Cinque Terre Travel Diary (May’16 part II)

Here is part II of my travel diary from my trip in May’16! By train we explored all five villages of the Cinque Terre (Monterosso – Vernazza – Corniglia – Manarola – Riomaggiore) and the two bigger villages Levanto and La Spezia. Continue if you like to see many photos of the typical colorful houses, ice creams and the beautiful blue sea!

All the photos are made with the Olympus PEN E-PL7 and three lenses: 17mm, 25mm and 45mm.
Some of the photos are made with the iPhone 6s Plus or the Samsung S6.

Our trip started in Toscany, as you could read in the post before. After three days we traveled by train from Pisa to Monterosso. Monterosso is one of the five villages from Cinque Terre, were we stayed in Il Timone Loreto, a really nice and quiet room that is situated in the historical center (tip!). Monterosso is the largest village with the most restaurants, bars and the best beach. We were really happy to stay in this village because Monterosso has almost no hills (great for walking around with heavy luggage or to walk to the train station every day) and in the other villages were to crowded and too small for a longer stay, in our opinion. All train tickets are 4 euro’s and in 30 minutes you are from the first village (Levanto) to the last one (La Spezia) The other villages are around 5 minutes away from each other. Okay, let’s start with a huge amount of photos :) We also went on a hike from Monterosso to Vernazza!

The storm vs a normal sunny day.

Hike trail from Monterosso to Vernazza (+- 2 hours)

Arrived in Vernazza! What a spectaculair view after a 2+ hour heavy walk in the mountains. As you can see from above, Vernazza is very small, but nice to visit if you have the time!

I expected much from Manarola because if you search on Google or Pinterest for Cinque Terre, you always see Manarola. The weather was very good and I walked around with the Olympus Pen camera all day and I took too many photos for sure!

The next day there was a big storm with very dark clouds, rain and thunder. We went to La Spezia (a bigger town) so we could hide in the shopping streets. We also went to the harbour for a long time. If you are in Cinque Terre for a shorter amount of time, it’s better to skip La Spezia since it’s not very special compared to the other villages and Levanto.

Corniglia cannot be reached by boot, only by train because this village doesn’t have a harbour. When arriving in Corniglia, you have to climb 382 (!) stairs to enter the village. But it’s worth it! I didn’t expect much from Corniglia, but actually it was a really nice village to walk around for a few hours! Make sure to have a cappuccino at Terra Rossa, a cute terrace with a beautiful view.

Riomaggiore was very beautiful, but you have to climb a lot! From Riomaggiore we took a boottrip back to Monterosso (tip!). Please visit the Cinque Terre before or right after the summer, otherwise it will be to warm and to crowed with tourists!

Boat trip from Riomaggiore to Monterosso (+-45min)

We spent our final day in Levanto, just a few minutes away from Monterosso. I can recommend to visit Levanto if you saw all other five Cinque Terre villages and you have one day left. There is a beach, but you can also walk around in the streets or eat an ice cream in the park.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed these Italy posts! What is your favorite part of Italy?

(Click here to read my other Italy Travel Diaries)

♥