This past weekend I traveled to the Mediterranean coast of Italy to visit the iconic Cinque Terre region. Cinque Terre literally translates to “Five Lands,” an area comprised of 5 separate, sea-side towns (Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso) teetering on the edge of the coast. This area is most recognizable by the vibrant colors of the town’s buildings and the beautiful views they offer.
I ended up staying in Levanto, which isn’t actually considered one of the five towns. However, Levanto was an adorable beach-side town that featured the same brightly colored buildings of Cinque Terre without the massive crowds and steep lodging prices. This town served as a great homebase for my trip as I only had a 5 minute train ride to get into the nearest town and start exploring. I decided to dedicate one day to hiking the Blue Trail which links all five towns together and dedicate one day to actually spending time in and exploring each town. Cinque Terre also offers two unique deals for hiking and utilizing the train.
Cinque Terre Trekking Card: This card gives you access to the two legs of the Blue Trail that have an admission price of 7.50 euros. This card is 7.50 euros for a one-day card and 14.50 euros for a two-day card (adults). If you’re planning on hiking these two legs of the Blue Trail (Monterosso to Vernazza and from Vernazza to Corniglia) this card will cut your cost in half. The other sections of the Blue Trail are free to hike.
Cinque Terre Treno MS Card: This card gives you access to both the hiking trails as well as unlimited travel on the trains that connect the five towns. The card costs 18.20 euros for a one-day card, 33 euros for a two-day card and 47 euros for a three-day card for adults (3 consecutive days). Without the card, it is 5 euros per ride.
Even though I wasn’t planning to use the train to move between towns, I knew I would have to use the train at least twice to travel from Levanto and back so I purchased this card.
More information about these cards can be found on the Cinque Terre website.
While neither of these cards save you huge amounts of money, they do save you the headache of having to wait in line to buy tickets at the end of the day.
On Saturday morning I took the train from Levanto to Riomaggiore, the southernmost town of Cinque Terre. From here I started my approximately 10 mile hike from Riomaggiore, back through all 5 towns to Monterosso where I would take the train back to Levanto. Sadly, due to landslides in the past few few years, two legs of the famous Blue Trail have been shut down and it was just my luck that it was two of the easiest sections. Due to this I had to take two detour routes in order to get from Riomaggiore to Manarola and Manarola to Corniglia. Luckily I started my hike pretty early in the morning and was able to spend the extra time hiking these detour routes. If you’re not an avid hiker or do not have proper hiking shoes, do not take these trails. They basically just lead you straight up the mountain north of the town and straight back down into the next town. While there are some pretty amazing views at the top, these two detour routes were strenuous and unless you’re prepared for some proper hiking, these are not the routes you should take.
After making it through Manarola and Corniglia, I was finally able to get on the actual Blue Trail and begin my hike from Corniglia to Vernazza. This section of the trail had some pretty stunning views of the seaside and terraces on the surrounding mountains. There was also a neat bar called “Il Gabbiano” about halfway through the hike that offered fresh drinks, food, and a place to sit and enjoy the views.
From Vernazza I started the last leg of the Blue Trail to Monterosso. At this point I was pretty exhausted and had been hiking for a majority of the day. The beginning of this trail was pretty steep, but it winded into some beautiful sections of the mountains and ended with an insane amount of stairs. Even though these stairs weren’t fun to go down, it was way better than having to go up them (hiking from Monterosso to Vernazza) and I saw many people climbing up this way that would probably agree based on how out of breath they were. These stairs that led down though offered some beautiful views of Monterosso and a wonderful end to my Blue Trail hike.
After hiking the Blue Trail, I believe that taking the route from Riomaggiore to Monterosso is the best direction to hike in. I think it keeps you from having to hike up the steepest sections if you don’t count the two detour trails.
All the towns in Cinque Terre are quite small so if you’re planning to spend a weekend there, I would definitely recommend adding in some hiking to get you out of the crowds and into the beautiful surroundings. You can easily pick and choose what trails you want to hike using either the Cinque Terre Trekking or MS card. Whether you decide to hike the whole thing or spend all day on one of the beaches, Cinque Terre absolutely deserves a couple days in your Italian travel itinerary.
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I used the following websites to plan out my hiking trip and my visit to Cinque Terre:
Special shout out to "La Picea" Pizzeria & Braceria in Levanto for my after hike dinner. Only 10 euros for the best pizza I've had so far in Italy. 10/10 reccomend taking the train out to try it.