Cinque Terre: a journey into the mediterranean lifestyle

A brief guide between Cinque Terre & surroundings

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Cinque Terre is one of the most suggestive places in Italy, worldwide known. It represents the Italian mediterranean life and slowlife style.

Here it is a guide to visit Cinque Terre: places to eat, how to move and some practical tips if you want to experience your best Italian “Dolce Vita”. Read on to start your journey and live this dream.

How to move

In the different towns that compose Cinque Terre you won’t find a lot of cars or traffic, and that makes even more suggestive this place. You can easily move by train, because there is a railway that runs along from Riomaggiore to Monterosso. An option is the "Trenitalia card", for those who want to visit them all in few days: with this you can pay for example 18.20 euro per adult and you can use this ticket the whole day to move around the towns (otherwise single tickets are around 5 euros each).

Another way to move easily in Cinque Terre is by boat: the boat season runs from the end of March to the beginning of November andconnects Riomaggiore, Manarola, Vernazza and Monterosso with eachother. Corniglia is the only one not to have a marina. The boats can leave from Portovenere, Levanto, La Spezia.

The towns

1. Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore is the first village of Cinque Terre. The landscape develops vertically with a typical stepped structure and is characterized by rows of medieval houses, painted with the typical Ligurian colors and founded on the arches of the old wine warehouses, climb up to the castle making the marina a spectacle unique visual. The clear sea of the Marine Reserve is suitable for diving excursions. Between Riomaggiore and Manarola extends the 'Via dell’Amore', an ideal path for romantic walks, carved and carved into the rock, overlooking the sea: a natural window to enjoy unforgettable sunsets and starry skies.

To see:

- Church of San Giovanni Battista

- Riomaggiore Castle (1260)

- Via dell'Amore (from Riomaggiore to Manarola)

If you don't have so much time to visit these different points... you cansimply enjoy the beautiful clearTyrrenian sea, rent a canoe and have anice lunch with this beautiful and stunning view.

2. Manarola

Manarola, the second village of Cinque Terre coming from La Spezia isperhaps, among others, the mostpicturesque village, made up of thecharacteristic perched and colorful tower-houses that overlook thealleysand the main street.

Manarola looks like a village in miniature: it develops around the main road that retraces the course of the 'Groppo stream', which is now covered and no longer visible. Numerous alleyways and stone alleys branch off from the main street to reach the sides of the promontory and the houses higher up.

The main square of the village is curiously higher than the rest of thetown. A white pyramid is visible betweenthe houses that stand out atthe top of the village, which, historically, has always served as a signalfor ships.

Today this town is known not only for its beauty, but also for the winesthat are produced in the surroundingarea.

To see:

- Ruins of the fortress

- Via Belvedere

- Port of Manarola

It is a very small town (with between 300 and 400 inhabitants), but thismakes it a familiar borough, in which you can easily move and have long walks, with different restaurants by the sea with suggestive points of view. Although the tourism, it appears as a very authentical place.

3. Corniglia

Corniglia is the central town of the Cinque Terre and is the only townnot in contact with the sea, rising on arocky promontory about 100meters high in a basin intensively cultivated with vineyards.

It can be reached via the long Lardarina staircase made up of 22ramps and 377 steps or from the carriage roadthat leads from therailway station to the village.

If you arrive by train, from the station take the bus that will take you tothe main square (or, if you prefer, havea walk through the steps).

From the village of Corniglia you can explore a territory surrounded bya magnificent network of paths betweenoverhanging rocks andbizarre shapes, sealed by the clear sea ... a true "balcony" on the Cinque Terre.

A suggestive path between the Mediterranean scrub and the cropsleads up to Vernazza.

To do:

Numerous trekking routes wind and pass from the village, including the 'Sentiero Azzurro', which connects Corniglia to Vernazza and Manarola, the latter currently closed (2022). However, Manarola can bereached witha wonderful route along path 587 and near Case Pianca take the 586 towards Volastra and then the 506 up to Manarola.

4. Vernazza

The town of Vernazza is one of the most beautiful villages in Cinque Terre, famous all over the world for its atmosphere and is considered ajewel between sea and rock. Among the Cinque Terre villages, Vernazza is the only one to be counted among the "most beautiful villages in Italy".

Founded around the year 1000, it offers a unique landscape made ofdry stone walls and fields overlooking thesea that characterize its beauty.

The town is crossed by steep and narrow streets that descendtowards the main road and end in a small squarein front of the marina.

Inside the town, listed as one of the most beautiful Ligurian villages inItaly, you can admire valuablearchitectural elements such as loggias,arcades and portals.

What to see in Vernazza:

- The Church of Santa Margherita d'Antiochia (overlooking the marina)

- The Doria castle (symbol of the village's economic importance in ancient times)

- Former convent of the Friars (today seat of the municipal town hall)

5. Monterosso

Monterosso al Mare is the largest and most populated town in Cinque Terre, whose first historical signs date back to 1200. It is the only one of the five villages to have a wide sandy beach and a long promenadewith several pubs, ice cream shops, restaurants.

The town is divided into two parts by a promontory with a tunnel ofabout a hundred meters, on one side thearea of Fegina (residentialarea and railway station), on the other the old port (historic center).

In the Fegina area there are many residential tourist structures, a longbeach and an original 14 meter highstatue called 'Il Gigante', depictingthe god Neptune.

The historic center formed by the typical "caruggi", characteristicnarrow Ligurian alleys, is made up ofrestaurants, souvenir shops,ceramics and handicrafts. It is maybe the most touristic of CinqueTerre villages.

To see:

- Church of San Giovanni Battista

- The Giant Statue

- Traffic light of Punta Mesco

- The Castle and Torre Aurora

- Convent of the Capuchin friars

- Sanctuary of Our Lady of Soviore

- Villa Montale

The walk & hiking itineraries

For centuries the paths of the Cinque Terre have been the only linkbetween one village and another andbetween them and thehinterland.

Today the network that extends for over 120 kilometers allows you toappreciate and visit the whole territory,through paths of differenttypes.

Here some more information if you are a hiking and trekking passionate:

https://www.pimpmytrip.it/trekking-cinque-terre/

Wine terraces

Cinque Terre were born and developed thanks to wine and the work of farmers, who over the centuries have terraced thousands of hectares of land and transformed the landscape, thus making the fortune of these small 5 villages. Today we can savor the fruit of that hard work, comfortably seated at a table overlooking the sea. It is nice to be able to keep in mind, at the first sip, the commitment of those who work the land and thus give us thisexperience.

Places nearby

La Spezia

La Spezia is located in the extreme east of Liguria, a few kilometersfrom the border with Tuscany. The city islocated in the center of anatural gulf, very deep and of rare beauty.

The gulf is also known as the "Gulf of Poets". In fact, the nineteenthcentury its shores were the destination ofpoets and romantic novelistsfrom Northern Europe, from Shelley to Byron.

In 1853, Wagner arrived in La Spezia and here he found inspiration forthe prelude to the Gold of the Rhine andthe entire Tetralogy.

During the summer, boats leave from the Morin promenade quay forLerici, Portovenere, the Cinque Terre,Palmaria, Portofino and Genoa.La Spezia is also the docking port for cruises.

Portovenere

Lying on the edge of the Gulf of Poets, in Liguria, Porto Venere is afishing village that will enchant you with itscolors, its position and its architecture.

According to what is said, the name derives from a temple dedicated to the goddess Venus Ericina, which was located exactly in the place where the church of San Pietro stands today. The goddess, according to tradition, was born from the foam of the sea right under the promontory. We have created a guide to what to see in Porto Venere, in the province of La Spezia, and its surroundings with a map.

What to see in one day:

- Church of san pietro

- Church of san lorenzo

- Via capellini

- Old town

- Doria Castle

- Byron cave

Lerici

Although it is one of the most developed centers of the Riviera diLevante, very rich in tourist services, it isunfair to think of Lerici only asa 'seaside resort'.

What makes it a real pearl are enchanting views and postcard images that in the nineteenth century subjugated and inspired poets and writers of English Romanticism including Lord Byron and the Shelleys. Centuries beforethem, Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio were the illustrious guests passing through Lerici and after them Giosuè Carducci and Gabriele d'Annunzio stood out.

What to see in one day:

- Lerici Castle

- Walk from Castle to Castle

- Villa Marigola

If you are ready to visit Cinque Terre or you want to know something more... let's write in the comments or on Instagram @wordsoftravel!

Be ready to start your journey into the Italian Mediterranean lifestyle.

© Claudia Spinato, 2022.