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Happy Monday, all! I hope you had a nice weekend and a happy Father’s Day. We celebrated my wonderful dad with a delicious takeout dinner from our favourite Chinese restaurant, Hong Kong Gardens. (If you’re looking for an amazing Chinese restaurant in Etobicoke, I highly recommend them – we’ve been getting takeout from them for years and they never disappoint!) A couple of posts ago when I was sharing my favourite things to see and do in Florence, I’d briefly mentioned our day trip to the Cinque Terre, and promised a forthcoming post with more details. Well, this is that post, and I’m so excited to share the ins and outs of our Cinque Terre adventure with you all!

The Cinque Terre (“five towns” in Italian) consists of five old fishing villages – Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore – built into the cliffs overlooking the gorgeous Ligurian Sea. The villages’ unique hillside architecture and brightly coloured houses, along with their proximity to the stunning natural beauty of the Italian Riviera, have earned them their rightful place among Italy’s top tourist destinations. If you’re staying in Florence, the Cinque Terre is definitely worth visiting for at least a day. Ideally you’d want to spend two to three days to explore each town thoroughly and really soak up the experience, but even if you only have one day like we did, I promise it’s still worth going!

Our day trip had its fair share of logistical hiccups and because of that, we only got to visit three out of five villages: Riomaggiore, Manarola and Monterosso al Mare. But based on what I’ve read from various travel bloggers, provided you don’t experience the same hiccups we did, you should definitely be able to visit all five villages within one day. Even the best travel plans won’t ever go smoothly, and although I did a ton of research when planning this day, I learned so many lessons from our adventure – including many things I wish I’d done differently! Incidentally, I’ve had more Instagram DMs asking for Cinque Terre advice than I’ve had for any other place we visited on our trip. So if you’re planning your own Cinque Terre day trip, I have some valuable tips that I hope will prove helpful for you. I’ll start with the most important thing…

How To Get To The Cinque Terre

To get to the Cinque Terre, you’ll first need to get to La Spezia. La Spezia is Liguria’s second largest city (after Genoa) and it’s the gateway to the Cinque Terre. You can get a high-speed train to La Spezia Centrale (the city’s main train station) from Florence, Pisa or Bologna. Some trains from Florence to La Spezia are direct, but most of them will have a stopover in Pisa where you’ll need to change trains. The direct journey from Florence to La Spezia takes just over one and a half hours, and we were lucky enough to get a direct train for our departing journey. We booked a Trenitalia train, which departed Florence’s Campo Di Marte station at 7:54am and arrived at La Spezia Centrale at 9:37am. I recommend doing some comparison shopping on sites like The Train Line and Omio in order to get the best ticket prices. And here’s my Cinque Terre Tip #1: If you’re only visiting for one day, try to book the earliest train you can to get there, and the latest train back. I wish we’d booked an earlier train there, and a later train back (ours departed at 6:24pm.) Trust me on this: you’ll want the maximum amount of time possible to truly enjoy the Cinque Terre, and to add some breathing room to account for possible train delays. I promise, the lack of sleep will be worth it!

Our train ride to La Spezia Centrale was smooth, comfortable and arrived right on time. It was when we got to the station that our trouble started! From my pre-trip research, I knew that we’d need to buy a Cinque Terre Card to get around. There are two types of cards you can buy: the Cinque Terre Treno MS Card gives you access to the Cinque Terre hiking trails, along with unlimited train travel on the Cinque Terre Express trains that run from La Spezia to all five villages and back. The Cinque Terre Trekking Card gives you access to the hiking trails only, and does not include train travel. So if you’re not planning on taking a taxi from La Spezia to the villages, be sure you buy the Treno MS Card! The 1-day Treno MS card costs 18.20 Euros per adult, but there are reduced rates for children and families.

This leads me to Cinque Terre Tip #2: Buy your Cinque Terre Card in advance online. Based on what I’d read online, buying the pass at the station seemed like it’d be so easy: just find the kiosk, purchase the pass, and off you go. Sadly, this was not the case at all. First of all, the station was absolutely jammed with hordes of people, and the lines to purchase passes or even to ask for information were easily over an hour long. Second, there are tons of kiosks and booths at the station, but nothing is clearly marked and there was so little information. We ended up asking other (equally confused) tourists, because we had no idea where we were going! First, we tried buying our passes through a vending machine, but because everything was written in Italian, we didn’t want to mistakenly buy the wrong pass. Finally, Tania suggested trying to just book online on our phones – and, success! I’m so glad we (okay, Tania) figured it out, but we could have saved a good half an hour had we booked in advance.

With our Cinque Terre Cards in hand (well, phones) we waited to board the train to the first village, Riomaggiore. The platform was packed with people waiting to get on, as the train was nearly an hour late. When it finally arrived (to the cheers of everyone waiting) it was too full for the majority of passengers (ourselves included) to get on. The next train was supposed to arrive on a different platform, but there was no announcement given as to what platform that was, and there were no staff around we could ask for help. Instead, we simply ‘followed the herd’ down to another platform with a waiting train, and hopped on. We had no idea if this was the right train or not (and fellow travelers that we asked admitted the same to us!) but with no posted schedules or staff to ask for help, we just took our seats and hoped for the best. We sat on this train at the station, not moving, for over an hour. During that time, the train increasingly filled up with people, all of whom were equally as confused and irritated as us. Tania and I considered getting off, but our options were limited. While the high-speed train from La Spezia to Riomaggiore only takes ten minutes, it’s a half-hour cab ride (which costs upward of 50 Euros) or a three-hour-plus walk! So, we waited. And finally, after almost an hour and a half, the train departed (and luckily it was the right one! Can you imagine if it wasn’t!?) So at nearly noon, we arrived in the Cinque Terre’s first village: Riomaggiore.

Riomaggiore

We had planned to arrive in Riomaggiore by mid-morning and enjoy a leisurely breakfast before beginning our Cinque Terre hike, so the train delays threw off our schedule quite a bit. It was now lunchtime, and I hadn’t eaten yet that day (Tania was smart and grabbed a croissant before our train ride) so I was starving! We wanted to save our appetites for a beautiful restaurant in Manarola we’d planned on visiting for lunch, so to tide us over, we stopped at a café called Old School for cappuccinos and a pistachio cream-filled bombolone (Italian doughnut). Old School’s patio offers breathtaking views of Riomaggiore, and is located just a few steps from the 14th century stone church of San Giovanni Battista.

After fueling ourselves with caffeine and sugar, we did a bit of exploring around Riomaggiore. Its small “downtown” area is very quaint: think hilly cobblestone streets lined with charming cafés, trattorias and tourist shops. By the way, I’m not kidding when I say “hilly” – the streets are incredibly steep. I think we burned off our donut breakfast just walking up to the café! Definitely something to be mindful of for those with accessibility needs or those who aren’t used to walking on a steep incline.

Be sure to stop by the Castello Di Riomaggiore, a 13th century stone fortress, to get some beautiful views of the town and the sparkling blue Ligurian Sea. If you’re the sportier type, head down to Piazza Vignaiolo, where you can rent boats, kayaks or surfboards for a fun day out on the water.

While we’d planned to take the train in between some of the villages, we wanted to walk to at least a couple of them via The Blue Path. This is the Cinque Terre’s most popular hiking trail: it connects all five villages and provides beautiful views of the sea. While the sections between villages vary in length and elevation (see this great blog post for a detailed guide) it’s generally considered a moderate, not too challenging trail, and we were excited to experience it for ourselves. Well, imagine our disappointment when we reached the trail entrance in Riomaggiore and saw that it was completely closed off! Due to the Cinque Terre’s unique geographical situation, landslides are common, and any extreme weather conditions (like the unusually heavy rain Italy received during the first part of our trip) can result in the path being closed for reconstruction. Which leads me to Cinque Terre Tip #3: be sure to check this website before visiting for a current update on any trail closures.

Since the Blue Path was closed, we only had two options to get to the next village: try to board the train (which didn’t look promising – the platform was swarmed with people and an announcement board mentioned the next train was over an hour delayed) or find another hiking trail. We spotted a trail that went up through the mountains, and decided to try our luck. Spoiler alert: we made it about 20 minutes uphill before giving up. The path was incredibly steep, rocky and barely maintained. It was a hot day and everyone else we passed was in the same boat: huffing and puffing, dripping sweat, and grumbling about the Blue Path being closed. I will say it was a very humbling experience: I’d thought I was in half-decent shape before attempting this hike, but it kicked my you-know-what! Hot and exhausted, with a long trek still ahead of us, we decided to cut our losses and turned around to head back to the train platform. Well, at least we got some beautiful views out of it!

As we were waiting on the platform and chatting with a fellow tourist, we finally learned what was going on. Apparently the train tracks were undergoing maintenance that day, and that’s what was causing all the issues. Trains were heavily delayed and only coming once an hour (or less), so the crowds and wait times were completely out of control. So, if you’re planning your own Cinque Terre trip and my post is making you nervous, fear not! As I understand it, while the towns and trains are never not busy, the trains normally come every 20 minutes and the process is a whole lot smoother than what we experienced. We just happened to come on a bad day!

When we finally managed to board the train to Manarola, it was so jam-packed that everyone was practically nose-to-nose. People were literally pushing other passengers’ arms and legs inside the train to try and get the doors to close, and an elderly woman on our car nearly passed out! When we arrived at the Manarola stop, we had to wait for about ten minutes in the crowded tunnel before getting out. I’m a little claustrophobic, so after this experience, I was definitely ready to sit down and have a cocktail!

Manarola

The good news is that Manarola is absolutely stunning, and worth the hassle to get there. I think it was the prettiest out of the three towns we visited! Our first stop was at La Regina di Manarola for a (now very late) lunch. I’d wanted to visit this restaurant ever since I saw photos of it online, and it’s so beautiful in person that even photos don’t do it justice. It has to be the prettiest restaurant I’ve ever visited! Whether you’re looking out at the panoramic views of Manarola or looking up at the ceiling dripping with lush hanging flowers, there’s no bad table at La Regina.

I ordered a very yummy Limoncello Spritz (after the day we’d had, I needed it!) and Tania and I split their signature pizza, which is made with Fior Di Latte cheese, homemade pesto sauce and cherry tomato gazpacho, and topped with EVOO and fresh basil. It was delicious and so beautifully presented!

After lunch, we took a quick stroll around the town of Manarola, and admired the view from the scenic viewpoint located on Via Di Corniglia.

Our original plan was to visit all five villages, but at this point it was late in the afternoon, and we realized we only had time to visit one more village if we wanted to make our train back to Florence. We chose to visit Monterosso al Mare, and braced ourselves for another uncomfortable train ride. I won’t bore you with the gory details… I’ll just say, it was more of the same!

Monterosso al Mare

Monterosso al Mare is the largest of the Cinque Terre villages, and is known for its beautiful main beach, the Spiaggia di Fegina, which you’ll see right as you exit the train stop. The nice thing about the Cinque Terre is that the villages are small, so even if you’re short on time, you’ll still be able to see a fair bit. We strolled along the beach and marveled at its famous rock formation and the Il Gigante statue. Located at the west end of the beach, this 14-meter tall depiction of the Roman god Neptune was sculpted by artist Arrigo Minerbi in 1910. Although he’s faced his share of hardships over the years – losing his arms and his famous trident to wars and weather damage – he still stands proudly over the Spiaggia.

If you have time for a nice sit-down meal in Monterosso, you should check out Ristorante Della Tortuga: the gorgeous stone building, perched on top of a cliff overlooking the sea, would be the perfect spot for a romantic date night or special occasion dinner.

We didn’t have time for a meal (plus we’d just had lunch not too long ago) so we just grabbed drinks at a bar named Il Baretto overlooking the beach. Then it was time to hop back on the train to La Spezia Centrale. We left ourselves lots of time to get back out of an abundance of caution, so thankfully, we were able to make our train back to Florence.

It’s funny… until I wrote this blog post, I’d truly forgotten just how crazy of a day we had! You know how they say that women forget just how painful childbirth was, because the most important thing they remember is holding their beautiful newborn baby? I’m not a mom, so I wouldn’t know (and this is obviously a ridiculous comparison!!) but when I look back on the photos from our trip, what stands out to me most is how blessed we were to spend a day in one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places on earth. So all things considered – the delays, the crowds, the confusion, the stress – would I visit the Cinque Terre again? Yes, in a heartbeat! Although there were some things that were out of our control, such as the train maintenance and the Blue Path being closed, there’s also some things that I would do differently next time – as outlined in my tips throughout this post – to make the experience smoother. Which leads me to my final tip… Cinque Terre Tip #4: If you have the opportunity to visit the Cinque Terre, GO! Yes, it’ll be hectic and crowded even on the best of days, but I promise you, the experience is more than worth it.

If you have any questions at all about our excursion to the Cinque Terre, please drop me a line. I’m happy to offer advice wherever I can, so that hopefully you’ll have a smoother visit than we did!

Have you ever had a travel experience that didn’t go as planned?