Cinque Terra, Italy

We spent four days in Cinque Terra.  Cinque terra in English translates to the "five cities", and these are the five most beautiful cities in the Italian Riviera. The five cities are connected to each other along mountain pathways and dirt tracks, and we are proud to say we hiked and swam to all five cities. 

We arrived to our home-base, Manarola by train from Forte dei Marme.  Our hostel, Hostel Cinque Terra, was at the top of a windy hill next to the historic San Lorenzo church (est 1338) .  This was our first hostel experience together, and we were lucky to be able to get a private room with two twin beds, and a warm shower. It was like sleeping in a college dorm.  The hostel had a little dining restaurant that we ate dinner at...and we think they had a pretty good pesto pasta.

Up the many steps we walked to our little green hostel

We may be biased but we think that Manarola had the prettiest view of all the cities.  Around 8:45 in the evening photographers are lined up to get the perfect picture of the homes on the cliffs as the sun sets. Interestingly enough, there is a tale that says that the houses are painted all different colors so that long ago fishermen could distinguish which house is theirs, and check up on their wives while they were out to sea. The beach in Manrola is very small, but there is a great cliff that you can jump off, about 25 feet in the air, and Jordan wasn't shy to take a jump, I nearly had a heart attack watching him.

Our first hike was on the low trail from Manarola to Riomaggiore.  The hike took us about an hour and a half and we climbed up steep pathways and down dirt trails.

Views from our Manarola to Riomaggiore

In Riomaggiore you will see every hungry hiker walking around with a large cone full of fried fresh seafood.  It was a good thing we hiked across the mountain so that we could enjoy some.

We headed to the beach, which was not like a beach we had ever seen.  We suggest bringing your water shoes because the beaches are full of large river rocks that can be very difficult to walk on.  The water was quite cold, and could certainly take your break away when jumping in, but it was so warm out and the clear water was so inviting that we dove in for a swim. We left Riomaggiore sunburnt and salty but happy as could be.

        

Because there was construction on the remaining low trails we took the high trails to visit the rest of the cities.  From Manarola we hiked the high trial through beautiful wine vineyards to Cornelia.  We found a great little hole in the wall restaurant to eat at called Pan e Vin. They served great focaccia sandwiches, and we recommend ordering the salami, pesto and cheese, as well as the vegetarian sandwich with marinated zucchini.

The vineyards were so beautiful to walk through, but be mindful of the electric fences

It was a good thing we continued on the more treacherous trail over to Vernazza because we sure did indulge in some delicious gelato from "Gelateria Vernazza".  The gelatteria was very popular, and hard to miss with all of the people waiting outside to grab a scoop or two-we recommend ordering the sweet milk flavor, or anything with chocolate! In Vernazza there is a very popular beach to relax at, and you enter the beach area through a very large rock.  Jumping in the water was very refreshing after a hot sweaty hike.

  

Overlooking Vernazza

Monterosso is the largest of the five towns.  It is where most of the tourist shopping is, and the beach clubs.  Lots of different colored umbrellas line the beach and tourists are in full swing at the local cafes.  Because Monterosso is so much larger than the other cities, we didn't think it had as much charm.

Monterosso

Cinque Terra was great location to hike and sight see.  If you aren't ready to break a sweat, you can always take the local trains from town to town, although you must be careful that you do purchase a ticket because even though they do not always check tickets, the Italian Train police do come on the trains and do random checks...and if you didn't but a ticket, you can hand them over 200 euro.  We loved our experience in Cinque Terra and it was definitely a highlight of our trip.