Billy & Britny The Cinque Terre is a collection of five small seaside villages on the Italian Riviera. You’ve most likely seen a beautiful photo of this area before and will recognize the brightly colored buildings beside the blue water of the Italian Riviera. Pictures do not do the area justice, it’s even more breathtaking in person. Besides their location and their brightly colored buildings each village has its own reason to visit. Once traveling is safe for everyone again this is a must experience place.
The five villages that make up the Cinque Terrea are Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. When we came to visit we only had a day to spend as it was a day trip from Florence. We could have easily spent weeks here soaking in the Italian sun, but knew we were lucky to even get a quick trip here.
All of the villages are car free and are connected by train, walking trail, or boat. To be in an auto free town was a blessing after spending a few days in the not always pedestrian friendly city of Florence. We knew we had to get up early to avoid the crowds making the same trip. Since we only had a day we decided not to stop at every town so we could appreciate a few of them without feeling rushed. The first stop by train was the vineyard surrounded village of Manarola. It was well worth the stop, down at the waterfront there were brightly colored fishing boats to remind you it really is a quaint fishing village. You can also take a short hike up to a vantage point where you get a gorgeous view of Manarola. We took our time admiring the village and stopped at a few small local shops.
We explored tiny alleyways and made our up a narrow staircase to La Torre where we had a magnificent lunch. The area is famous for it’s pesto and wine so of course we had to try both and it didn’t disappoint. This is one of those trips that makes you think how lucky you are to be there in the moment.
The last stop was in Monterosso, best known for it’s beach. We had to relax after all of the walking and take a dip in the Italian Riviera.
