On my first full day in Italy, I headed straight to Vernazza first thing in the morning. I knew that Vernazza is considered the most beautiful of the 5 towns and I had also heard of a nice little place for breakfast there. I had read about the ricotta croissants at il Pirata and they definitely did not disappoint! Paired with a cup of cappuccino, it was a perfect start to the day.
It was quite early at this point and most of the stores and businesses weren’t open yet on Vernazza. I even hiked up some steep stairs to a church only to discover that it wouldn’t open until 10am. I ended up just wandering around and taking some pictures, before finally finding the pathway leading to Monterroso. I knew that I had wanted to climb up to the spot where all the famous pictures of Vernazza was taken, but I didn’t expect the path to snake through the narrow spaces of the front of people’s homes. Because the pathways are narrow and lead to people’s homes, the start of the paths are very easy to miss.
I discovered later on that I actually didn’t go far enough to the real photo spot. However, at this point, I wasn’t too concerned. It was only 10 o’clock in the morning but it was humid and I was sweating like crazy already. After a few more pictures of the town, I decided to head back to La Spezia to walk around there for a bit first before heading to Monterroso for lunch. While waiting for the train to La Spezia, I started talking to this girl from Hong Kong who I had seen around Vernazza all morning. It was nice to be able to hear about another traveler’s experiences.
Unfortunately, La Spezia wasn’t that exciting. Again, perhaps it was because it was early in the day, but a lot of shops were still closed and of the ones that were open, there really wasn’t anything exciting. After walking around for about half an hour, I decided to hop back on the train to Monterroso.
Monterroso is known as the town with the most hotels and restaurants as it has a huge beach. It was around 12:30pm when I arrived into the train station and almost immediately I noticed a crowd of people standing around taking pictures. I looked up to see what the commotion was for and noticed that there were some men hanging off the side of a cliff doing maintenance work. Yikes!
I was starving and settled on a cute little outdoor restaurant called Cantina and had a relatively expensive lunch there. Unfortunately, I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked to because I felt a bit sick shortly after the appetizers. I’m not sure if it’s because of the amount of olive oil they used in their foods. I understand that the region is famous for olive oil and lemons, but the lunch felt really heavy as the pasta was just drenched in oil. The appetizer is a trio of calamari, mussels, and anchovies stuffed with bread, egg, cheese, and herbs in a tomato sauce. The entrée I ordered is a regional anchovy pasta.
After lunch, I walked around Monterroso for a bit but left shortly after as it was really really hot at this point. I did try the famous Monterroso lemon gelato which was delicious.
The next stop was Corniglia, the smallest of the 5 towns. There was a shuttle bus waiting right at the train station and I was able to hop right on with my Cinque Terre card. After a 5 minute ride we were up at the top of the hill.
As it was the smallest of the towns, I wasn’t expecting too much as I saw how small Vernazza and Monterroso were already. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere of Corniglia. It turned out to be one of my favourites. The narrow alleys were lined with stores and shops that were full of character. From restaurants to souvenir stores to gelato shops with displays of the largest lemons I’d ever seen, Corniglia was very intriguing and should not be skipped.
Walking past the centre of town, I ended up at this viewpoint that offered views of neighbouring Manarola. Unfortunately, Manarola was still a bit too far and I wasn’t able to get a nice clear shot of the town.
I decided to walk down to the train station along the infamous 400+ steps. It was scorching hot, but I figured that this way, I can still say I took the stairs! While taking the stairs, the views of the water were breathtaking.
At this point, I had planned to hike to Manarola, which was supposed to be a pretty easy hike of just around an hour. However, I was dead tired from the heat and jetlag and figured I’d go back to the hotel for a quick nap. When I got to the train station though, I saw the sign pointing to Manarola and decided to just go for it. Who knows when I’ll be in Italy again, might as well power through!
I got about 5 minutes into the hike and then saw the signs saying that the path was closed! Well, I knew that the Via dell’Amore hike was closed due to damage (which was the one I had wanted to do all along) but I guess it must have expanded up to this area as well. No wonder I didn’t see a single person on this path. I turned around and went back to the train station, but I had just missed the train back to La Spezia and had another hour to kill. I ended up taking the bus back up to town again to take another look around!
After a couple of hours at the hotel, I took the train to Manarola to catch a bit of the sunset. Manarola is known as the town of boats, and people park their boats next to their houses like you would normally park cars.
I was getting a bit hungry but didn’t want to sit down in a restaurant in Manarola as I knew that the next train out to Riomaggiore was late enough that it would be dark and I wanted to make sure I got to Riomaggiore before dark. I ended up stopping at a little bakery and trying out one of these snacks.
While waiting for the train, I met a very nice American couple and 2 Korean girls who kept me company. Together, we enjoyed the beautiful sunset.
I told the Korean girls that I wasn’t sure if I should stop in Riomaggiore as it was already well past 8 o’clock and the sun was setting. I wasn’t sure if there would be anything left to see in Riomaggiore. They encouraged me to go and so I did hop off the train briefly to walk into town but by then, it was dark and I didn’t really want to wait another hour for the next train back to La Spezia.
This concluded a very full, satisfying day filled with new experiences and great memories.
For more photos of Cinque Terre, please visit my Photo Gallery of Cinque Terre.
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