First of all, sorry but not really sorry that this post is mainly photos. They don’t do it justice when you’re standing there looking at the colorful facades of restaurants and homes linking the tiny winding streets, but hopefully you can get a sense of just how magnificent these towns on the coast really are. If you’re into hiking, or even if you’re not, I would highly recommend doing a day trip to Cinque Terre. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it amazed me that so long ago, people created such incredible places like these before Italy’s unification that very few people knew about and weren’t even accessible by train. After sleeping through my alarm and missing the bus with Smarttrip for this exact trip the day before (oops), my friend from home Maggie who was also studying abroad in Florence was actually going to Cinque the next day with her parents who were visiting and they were all nice enough to let me tag along – I lucked out big time. We went by train which isn’t that hard to do but may seem complicated at first glance (for more info on this check out the Good to Know section below). We had an early wake-up call which I thankfully didn’t sleep through again. You can also easily do a day trip like this with a travel group like Smarttrip (and if you’re a student there are usually good discounts), but this was one of the few trips we just did ourselves…also glad we did it this way because I wouldn’t want to keep a travel group waiting for me since I knew this hike would not be quick and I’m more often than not at the end of the pack thanks to my little legs.

Many of the other trails are actually still closed from a terrible landslide in Vernazza in 2011 (if you’re interested, here is an incredibly chilling eyewitness account of the devastation) which many people don’t know about – I certainly didn’t until one of my friends mentioned it to me. We took one of the more popular open trails from Monterosso to Vernazza which took about an hour and a half, and was 1.5 miles but felt like so much longer because it was so steep (and the high steps definitely weren’t friendly to someone under 5 feet tall but I made it!). Once we got there and caught our breath we walked around Vernazza, saw some cute tourist shops, bought a few souvenirs and grabbed some food. We then took the train that runs through the 5 towns to Corniglia…you definitely don’t have to go to all five towns to get a feel for this beautiful area. They are all so different, but they’ll equally take your breath away (both by the scenery and the hike up). I will say, once we got off the train at Corgniglia and saw the daunting stairs to get up to the top just to reach the town, I was tempted to turn back but so glad I didn’t. The views at the top in Corniglia made you feel like you were really standing on top of the world. We ended up walking over 10 miles that day, saw some of the most beautiful sights in the world, and I would do it all again in a second but maybe with more water and better hiking shoes

Food & Drink

Cinque Terre is known for their focaccia bread (lightly toasted bread with oil and herbs) as well as their pesto, so if you like either of those, take advantage here!

TAVERNA DEL CAPITANO: this was where we ate lunch and it was an incredible meal. Located right on the water too. After a long hike we were all starving so I had a filling meal of pasta with the best pesto I’ve ever had, but their pasta with seafood was also amazing.

Good to Know – Transportation

La Spezia is the station near the Cinque Terre that is connected to cities across Italy, like Florence, Milan, and Venice.

The Cinque Terre trains connect six stops: La Spezia (just to the southeast of the Cinque Terre, and the main transport station for the area), the “official” Cinque Terre towns of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso, and the town of Levanto, in that order. The distance on the train from La Spezia to Riomaggiore is about 10 minutes, and then maybe 5 minutes between the other towns since they’re close by

When booking your tickets, you don’t have to book your tickets to La Spezia, and then on to your chosen Cinque Terre town, separately. You can just plug in your starting point (ex. Florence) and destination (ex. Vernazza) on  Trenitalia. The result page can tell you what route to take and where to switch trains. Also good to note, an early morning trip from the Santa Maria Novella station in Florence will usually require you to change trains in Pisa which will then take you to la Spezia. I would recommend buying your tickets in Florence all the way to your chosen Cinque station, or you will have to buy another ticket in la Spezia although that’s definitely not difficult, especially if you don’t know for sure where you want to start off.