiking: There are so many hiking trails you can do but it's best to check this site for all the latest information on whether trails are open or closed and to ascertain how difficult they are.
Swimming: We spent most of our day reclining on sun loungers at the Eden beach club in Monterosso while we were there! It's arguably the best-positioned beach club in the new part of town and very close to the train station. The beach is sandy and it's the easiest to swim in as you don't have to jump off cliffs to enter the water.
Snorkelling: We didn't have time to do this but some of the locals recommended going snorkelling off the rocks in Manarola!
Wine tasting: We had a great wine tasting of Cinque Terre wines at A Pié de Campu Wine Cellar. The sommelier Yvonne was incredible (she also did a stint on some wineries in Australia funnily enough!) and led us through a really thoughtful tasting of three wines from the area. They also make incredible focaccia, so if you're not in for the wine, I recommend stopping for that!
Shopping: There are a lot of tourist shops in the area obviously, but if you're interested in buying some beautiful ceramics you will love Fabbrica d'Arte in Monterosso. They create beautiful, authentic, locally made ceramics and we picked up a gorgeous bowl there.
Where to eat in the cinque terre?
We loved the food in Liguria- from oily focaccia, to fresh pesto, to an abundance of fish- it's totally a daily diet I could get behind. Here are some of our most favourite places we ate at during our short trip to the area.
Trattoria dal Billy, Manarola
If you eat anywhere in the Cinque Terre, please make it here! I first went four years ago and still had dreams of the lobster pasta and fresh white wine here. Four years later, it was even better than I remembered and we got the best seat in the house thanks to pre-booking a month in advance (bookings are highly recommended!) We enjoyed the mixed antipasti which were 16 little treats to start and the main course of lobster pasta. If you're a fan of digestivo, make sure to order the homemade limoncino here too- it was the best we had!
Cappun Magru, Manarola
I read about this place over at Amy's blog, 'A Cinque Terre Insider' and thought we had to visit! It doesn't look anything special from the outside, but we had some of the most comforting, delicious local food here. Our first lunch we had a panino with marinated anchovies and another with cod. Whilst on our last lunch there we enjoyed marinated anchovies (couldn't resist), cappun magru itself (they describe it as a sort of fish lasagne without the pasta sheets), and an incredible black rice, broad beans and prawn salad, followed by a glass of the local Sciacchetrà dessert wine.
A Pié de Campu Wine Cellar, Manarola
Go here for a wine tasting with Yvonne or to enjoy delicious focaccia.
Enotecca Internazionale, Monterosso
We bought some local wine here to enjoy back at our Airbnb and the staff were really helpful. There's a broad variety but of course we went for a local Cinque Terre wine from Riomaggiore.
Il Frantoio, Monterosso
Lunch at the beach in Liguria means focaccia. This was the best place in town and you could choose from a variety of different delicious options including ones with pesto and stracchino.
Gelateria Stalìn, Vernazza
Two words - basil gelato! This was a recommendation I read about from Emiko Davies great guide on her trip to the Cinque Terre in 2020. The gelato here was delicious and they offer a variety of unusual flavours but I couldn't go past the refreshing basil one! We ate our gelato while looking out to the sea.
Ristorante da Cecio, Corniglia
Another recommendation from Emiko, this restaurant was a real delight! Away from the hustle and bustle at the top of the cliff in Corniglia, it was a lot more rustic than Trattoria dal Billy and had a stunning view of the pastel-coloured houses and the sea. We enjoyed marinated anchovies with tomato, pansotti (ravioli) filled with black lobster, and a tuna tartare. It felt very local and down to earth and the owner was so kind that they drove us back to the train station at the end of the evening!
Cinque Terre Planning Resources
Here are some helpful blogs and Instagram accounts that I used for planning our trip and might come in handy!
Emiko Davies Guide
Cinque Terre Loves Local Instagram
Moodboard your trip with Travis
Prefer to plan your holidays visually? I recently discovered Travis, which is a cool new platform just like Pinterest but for travel. They invited me to create a moodboard based on my Cinque Terre trip and plug in all the places I went with links and a map and share it with you guys. It's a super visual way to see all this info quickly and I can imagine it would be a great resource for people to refer to when they're travelling and don't have time to pull up spreadsheets to remember the name of a place. Take a look at my moodboard now and let me know what you think.
If you want to create your own account, Travis have offered my readers a code to sign up (it's still in BETA) and skip the wait list. All you need to do is enter the code LETMEIN - you'll skip the waitlist and receive your beta invite in 10 minutes. Just head here to sign up and start moodboarding your own trips!
Looking for some more Italy travel inspo? Check out my travel articles here- I regularly add to this section as I uncover more places around Italy.