Our day hiking Cinque Terre – five beautiful coastal villages in Italy!

Before we leave our agriturismo in Piozzano and head to Florence, there’s one final activity to recap – hiking Cinque Terre! This hike was one of the main things that Damian wanted to do in Italy, and we had even planned to do it one day when we were in Montecarlo, but it rained. This hike and these five little towns on Italy’s western coast were just so stunning and I’m so glad we made the trek.

What is Cinque Terre?

To give some background, Cinque Terre is a UNESCO World Heritage site, located on the west coast of Italy. The region is made up of five towns (“five lands”), all of which are small, filled with beautiful colored buildings and sit on the water. These villages were first founded in the 600s, with donkey/walking pathways in between them, and a train was added in the late 1800s. The names of the five villages are: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.

There are a lot of ways to explore Cinque Terre, the two most common being taking the train between the five villages and hiking between the five villages. Unfortunately, because of mudslides we could only hike between three of the villages, but we still explored them all and had a great (and very tiring) time doing the hikes we could. I got super into planning this trip, especially because we had to drive a couple of hours there and back, and my bullet journal came in really handy for this!

Our time in Cinque Terre

We set out very early in the morning (around 7am) for the drive and got to the area around 9:30am. You aren’t allowed to drive in any of the Cinque Terre towns, so we parked in Levanto and decided to use the train for the first part of our journey. We purchased tickets to hike the blue trail (the one closest to the water, and the “easier” one) and for unlimited use of the train between villages (the combo ticket cost 16 euros each), and we were off!

Town 1: Riomaggiore

As you can see in the planning picture above, the two trails that were closed (marked by the orange “x”) were between Corniglia and Manarola and between Manarola and Riomaggiore (by the way, if you want to see the latest status of the trails go here). We decided to take the train all the way to Riomaggiore to start and then work our way back to Monterosso, which is closest to Levanto, so that when we were tired from hiking we didn’t have too far to go to get to our car.

The train from Levanto to Riomaggiore took only about 15 minutes and when we got there we walked around, admiring our first view of the quaint and cute Cinque Terre towns. We didn’t spend too much time here, because we had stuff we wanted to do in the other towns and we had a lot of hiking in front of us!

Town 2: Manarola

We then took the train from Riomaggiore to Manarola (because the 1km hiking trail was closed). We had the most activities planned for Manarola, but before I talk about what we did, check out this view! This is the quintessential Cinque Terre panorama that we had come for, and it surely did not disappoint.

The first thing we had planned for Manarola was food! There was one place I had read about as a “must-do” in Cinque Terre – and that was eating at Nessun Dorma. It has stunning views of Manarola and a delicious bruschetta menu. We mistimed getting there a bit and had to wait about 30 minutes before we got to sit and eat, but it was totally worth it.

We also saw a group doing a pesto making class there, which, if we had stayed in Cinque Terre for a few days we totally would have done! But, I digress, the views from the restaurant were amazing.

Afterward, it was time for swimming! There were a couple spots for swimming and cliff jumping in Manarola, and we knew we had to make it happen. Sadly, I had tweaked my back sleeping and so decided not to jump (didn’t want to make it worse before the long hikes), but Merritt and Damian had a grand time. The water was just so stunning!

There were a bunch of different heights that you could cliff jump from, and I would have loved to jump off the highest one. Damian went up there and did a practice jump, and then also did some fancy gymnastics moves. I had so much fun watching him and hearing everyone ooh and aah when he did his tricks. Below the picture (where Damian is the one flying in the air), I’ve included two videos (where you can hear me laughing at peoples’ reactions). So fun!

Town 3: Corniglia

After all the fun in Manarola it was time to head to Corniglia. This 1km hike was closed as well so we took the train. When we got off the train there was the option to take a bus to the top of the hill (where the town is) or to take the steps. We had just missed the bus so decided to climb the almost 500 steps up. As a stair-hater, I wouldn’t say it was my favorite part of the day, but I survived it!

We explored the town for a little bit, but were also getting antsy to get started on our hike (it was the middle of the day and already hot, and we didn’t want it to get dark before we finished). So after a little walking around and a little admiring of the views, we said goodbye to Corniglia and started our hike to Vernazza!

Town 4: Vernazza

Ok, so I’m not going to sugar coat it, this was a tough hike! Getting from Corniglia to Vernazza is about 4 kilometers and took us about 1.5 hours. However, it’s not the length that makes it tough, it’s that you are basically going over a mountain, so the severe uphill and downhill are definitely a doozy (especially for this girl’s old knees!). On top of that it was a hot day, so we were sweaty messes, but we all did it (and without too much complaining) and that’s what counts!

We got to Vernazza at about 5:30pm and we were hot and tired and, to be honest, a little crabby (we kind of felt like the blah kitty in the picture below). We got some water, drank it and poured it on ourselves, and got some gelato to recuperate before exploring the town. Just like the other towns, Vernazza was super cute and colorful!

Town 5: Monterosso (we did it!!)

And then finally, it was time for the last leg of our hike! Going from Vernazza to Monterosso was another 4 kilometers and another 1.5 hours of up and down hiking. My knees were killing me on this one and I needed some help from Damian to cushion the blow on each step down. There was a point in the hike where I was feeling like this. #notashamed

But, we survived this one too! We got to Monterosso a little before 7pm, and the sun was just starting to dip in the sky. Monterosso is the most developed of the five towns, and it has a beach that a lot of hikers enjoy after the long journey. But, as tempting as it looked, we wanted to get on the train back to Levanto and then on the road for the long drive back before it got too dark.

So … did you actually like it?

In a word, yes! It wasn’t easy and there were times where I was not happy about all the up and down, but it was such a fun way to get between the towns. If we had more time (I know, I know, we have 8 months, but that really isn’t that long to explore the whole world!), I would have stayed in one of the towns for a few days and eaten at more restaurants, done some more lounging and swimming and just wandered the towns a bit. But, I know this was one of Damian’s favorite activities and I’m so glad we still made it happen! It’s pretty sweet to look back on the views and to see all that we accomplished that day.

Up next – Florence!

Yay! After the beauty of Cinque Terre, I can’t wait to write our next post about the four days we spent in Florence. Florence was another city that I didn’t have a strong opinion on, but I fell in love with it, and even think it was my favorite city in all of Italy. More to come on it soon!

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Read more about our time in Italy using the links below:

• Italy Country Recap – What we loved (and didn’t love) in our six weeks there
• Italy – The plan for our six weeks here
• Italy – Visiting Pisa – the Leaning Tower and the Luminara festival
• Italy – Our day in Lucca
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 1: Montecarlo (Tuscany)
• Italy – Four days in Bologna
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 2: a vineyard in the Chianti region (Tuscany)
• Italy – Wineries and wine tasting in Chianti
• Italy – One day in Siena!
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 3: Emilia Romagna
• Italy – Parmigiano Reggiano cheese factory and Balsamic Vinegar producer tours
• Italy – Hiking Cinque Terre (you are here!)
• Italy – Our three days in Florence
• Italy – Brunello wine tasting and visiting thermal baths
• Italy – Our three days in Rome