I spent my first few days in Italy (Friday – Sunday) in Cinque Terre with my friend Maja (studying in Florence this semester), her Florence roommate Emily, and Hannah, a friend from Appleton who’s studying abroad in Seville, Spain. We had a relaxing weekend and were able to visit 4 of the 5 cities that make up Cinque Terre! There aren’t many “attractions” or things to do here other than take in the views, eat Italian food, relax by the beach, and hike between the cities and that’s exactly how we spend our time in Cinque Terre.
Our airbnb was in Riomaggiore, the southernmost city of the five, and we had quite a hike to get there. One time heading back to our airbnb we counted the number of stairs… 167! I suppose climbing up all those stairs every time we headed home was a great way to work off our strict pizza, pasta, and gelato diets for the weekend. 😉 After we checked into our airbnb on Friday and treated ourselves to a pizza lunch in Riomaggiore, we headed to Manarola right away. This is the city next to Riomaggiore and is the most picturesque of the five cities (although they are all beautiful and calling one prettier than the others just feels wrong!). In Manarola, we wandered the one, main street (these cities are tiny, each with only a few hundred residents) and took photos of the water. We were then going to hike to the next city along the ocean, but we only made it so far before realizing the rest of the path was closed. We turned around and hiked back to Manarola where we stopped for ice cream and ate it along the water. Some photos of my day in Manarola are below:
We wanted to head back to Riomaggiore by sunset, so we made our way back to watch the sun go down by the water in Riomaggiore. Shortly after, we had a late pasta dinner and hiked back up the dreaded stairs for bed. I have a few photos to show for a gorgeous sunset in Riomaggiore:
Saturday morning, we woke up and went to Vernazza, the second northernmost city. Here, we visited Doria Castle which was a climb to get to but rewarded us with a spectacular view overlooking the water where you could see almost all of the five cities on the coast. We found a takeout panini place for lunch and ate by the water. We were planning on hiking to the city to the north, Monterosso al Mare, and we barely started on the path before it was blocked off because there was a marathon that day. We found out that we couldn’t do any of the hikes since the marathon had all of the trails blocked off, which was a bummer because those would’ve been some dang pretty hikes. Anyway, my favorite photos of Vernazza are below:
We ended up taking the train to Monterosso al Mare. This city is known more for its beaches and less for its bright colored houses than the other cities. We had mid-sixty degree weather so it was a little too cold to swim so we spent time relaxing on the shore followed by walking around the small city, a stop for gelato, and dinner at an Italian restaurant, of course! We were planning on staying at Monterosso al Mare to catch a nice sunset over the water…… but joke’s on us…. the sunset was in the opposite direction and behind the hills….. LOL. We tried. After that disappointment, we headed bak to Riomaggiore for the night. As always, here are my favorite shots from Monterosso al Mare:
Both Emily and Hannah had to leave Cinque Terre by early Sunday morning, but Maja and I had no plans for later in the day so we hung around a little longer. We started our morning off with delicious omelettes, then hung out by the shore for a few hours and took waaayy too many pictures before we got on the train to Florence. Pretty uneventful Sunday, but it was great to soak in this beautiful place for a few more hours before we parted ways.
Cinque Terre is the perfect getaway for anyone in search of a relaxing weekend with second to none views. We were a little bummed we didn’t make it to Corniglia, the 5th village that makes up Cinque Terre since the hiking trails were closed for that weekend’s marathon, but I guess that means I’ve got an excuse to come back here some day…. 🙂
Words From Abroad 