Cinque Terre, Italy

I’ve been dreaming of going to Cinque Terre since I first saw the beautiful photos of Riomaggiore and Manarola on Pinterest back in 2010. They are some of the first pins on my Pinterest boards!! It was honestly a dream come true.

Day 1

We went to Cinque Terre on the same trip as Lake Como. We took a train from Lake Como to Milano Centrale (the central train station of Milan) and from there took a train to La Spezia. La Spezia is not one of the 5 towns of Cinque Terre (that means literally “five lands” in Italian) but is very close by and is a bit larger of a city. From there we took a short train to Manarola, which is where we decided to base ourselves while in Cinque Terre. It’s one of the slightly smaller of the five towns but looked so lovely.

We stayed at Amanarola which is a boutique hotel that we absolutely fell in love with. The owner was so kind and helpful and the apartment was absolutely gorgeous. We had an amazing balcony with a sunshade that was so perfect. The location was also really lovely and easy to walk to everything. I would stay there again in a heartbeat.

Trattoria dal Billy

For our first night we had dinner at Trattoria dal Billy. They are well known for seafood and have 2 seatings per night. You definitely need a reservation and they have a nice view. I found the service extremely rushed, which is uncommon in all my experiences in Europe in general and I didn’t love the vibe. The food was good but I wouldn’t put it as my top recommendation. I had a seafood past and Austin had some fresh grilled fish.

Day 2

Nessun Dorma Officina 231

Nessun Dorma is a really popular spot in Manarola, up on the hill overlooking the beautiful view of the sea and the colorful houses. They’ve also opened up a small sandwich shop in the center of Manarola, which was our first stop on our first day.

Hike Manarola to Riomaggiore (via Beccara trail)

After eating our sandwiches we set off on a hike from Manarola to Riomaggiore. Cinque Terre is a national park where you can hike between all of the 5 main towns. There are the main tourist trails which you have to pay for, and other (usually more difficult) trails that are free. The main tourist trail between Manarola and Riomaggiore is supposed to be incredibly beautiful, but it was also closed for more than 10 years! At the time of me writing this (July 2024) it has now opened, but it was still closed when we visited so we took the harder route which was up a mountain and back down the other side. The hike is not long and was very beautiful, but was basically a thousand stairs (I don’t know the exact number this is probably an exaggeration) and was pretty tough!!!

In Riomaggiore we did some exploring and found a nice rock beach to hang out at for a while. I also got a cone of fried seafood from Il Pescato Cucinato which was quite tasty.

Bar e Vini a Pié de Ma

On our way to the train station to get back to Manarola (no way were we hiking that back the other direction), we stopped at Bar e Vini a Pié de Ma because it was supposed to have a gorgeous view. It did, but approximately 5 minutes after we got our drinks it started POURING rain. Everyone on the terrace crowded into the one covered area, except for Austin who enjoyed standing in the rain :)

Gelateria Sorbetteria 5 Terre

Once we got back to Manarola the weather had cleared up a bit and we stopped for some gelato. This spot in Manarola had all lactose free and vegan gelato which was basically heaven for me! Most gelato places have a few sorbet flavors, so usually fruit and dark chocolate. I do love dark chocolate sorbet but I was so excited to have a wider range of flavors to try!

We did some more exploring of Manarola and walked up to the most famous viewpoint overlooking the city, it was so gorgeous!

Focacceria A piè de Campu

We finished up our night with dinner at this beautiful focacceria, where you eat in the cutest little garden. You can get one big focaccia with 2 toppings to feed 2 people. We got half pesto (which is from this region of Italy originally) with potatoes and green beans and half with parma ham. It was SO GOOD! The focaccia was nice and light but so delicious. For dessert I had some tiramisu and Austin got a sweet focaccia with nutella!

Day 3

Nessun Dorma Pesto class

Nessun Dorma is a place I saw on instagram a long time ago and had bookmarked for if we ever went to Cinque Terre. I saw it again as I looked around for where to go and saw that they tend to have very long queues to get in. Reading more reviews, I saw that they had a pesto class twice a day where you could enjoy the view without waiting in line (because you book the class ahead of time). I booked it immediately!

The day before the weather was not looking promising and I was worried it would be cancelled due to rain. In the end the weather was lovely and it all worked out great! We arrived about 30 minutes early to make sure we got a good table with a view.

The class started out with an explanation of ingredients and then we plucked all the leaves off of our basil plant, washed them in a bowl of ice water, and then combined them in a mortar and pestle with garlic, pine nuts, parmesan and salt. The mortar and pestle definitely takes some strength to make the pesto but it was honestly the best pesto I have ever had!

After we made our pesto they served us wine (with a small bottle for all of us to take home), with a whole lunch spread - prosciutto, cantalope, bruschetta, focaccia, burrata and tomatoes. It was amazing! We had a great time and I would absolutely go back there. The view is also just unbeatable!

Vernazza

After our pesto class we decided to go check out some more of the 5 cities of Cinque Terre. There’s a train that stops at all 5 cities and runs quite often, though it is a bit expensive! We headed over to Vernazza first to explore.

We explored the cities and then headed up to the castle ruins to get a view over the city. Of the 5 cities, this was personally our least favorite (though nowhere in Cinque Terre is anything short of great).

Corniglia

Next we decided to head over to Corniglia, which is the one town that isn’t on the water. From the train station you have to walk up to the top of a hill to get to the town. There’s either a large set of stairs or you can take the longer route on the roads that slowly head upwards. There is also a small bus that you can take as well, but we felt ok to walk and didn’t want to wait for the bus. We actually planned to take the stairs, but didn’t see them when we got out and ended up following some others on the longer route.

We immediately loved Corniglia - since you have to hike up the hill to get to it, its more chill and less busy than the other towns. It was also just so cute! We decided we wanted to spend more time and stay for dinner and started looking for a place to eat.

Osteria A Cantaina de Mananan

We found this restaurant and reached out to them on Facebook to see if they had any last minute space for us. We were so excited when they did! It’s a very small adorable place and they do 2 seatings every day.

We started with a delicious caprese salad. Then I had a very unique local pasta with pesto (which is from this region of Italy) and Austin had swordfish with zucchini.

Alberto Gelateria

We got some gelato from this place across the street on our way to the train station. We realized we had quite a walk and the trains were running less often after this one, so we ate our gelato while going down the steps as quickly as we could!

We wrapped up the night on our beautiful balcony enjoying the view!

Day 4

Cappun Magru

We started off the morning with coffee at Cappun Magru. I also had a focaccia with tomatoes and Austin had some yogurt. We had to fuel up for our long hike ahead of us!

Hike Monterosso to Vernazza (blue path)

A lot of the “blue path” tourist trails in Cinque Terre are closed for restoration, but one of the two still open was the hike from Monterosso to Vernazza. I had read this was one of the most beautiful and was rated as moderate. We took the train to Monterosso and admired the view of the beach as we walked to the trail head.

This hike is not free, you can either buy a pass to do multiple trails (including trains) or you can pay for the trail itself at the trail head. Since we were only doing the one paid trail it was cheaper for us to just pay at the trailhead.

It was a little crowded on some parts but overall was not too bad. I do recommend going early though, as the trail is not large and if its too crowded I think it would really ruin the experience! We were on the trail around 12 PM. Since it was only May this was not so bad heat wise, but would probably be pretty rough later in the summer.

The hike is so beautiful the whole way! As you come up over the hill you start to see some gorgeous views of Vernazza from above.

Nessun Dorma Officina (part 2)

We had to go back and get sandwiches again after our hike! This time I got eggplant and it was sooo good, especially after our long hike!

Of course we also had to get another lactose free gelato.

Sunset

After some rest and a nap, we went down to the water to watch the sunset. There’s a dock in Manarola that had some rocks we sat on to watch. It was so beautiful!

Takeaway Pasta

After our sunset we grabbed some pasta from Takeaway Pasta which was downstairs from our hotel. We ate it on our balcony and it was a nice relaxing end to the night! The pasta was pretty good but not anything super special.

Day 5

Mae Caa

For our last full day we went to really check out Monterosso. We started off the day by going to Mae Caa for coffee and breakfast. They had iced coffee which was awesome as it was a very warm day (and iced coffee seems to not be very popular in Italy)

Monterosso lemon festival

We purposely saved Monterosso for this day because we had seen ahead of time they were having a lemon festival! We went early to avoid any crowds. They had lots of cute stands selling lemon themed food, drinks and trinkets.

We got some cake and cookies and I got a delicious limoncello spritz.

We also checked out the city and then spent some time relaxing on the beach.

Cappun Magru

After exploring Monterosso we went to Cappun Magru in Manarola for lunch. They have a bunch of seafood sandwiches and I got one with shrimp and zucchini. It was so delicious!

La Regina di Manarola

I wanted to go back to Nessun Dorma and have a last aperol spritz with a view but the wait list was hours long. Eventually we decided to try out this place that we could see from our balcony. We only stayed for a drink and to check out the view - its pretty expensive but was a great view!

Focacceria A piè de Campu (again!)

For our last dinner in Manarola we went back to focacceria because we loved it so much! We were seated in the cutest little garden area this time which was so fun. I picked the pesto, potato & green bean for my half again and Austin chose tomatoes and mozzarella. It was just as delicious as the first day!

Gelateria Manarola

We had to get our last gelato for the trip as well and then enjoyed a beautiful sunset!!

Day 6

On our last morning I had one last coffee on our balcony to admire the view. When we left a cat ran into the hotel and we had to try to lure him out! The owner of the hotel finally had to help as the cat apparently lives nearby :)

We headed out pretty early to take the train to La Spezia and then take another train to Milan. Italian train stations have these cute little parmesan snack pack things, I love them!

Mercato Centrale

When you arrive in Milan, there is a whole food market below the train station! I spent some time wandering around it and had this tasty little rice ball full of ham and cheese.

Pizzium

Austin went to Milan a few years ago for work and loved the pizza at Pizzium so wanted to check it out again. We had a chill dinner there which was very tasty! I got a pizza with salami and fresh artichokes.

Duomo di Milano

After dinner we wandered around to see the duomo and a bit of the city and of course get one last gelato. It was a bit crowded but the cathedral was beautiful!

The next day we flew home from Milan. It was such an incredible trip full of amazing food and the most gorgeous scenery. It’s definitely one of the top trips we’ve been on!