How to Spend 2 Days in Cinque Terre, Italy
Cinque Terre, Italy has been at the top of my bucket list for years! I was finally able to check it off this past October. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a National Park along the Coast of Italy, in the Liguria Region. The National Park is home to 5 famous towns; Monterosso al Mare, Corniglia, Vernazza, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. My husband and I visited the 5 cities in 2 days and had almost a full day in the city of La Spezia. Here is what we did and what I would do differently.
Where to Stay
Many people stay in a hotel or Airbnb in one of the 5 cities. We stayed in a small hotel in La Spezia. You could do either one but we were very happy with our decision to stay in La Spezia. The main reason that we stayed in La Spezia is that many of the accommodations in the cities are expensive and limited. You can save a lot of money if you stay in the large port town of La Spezia. Also, it can be difficult to find food in the 5 cities during off hours because there aren’t a ton of restaurants. La Spezia is a beautiful, interesting city on it’s own and I recommend planning to spend some time there, to see it. My next blog post will be about La Spezia. We really liked that you can wake up in La Spezia, get breakfast and then hop on the trains to one of the 5 cities, then come back for dinner. It’s also super convenient for coming into and leaving Cinque Terre because most of the trains from other cities and regions come into La Spezia.
Traveling Between Towns
The best way to travel between La Spezia and the Cinque Terre cities is by train. I’ve heard that the roads can be treacherous and that parking is super limited and complicated. I recommend that you get the day train pass if you are going to be visiting more than one town. You get unlimited train trips for the day and access to the restrooms at the train station for free. Otherwise you have to pay 1 Euro for the restroom. You can also hike between the towns, but it will be time consuming and probably hot. I didn’t do any of the hikes because I didn’t want to spend my limited time outside the cities and I wanted to conserve steps. This trip to Italy was super exhausting. You can get a train pass that includes the National Park pass for the trails as well. That way you can do a little bit of hiking but also take the trains. You can buy those passes on the Trenitalia or Omio apps. Here is a helpful site with more info. We ended up just getting a train pass for 2 days.
What to See in Each Town
The order in which you visit the cities doesn’t matter too much but I recommend going to all 5 of them. You should try to go to Corniglia in the morning and Riomaggiore for sunset. Corniglia has a ton of steps that you have to climb to get up to the town and it’s best to do that when it’s not hot yet. We got to Corniglia around 8:30am and the town was super quiet. As we were leaving around 11am most of the tourist were just arriving and it was painful watching them struggling up the stairs as it was getting hot. Monterosso al Mare has the best swimming beach so I’d recommend visiting at the hottest part of a day if you want to swim.
Riomaggiore
Riomaggiore is the first town if you’re coming from La Spezia. It was definitely one of my favorites and seemed to be one of the largest, of the five. We visited this one last on the first day. We wanted to be here for sunset. I read another blog that suggested Riomaggiore or Manarola for sunset. I think both would be nice. It probably depends on the time of year and where exactly the sun is located. There are many souvenir shops here and I bought a few things. Exploring the little streets and passages was so fun in Riomaggiore.
Manarola
The second city that I visited on the first day was Manarola. This was my other favorite. It’s incredibly hard to choose though. I didn’t get as good of photos here because of the lighting. It’s honestly very difficult for me to remember what I did in each town because they look very similar in photos. I promise they are all different though and you should not skip any. I went and sat down by the water here, where a bunch of people were swimming. Then we walked to the bell tower at the top of the city. We also at focaccia in Manarola at one of the bakeries. It was the best that I have ever had and one of the best things I ate in Italy. I can’t find it on Google Maps though. It was on the right side of the street when walking away from the sea.
Corniglia
I’ve heard that many people skip Corniglia because they don’t want to climb up the steps to get to the town but it’s a must-see. Just go in the morning before it get too hot. We went here first, on the first day. We arrived really early and it was like a ghost town. It was amazing and peaceful. It’s beautiful in its own way. You are surrounded by the terraced hills, and very high up. There isn’t really access to the sea from Corniglia but it’s a very cute town.
Vernazza
We went to Vernazza last, on the second day and I think we should have gone to Monterosso first. Vernazza was super crowded by the time we got there. We also climbed the Ruins of Doria tower and it was a pretty hot climb. It would have been nicer to do it early in the morning. You have to pay a small fee to go up. It was also too hot to hike over to the famous view point up the trail. Regardless, I still loved Vernazza! We ate gelato and calamari here for dinner before going back to La Spezia.
Monterosso al Mare
We chose to visit Monterosso first on the second day. Like I said, I think I would have gone to Vernazza first if I did this trip again. We went swimming at the south beach in Monterosso and it would have made more sense to go swimming later in the day but we were afraid the beach would be super crowded. It wasn’t very crowded but that is because we went in October. If it were summer I would be more worried. Monterosso has two little city sections that are divided by a tunnel or a mountain. You can go over the mountain or through the tunnel. We did both but don’t miss climbing over the mountain because you will get amazing views of both sides. There is also a nice viewpoint on the south side of the south beach. You just follow the road up to the hotel/restaurant. The water here is super clear and warm. I really want to come back someday and just hang out at the beach for a long time. It was incredibly beautiful.
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