Cinque Terre

We arrived in Cinque Terre Saturday evening without a place to stay so the first thing we did was try to find lodging. We were fortunate enough to find a small apartment to rent for the evening in the village where we got off of the train, Vernazza. We got settled in and made some dinner before heading out to see the town. After a short time climbing on the rocks that lined the seashore, we got on the hiking path out of town to get a view from above. We climbed stair after stair until we came across a bar overlooking the village just before the ticket checkpoint on the hiking path. It appeared that this would be the highest that we could get without paying for a Cinque Terre card for the day (which gives you access to the hiking trails connecting the 5 villages), so we took a seat at the bar and enjoyed a drink while soaking in the beauty of the area.

Vernazza

The next day, we were scheduled to check out of our apartment and move our things to a more affordable hostel in the southernmost village of Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore. After dropping off our bags, we walked around town and decided to hit the beach for the afternoon. Unfortunately, Riomaggoire’s beach was all rock with no sand, so we purchased another train ticket and headed to the northernmost village of Monterosso. While Monterosso has much more sandy beach area than the rest of Cinque Terre, much of it was considered private and required payment to sit on the sand. We opted to go to the free beach, which was a small segment of sand at the end of the beach. We found some space amongst all of the other beach goers and spent several hours relaxing in the sun with an occasional trip to take a dip in the ocean.

Walking through Cinque Terre

With our legs rested, we woke up Monday ready to hike. Since we were staying in the southern most village, we decided to try to head north and hike to each of the other four towns. The first trail to Manarolo was fairly flat and easy, which made it pass quickly with plenty of stops for photos.

The hiking trail

The main trail connecting Manarolo and the next town, Corniligia, was closed due to mudslides, so we had to take an alternate route. Instead of following the coast, we headed inland and began climbing to pass over the mountain ridge that separated the two villages. Although this climbing made the hiking more difficult, it was well worth the effort for the views of the coast from the higher elevation. After the climb, we followed the ridge for a little ways before descending down to Corniglia. We had worked up a good appetite on this hike, so after exploring the town some we decided to get a couple of sandwiches before continuing the hike.

Hiking to Corniglia

Once fed, we restarted our hike headed to Vernazza, where we spent our first night in Cinque Terre. We were back to following the shoreline, although the terrain is mountainous enough that we were still doing a decent amount of climbing and descending. Before long, we were coming into town and passing by the places on the trail that we recognized from our first night of exploring. Even from above, we could tell that the beach at Vernazza was going to be really nice after a long hike, so we scrapped our plans to hike the final trail to Monterosso and hit the beach.

Enjoying Vernazza’s beach

The beach in Vernazza is much smaller and rockier than the one in Monterosso, but it is also less crowded and free, which make it much more pleasant. We found a nice spot on the rocks by the water to sit and rest before jumping in and taking a swim. We continued to swim and hang out in the sun another couple of hours before taking a train back to Riomaggiore to get cleaned up. Once back, we got some dinner and spent our last night enjoying Cinque Terre, knowing that in the morning we would be back on the road.