Cinque Terre, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Italy

Beautiful, stunning Cinqe Terre.

   

I have always wanted to walk the 5 towns of Cinque Terre Italy but was thwarted in 2013 when there had been major landslides in 2011 due to torrential rainfall. We postponed the trip and now here we are at 2025 and this time we made it and stayed 4 nights in Cinque Terre. Booking the trains and MS card was extremely difficult online. This gave us access to the Express Train between all of the towns and the card allows you to do the walks that link all of these towns.  I had booked a two bed/two bath unit for the 3 of us which just happened to be straight up the hill in Riomaggiore.  Pulling 50 pound suitcases up the steeply inclined road was not pleasant and we had to take a few breaks.  We also had our 16 pound backpack on.  Apparently we should have done Cinque Terre in our 20s, not our 60s!!

The group for the first climbing day.  Darren had a man-cold and did not come.

The first morning we chose the Monterozzo to Vernazza 3.5 km route which took us 2 hours of hard walking up extremely steep stairs that seemed to never end. 

These ancient stairs were lovely and charming to look at but not so much to climb.

The views of the Mediterranean were lovely.  

On the way down the hill you eventually catch the first glimpses of Vernazza which are lovely and there are lots of picture taking moments of this gorgeous multi colored Italian town.   The colors of the water from so high up are tremendous as well.

First view of Vernazza.

Love Locks on the side of the trail.

Cinque Terre is so picturesque. 

All of the stairs down were hard on the 60 year old knees but it was totally worth it.

We made our way down the stairs to Vernazza and found a restaurant to eat a Margarita Pizza and have a glass of wine.  We walked around the town and found the old church where the Opera was to take place that night.  Unfortunately I received an email that due to an emergency the Opera was cancelled which was so disappointing.  Opera in Italy would have been so dreamy.

Trail marker.

Delphine, happy that her runners survived
the hike!

The streets of Vernazza.

Almost done the hike.

Vernazza is a gorgeous little town.

Lisa sunning herself after the hike.

The church is Vernazza.

We found Shelley after her shopping and site seeing trip.

Inside the Church.

We met the group for supper that night and had a lovely supper and purchased water and some groceries for the morning and made our way back up that horrific hill which was straight up to our apartment.  The rest of the group was smarter and booked at Sea Level which was even more expensive and they had water views.  We had views of Italian laundry which is also full of charm in its own way.

Laundry day in Cinque Terre.

Lunch in Vernaza with the group.

Riomaggiore the town where we stayed at.

We had a terrace to sit outside after a long day of hiking.

The next day was the other groups last day so they were thinking about taking a boat ride but ended up just taking the train to the different towns and checking out the towns. Lisa and I wanted to do another hike so we took the train to Corniglia and walked to Vernazza so that we could see Vernazza from the other side. This walk was amazing. The views were incredible.

Corniglia as we started the charming walk through the town.

Corniglia on the way out of town.

I love this photo of some stairs.

As you probably figured out, I have a thing for old doors.  They are serious eye candy to me!

A fairly gentle walk up but most of the walk from Corniglia to Vernazza is down which was lovely.

Views of the surreal Mediterranean Sea along the way.

The hike definitely was not as tough as the first day so it was more at a leisurely pace and we took a lot of breaks to stop and take photos.  The walk was heavenly.

Corniglia

The crystal clear water of the Mediterranean Sea.

So Beautiful!

Our first glimpse of the other side of Vernazza.

Vernazza is beautiful!  All the towns of Cinque Terre are in their own way.

The Castle Tower.

Some more eye candy for me.

Looking down into Vernazza before
going
for lunch.

Such pretty side streets but actually on the hiking path.

More of the hiking path on the way down into Vernazza.

 It was such an awesome hike and when we walked into Vernazza, we sat down in the exact same Ristorante as the day before.  We tried different special pizzas from the area.  Lisa tried a Pistachio Sauce and Italian Mortadella Pizza and I tried the Lemon and Pecorini Cheese pizza. Both were very interesting. Both looked really good but I would never order that pizza again. It was too cheesy and Lisa said hers was just 'meh' anyways, But 'when in Rome'. My favorite is still Margarita Pizza with Arugula.

Lisa and I also decided to walk the Via Amore.  It used to be free but then there was a massive landslide and they had to put a ton of money into fixing it up. We had to pay 9 Euro each to walk it and personally I think I would save my money and not do it. It's not as quaint as it would have been before. It's completely safe now and the views are still pretty but I don't believe it was worth 9 Euro. It is a walk that hangs over the Mediterranean.  Lisa also had to eat her paper cone of fried seafood. It is a specialty in Cinque Terre.  It was a lot and she did not feel so special after

We met up with the group again and had a nice meal and packed it in for the night. We gave our hugs and said goodbye to the Buiums and the Neus and walked up that horrific hill again back to our apartment. 

The next day was our last day in Cinque Terre and Darren still had a 'man cold' so he was still down for the count. Lisa and I took the train to Monterosso which is the farthest town down the Med and it still only took about 15-20 minutes.  We got off the train and explored and continued on our way and explored the different towns and took lots of pictures. We found a place to eat and just leisurely strolled around and had a great day. 

Riomaggiore, the town where we stayed.

A closer look at the beauty.

Enjoying the walk.

Italians are specialists on building houses on cliffs.

Manarola one of the 5 towns of Cinque Terre.

Very large statue carved into the rock on the cliff overlooking the beach in Monterosso.

Riomaggiore

I would highly recommend staying in Cinque Terre and doing the hikes.  It is gorgeous to see and super fun.  Prices for accommodations are not cheap but it is a once in a lifetime trip.

The next morning we were catching the train back to La Specia and then we would have the long train ride from La Spezia to Rome which was a 3-hour ride. The only problem was we didn't realize that the train from Riomaggiore to La Spezia only went every hour on Saturday morning. We got to the train station in Riommaggiore at 7:24 am but missed the 7:22 am train to La Spezia.  The only problem about missing that 7:22 am train was our La Spezia to Rome was at 8:30 a.m. The 8:22 am train was not going to work for us.  What a Rookie mistake, dah!  We phoned a taxi and one actually came within 10 minutes and it was a female taxi driver and she knew the roads really well to La Spezia.  It's an 8-minute train ride to La Spezia, but a 25 minute drive to La Spezia.  You have to drive out of these cliff towns on hairpin curves and get to the top of the cliffs and let me tell you it is straight down past the guard rails.  I could not look at these 'hary cary 'roads. It did cost us an extra 60 Euro for that stupid mistake of not checking the train schedule.  The drive was worth the 60 Euro because it was very scenic and very pretty. We arrived over top of La Spezia and had to make our way down into La Spezia which is a very big city of 96,000. 

She dropped us off in the train station. We waited approximately 20 minutes for the train and then we got on our comfort second class train. We didn't have to make any connections. It was smooth like X-lax and it was a nice ride. I got lots of Star Phoenix paper reading done that train ride.  

We had to pick up our rental car at the Rome Train Station.  I swear there were a million people in that there, it was crazy. We found the Thrifty and rented our car and got out of Dodge. We had a fairly easy drive to Soriano nel Cimino which was our ancient medieval hilltop town approximately an hour and 20 minutes away north of Rome.  We were to stay there for one week in a refurbished Palazzo.

Overlooking Vernazza and still a long ways down to a glass of wine.