Insider Guide to the Cinque Terre

Vernazza

There will always be irresistible places in Italy that will be on every traveller’s bucket list, and the Cinque Terre is no exception. No need to be discouraged because here are some travel savvy tips on how best to explore the five charming fishing villages of the Cinque Terre, which means “five lands”.

Located in Liguria, Italy’s third smallest region, the five remote villages date back to early medieval times. In the feudal era, this land was watched over by castles. Tiny communities grew up in their protective shadows, ready to run inside at the first sign of a Turkish Saracen pirate attack. Marauding pirates from North Africa were a persistent problem until 1400. Locals would build fires on flat roofed watchtowers to relay warnings, alerting the entire coast to imminent attacks. The last major raid was in 1545, but infrequent raids continued up until 1815.

As the threat of pirates faded, the villages prospered, catching fish and cultivating grapes. Income still comes from fishing and the terraced vineyards. Once upon a time you could only reach the villages by a network of trails and mule paths until a trainline was built in 1874. A road wouldn’t be built until the 1960s.

Tourism is now the main source of income with around three million tourists visiting the Cinque Terre in 2022. In contrast, there are less than 4,000 local residents in all five villages combined. The very nature of the terrain prevents the villages from growing, as they are squeezed in between rocky cliffs, making expansion difficult.

So how best to appreciate the Cinque Terre? You need to stay!

Unless you stay in the Cinque Terre for 2-3 nights, it is impossible to appreciate the landscape, the different personalities of each village and the glorious food and wine.

Monterosso al Mare - the historic centre

This is the largest of the five villages with an old town and a newer town called Fegina. Monterosso al Mare is located at the northern end of the Cinque Terre, making it ideal to catch the ferry to Riomaggiore at the southern end of the Cinque Terre to be able to see the villages from the sea. The journey takes approximately 45 minutes, stopping at Vernazza, Manarola and Riomaggiore, missing Corniglia because it sits on top of a promontory 100 metres above sea level.

I love the old town with its small, crooked lanes, hole-in-the-wall shops and centuries old houses that have been converted into charming B&B’s. Monterosso is famous for its Festa del Limone, an annual Lemon Festival held on the third Saturday of May to celebrate the big, beautiful lemons AND the Anchovies Festival, which is a traditional event held every September. There is seriously no better place to eat anchovies.

Vernazza

Vernazza is the cover girl of the five villages with its protected bay and colourful fishing boats bobbing on the water. Rows of tall ochre, yellow and apricot coloured houses are stacked around the cliffsides of a crooked promontory, with the ruins of an 11th century lookout tower, the Torre di Avvistamento, perched on its tip.

In 1170, the town helped the Republic of Genoa combat and vanquish the Pisans. The fortified walls and hilltop Castello Doria are among the remains of its once mighty medieval defence system. In those days, Vernazza was the main stopover and market centre along the coastal trading route. The Romans first inhabited the rocky spit of land in the 1st century.

In the 1970s, tiny Vernazza had one of Italy’s top water polo teams and the harbour was their “pool”. Later, when the league required a real pool, Vernazza dropped out.

Corniglia

This is the quiet town and the smallest with 240 residents. The only one of the five not on the water means climbing 382 steps up the Lardarina staircase, which is a switchback staircase, so not as hard as it sounds.

Linger along the very narrow main street and you’ll find enticing shops; tiny Osteria de Mananan, where the owner’s ravioli in walnut pesto is to die for, and incredibly good gelato at Alberto Gelateria. At the end is the Santa Maria Belvedere, a stunning viewpoint from where you can see all of the villages.

Manarola

With a population of 350, Manarola is the second smallest village and absolutely charming with its pastel coloured buildings tumbling down the rocky promontory. The whole town is built on black rock with the ancient terraces above protecting abundant vineyards and olive trees. This village is the centre of the wine and oil production of the region and you are spoilt for choice with shops selling local products. The most important wine in the Cinque Terre is a dessert wine called Sciacchetra which has been produced since the Middle Ages.

High above the street lined with boats leading down to the sea is the main square which is a haven away from tourists. The small piazza has a church built in 1338; a belltower which served as a watchtower when pirates raided the town and a tiny family owned restaurant called Cappun Magru, known for its seafood lasagna. Keep walking up the street past the waterwheel and flowing stream to a labyrinth of alleyways on the right. You will be rewarded with fantastic views over the village to the sea and Trattoria dal Billy, well worth the climb for a delicious seafood lunch.

Riomaggiore

This village is a delight when approaching from the sea with the signature cascade of colourful buildings that look like a pile of Lego building blocks that have been dropped haphazardly. There is a long tunnel that connects the train station to the beginning of the main street. If you walk to the top of the main street and climb a side alleyway on the left, you double back to the sea high above the town for superb views and less tourists.

Walking the Sentiero Azzurro - the Blue Trail

In 1997 UNESCO included the Cinque Terre on the World Heritage List as a “cultural landscape”. (As of 2023, Italy has 59 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, more than any other country in the world.)

To walk the park, you need to purchase a Cinque Terre Card which can also include the train that links each of the five villages. It takes only 3-4 minutes between stations. Don’t sit down.

Since 1931, the Via dell’Amore has been an iconic hiking path etched into the seaside cliffs, connecting Riomaggiore and Manarola. The path closed in September 2012 after a landslide, which was compounded by wave damage in 2018. It reopened towards the end of the season in 2023 thanks to a $25 million restoration. To control staggering tourist numbers, you book online to join a thirty minute tour with a guide. This is the shortest path on the Blue Trail.

The track from Manarola to Corniglia remains closed, however, the two most interesting tracks with spectacular views are Corniglia to Vernazza and Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare. The distance between Corniglia and Vernazza is four kilometres, taking around 1.5 hours. The next leg from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare is only three kilometres, but can take up to two hours, given there is a bit more climbing. A moderate level of fitness will enable you to walk these two paths.

Walking the trail from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare late afternoon

MY BEST TIP

The later you leave it in the day to walk the Sentiero Azzurro, the better. Start at the end at Riomaggiore because it is easier walking from this direction. Take the time to get to know the different personalities of each village; explore little alleyways; buy local produce; chat to locals; eat in every village. Just linger. Make a big day of it. If you leave Corniglia for Vernazza mid afternoon, a lot of day trippers have disappeared. When we walked from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare, we left at 5:00pm and barely passed anyone. It was quite surreal.

Local produce in abundance

One always eats well in Liguria! You are in olive heaven. Ligurian olives are usually picked fully ripe. Their oils are gracefully mellow, made mainly from the Taggiasca olive, which has been grown since the 12th century. It is a small olive that packs a punch and is perfect in salads.

Olive oil in Manarola; lemons and anchovies in Monterosso and in Vernazza the best focaccia you’ll ever eat. The name of this oven-baked flatbread hails back to Roman times when it was baked in the ashes of a fire. Dough is similar to that of pizza, but the surface is dimpled so that it traps olive oil while it bakes. Herbs and course salt are added and perhaps olives, peppers and onions. (The word focaccia didn’t appear in the Oxford English Dictionary until 1997!)

Paper cones of mixed fried fish are impossible to resist and let’s not forget pesto because it was invented in Liguria in Genoa and it is sensational - on your pizza, on your pasta, on anything! And drink the local wine because it’s good. There are about thirty small producers in the Cinque Terre producing wines made from Bosco, Albarolo and Vermentino grapes grown in some of the world’s steepest vineyards.

If you love limoncello, drink it in the Cinque Terre as well as the Amalfi Coast. Called limoncello in the south, here in the Cinque Terre it is called limoncino.

Ci vediamo la prossima settimana,

Deb