Cinque Terre, Italy

After years of trying to make our way to the Cinque Terre, we finally made it during the most recent bank holiday. We had initially booked flights to the Cinque Terre in July 2007, from our DC apartment right when we found out we were moving to Ireland. Due to a work trip we had to rearrange the trip and ended up going to Riga for a quick night versus a long weekend in the Cinque Terre. Alas, we made it. The pics we had previously seen and those you’ll see below do not begin to the villages justice. You’ll have to go yourself!

The area, Cinque Terre represents the five villages that are all connected only by footpaths and a railroad. As you'll see below, the villages are all perched on the side of the mountains amidst vineyards, lemon and olive trees and lots of woodlands.

To get to the Cinque Terre, its not too easy, but much easier than it used to be. You can fly to either Pisa or Genova and then get trains to the villages. From Pisa, you get the train to Pisa central and switch to a train that takes you to La Spezia. From there you have to get on the Cinque Terre regional train, which stops at all the villages. trenitalia.com allows you to plan your journey and even will give the trains you need and transfer times at all the stops. From the airport, it was about a 2 hour journey to Manarola.

We choose to stay in Manarola to stay in as it has the best recommended restaurant, it’s away from the more touristy Monterosso del Mare and Vernazza, and its beautiful! Manarola is the second city from the south (with only Riomaggiore more south).

We found a great place to stay called Vandiris (info@vandiris.com), which just opened (€120 per night, discounted based on number of nights). We were literally the first ones to stay in the hotel. There is currently only 2 rooms I believe, but they were working on the top floor units when we stayed. The view is spectacular and is perched right on the cliffs, overlooking the trainstation on the back side of Manarola. The view from the bed looking out over the terrace was incredible, definitely the nicest place we stayed on the trip. See the sea from our balacony, the first taken from the bed! There is a terrace below our room that the owner was working on when we were there and is expected to open in the next year. It will be amazing once it gets finished (the rooms need no more work as they are great). The shower in particular is great and is exactly what you need after a long hike. If you are looking for a place in Cinque Terre, book here and book early as there are only a couple rooms. I envision this place being sold out nightly once word spreads.

We stayed two nights in Manarola, doing the hike between Riomaggiore the first afternoon then the other hikes the second day. All of the villages were beautiful, but in particular we thought Vernazza was the prettiest, followed by Manarola. However, Riomaggiore is pretty close as you can see below.

Cappun Magru is the restaurant I mentioned before. It is in the little hamlet of Groppo, about a 20 minute gruelling walk up the mountain. We got the local bus up the hill to the town before dinner. The restaurant is an old house that has about 8 tables over two floors. The food itself was cooked great and the wife of the chef is the server and sommelier. What a great meal. After dinner I got a couple nice night shots of Manarola, the villages are equally pretty in the twilight. I suggest enlarging this one!

We got to Vernazza at about 10:30 the second day and tinkered around the town for a couple hours, having a picnic lunch on the pier before embarking on the hike to Cornigila. Vernazza is really amazing.

Once you get to Corniglia, you can see Manarola from afar. This pic is using a 200mm lens at dusk to scope out our base from afar. You can actually see our hotel, the very last building on the right, perched out on the cliffs, in redish colour (you may need to enlarge as well)!

The second day we had a great dinner at a restaurant in Corniglia - Cantina de Mananan. You need to make a reservation at this all-Italian speaking place that has it menu scribbled on a chalkboard (in Italian of course); you should probably bring your English-Italian dictionary as well, however, if the people next to you (generally Italians) speak English, they may be able to help! It makes an interesting meal when you are trying to figure out. We were seated at a table for four next to a nice Italian couple which added to the experience.

All in all, the beauty of the cinque terre and the accompanying amazing landscape exceeded all expectations and was worth the 3 year and 5 month wait!!