In June 2019, I took my wife Sunshine and my parents on a trip across Europe. We landed in Amsterdam and meandered to Venice by train, with stops in Paris and Rome on the way. One of the highlights of our entire trip was one of the shortest stops and one of the smallest places: Cinque Terre in Italy. In this post, I’ll tell you about how we managed to see the entire Cinque Terre in just one day.
As an FYI, this was one day of a two-week trip to Europe by train. Click this link to read the full story of that trip!
Cinque Terre (the five lands) is a collection of five towns nestled on the cliffs on the northwestern coast of Italy in the Liguria region. Almost always referred in travel literature as “charming” and “idyllic,” these descriptors are spot-on. Colorfully painted homes and buildings seem to hang from the cliffside. Cinque Terre is so iconic and so integral to Italian culture that in 1997 UNESCO designated it as a World Heritage site.
Why Cinque Terre
Cinque Terre was specifically my mom’s request on this trip, but I was intrigued and wanted to make the most of our time there. After all, we were making a separate stop on our two-week Europe trek just to see it. You’re welcome, Mom. Since we had a lot to see in a short time in Europe, we only dedicated two nights (really one whole day) to visiting Cinque Terre. I thought I was accommodating my mom by including it at all, but it ended up being probably the most memorable stop on the trip. Mom only rubbed that in a little bit…
Family pettiness and dysfunction aside, in this post I will be laying out how you can see all five towns in the Cinque Terre in one day. I recommend more time if possible, but if you are making a quick stop, here is one strategy to see all the towns bookended by a two-night stay.
Here’s something to help keep the towns straight throughout the post. I often refer to them numerically from South to North, since that’s what you’d see on a map. So in order that would be Riomaggiore (first, i.e. farthest South), Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, Monterosso. So when I say 4th, I’m talking about Vernazza. Good, glad we’re on the same page.
Where to stay in/near Cinque Terre
Interestingly, we did not stay in any of the Cinque Terre’s towns. After reading a few blogs and travel guides on the Cinque Terre, I determined that we should stay in the nearby town of La Spezia. Accessing the towns by car is really difficult, and rail tickets are easier to get for La Spezia’s larger Centrale train station. Additionally, La Spezia Centrale station has a smaller train network that goes up and down the coastline and stops at each of the five towns. So, the entire region is quickly accessible from La Spezia.
Another reason to stay in La Spezia is quite simply supply and cost of lodging. The towns in the Cinque Terre are very small, and surprisingly expensive. Finding hotels in the towns is possible but requires significantly more effort (and likely more $) than nearby La Spezia. With the quick and frequent trains from La Spezia, it was a no-brainer for us to stay there.
We chose to go the AirBnB route. We rented an apartment three blocks from La Spezia Centrale, which made for easy access to the trains. Another benefit of AirBnB was the local who maintained the property. He was there for questions on how to best approach a one-day Cinque Terre galavant. Also, with four of us it was nice to share one apartment with separate bedrooms rather than figure out hotel logistics.
Planning the town sequence for Cinque Terre in one day
The key to efficiently hitting each town of the Cinque Terre in a day is to plan the sequence appropriately. Logic would dictate that you would start at the closest town (Riomaggiore) and work your way towards the farthest (Monterosso). Or, vice versa and start at the farthest and work your way back towards La Spezia.
Train options
I threw that all out the window. The train journeys between each of the five towns is five minutes or less, so the geographical sequencing isn’t really relevant. With that knowledge in mind, I planned the sequence based on getting the more physically demanding parts done earlier in the day. That way, after a long day of 5-land’ing, we’d at least end on a relaxing note.
For trains, there is a one, two or three-day train package you can get here (https://card.parconazionale5terre.it/en/ticketingtreno). We chose the 1-day pass which was 16 Euros each for us. We bought it the morning of, at La Spezia Centrale station. It was a really smooth and fast process. Pretty good deal if you plan on taking a few rides in the day. Even if you don’t think that’s a good deal, the convenience of just having one ticket instead of waiting in line every time is reason enough. Any train going to or from La Spezia/Levanto is a good one for you to jump on. All will stop at each of the five Cinque Terre towns.
Hiking options
For hiking, there are several options between the Cinque Terre towns. This was eventually what set the town-visiting sequence for me. An easy (paved) hike connects the first town, Riomaggiore, to the second, Manarola. Unfortunately for us, the trail was closed for maintenance when we were there. If it had been open, we probably would’ve done a more south-to-north sequence like you’d assume we would from looking at a map.
There is a SO-CALLED easy hike from Corniglia to the fourth town, Vernazza. You’ll see why I capitalized it judgingly in a later paragraph, but I wanted to hike first and get the tough exercise out of the way early in the day. So, Corniglia was our starting point. The plan was then to take the train to Monterosso (5th) for lunch, then back to the first two in no particular order.
Corniglia – “The Third” Cinque Terre town
With my foolproof plan in my head (foreshadowing), we set out from La Spezia Centrale station for Corniglia, town three. We wanted an early start to maximize time and also hike before the afternoon heat wave. 5-10 minutes and we were there. HOWEVER. What they don’t tell you about Corniglia is there is a zig-zagging staircase to get from the train station to the actual town. We could’ve taken a shuttle up the hill, but that’s for wussies. We braved the couple hundred stairs.
Our reward was a really nice view from the top of the staircase while we caught our breath for a few minutes. Corniglia is the highest of the five Cinque Terre towns, and the vista is spectacular. From there, it’s a short walk down the main street to the center of Corniglia. We stopped at a small restaurant, Bistro Margherita, for a quick breakfast since we were still catching our breath from those damn surprise stairs.
Corniglia is probably the smallest town in Cinque Terre, but a good introduction to that charm I mentioned. Small winding streets with old ladies bearing little shopping bags really added to the classic Italian vibe. There is a really nice lookout spot if you walk up the hill via the south road from the bistro (you arrived from the east road). From the lookout you get your first broad look at the Ligurian Sea. After this, you can honestly see the whole town in ~15 minutes. So, quickly after arriving at the lookout spot, we were ready for our hike.
The Corniglia -> Vernazza Hike
Walking up the northern street from the bistro, the road curves to the right. Just beyond the curve is the entrance to the hike towards Vernazza. A key benefit of getting the Cinque Terre train card is that it also includes admission to the hiking trails. No need to stop at the ticket booth unless someone asks you to show your card as you walk past.
And now, this infamous hike from the capitalization in the earlier paragraph. Deemed as an easy hike, the trail stretches 2.2 miles along the picturesque coastline. It was the latter two things but not the first, FYI. There are a lot of steep up and down portions, muddy parts, and tiny pseudo-towns that make you think you’re close. But, you are only 60% of the way there. The Rick Steves book that served as our frugal guide did warn us that this was a bit more physically engaging than the signs and recommendations suggested. We thought the warning was for the geriatric tourists. But, it was hard. A pretty hike yes, but you earn it cardio-wise.
Vernazza – “The Fourth”
Once you exit the forest into a view of Vernazza, you get a perspective of the south side of town. It’s another great spot for pictures.
You make your way down to the center of town via a winding pathway. You sort of feel like you’re walking through peoples’ backyards, but you’re going the right way. Once at the bottom, you spill out into the main street where you see the majority of restaurants and shops (and crowds). Take a left and you’ll make your way down to the small beach.
Since we were gassed from the easy hell hike from hell, we decided to relax for a half hour near the beach. There is a nice gelato shop on the stone walkway to the left as you approach the main plaza. After recovering our leg muscles and joyous moods, we were ready to head to town five, Monterosso al Mare (Monterosso for short). There was a “difficult”-level hike we could have taken but…. nope. Train this time. Hike next time…maybe…
Monterosso – “The Fifth”
Once you get off the train and head towards the water, you are greeted by a narrow strip of street, almost like a boardwalk. This is the “new” section of town that boasts a beach of its own. Monterosso is halved between “new” and “old”, with the new touting various shops and gelato stands. We were more interested in seeing the old town, so we headed south on the main street along the shore. Once through the tunnel that the main street passes through, we were into “old” Monterosso. There is an even longer stretch of beach here and several shoreside restaurants.
Lunch was our priority for Monterosso. Food generally is. We quickly zeroed in on Ristorante Belvedere since it was recommended in the Rick Steves book, and it boasted famous Cinque Terre-style anchovies which we were anxious to try. Personally, this lunch was my favorite meal of the trip. If you find yourself in the old town of Monterosso I’d highly recommend getting the anchovies (and the octopus salad or pesto as a main dish) at Belvedere.
We timed the lunch pretty intelligently around noon. One, because as I’ve mentioned ad nauseam, the hike murdered us. Two, because this was the time of day for peak sun and heat. It was really nice to enjoy our anchovies, octopus and famous Cinque Terre pesto in a shaded view of the ocean during the hottest part of the day.
Break – Naps & Showers
And now, a surprise of Cinque Terre in a day. We had time to go back to the hotel to shower and nap for a little bit after lunch. We were hot and sweaty from the morning, and with La Spezia only a few minutes train ride away, we decided to head back to recuperate before hitting the final two towns. Despite this unplanned detour, we still managed to see them all in a reasonable amount of time.
And herein lies the first mistake due to lack of planning (meticulous indeed). My mom wanted to see the sunset from a boat in the Ligurian Sea, and we were determined to make that happen. Our post-siesta plan was to take the train from La Spezia to Monterosso again, then find a boat there at the dock we saw during lunch. So we boarded the train, walked the boardwalk in Monterosso to the old town again, and headed for the dock. Unfortunately, we learned that the boats stop taking off at 6pm and we had just missed the last one. Had we known this, we wouldn’t have wasted the extra walking time and would’ve gone straight to Manarola and had more time to explore it. 20/20 hindsight, but hopefully reading this prevents a similar situation for you as you plan! Get your boat earlier than 6pm.
Manarola – “The Second”
When I say we managed to “see” all of the towns, Manarola is a good opportunity to share of my definition of “see”. To see Cinque Terre in a day, we did not linger in any one of the towns for more than an hour or two. I fully acknowledge that we didn’t see the towns by many definitions. We didn’t wander the shops or aimlessly stroll through the streets without a destination in mind. To see Cinque Terre in a day you do need to keep it moving. We would’ve loved more time to enjoy the experience at a more leisurely pace. However, this was initially planned as a detour so we had to do our best with the time we had allotted.
Manarola is a good example of this because we basically walked from the train station to the water and back. There was a great photo opportunity as the setting sun lit up Manarola’s buildings, but this was really the only activity here. This would be a regret; that we didn’t get to spend more than maybe 30 minutes in Manarola. That being said, it’s only fair for me to say that Manarola is beautiful at sunset but there’s much more to be explored than we saw! Maybe if the meticulous travel planner in our group had checked the Monterosso boat times we would’ve been able to see more… but whatever.
Riomagiorre – “The First” Cinque Terre town
Last but not least, the closest town to La Spezia, Riomagiorre. The main focus (as with many of my travels) for this town was dinner. Using the Rick Steves book that we’d been relying on as our free guide throughout the day, we had a few recommended restaurants in mind. Here’s where the next set of regrets and lessons came into play.
Similar to what I wrote regarding supply of lodging, the same applies to restaurants for dinner. As the sun sets, everyone is beginning to quiet down from a long day of Cinque Terre exploring and looking for dinner. So, reservations are highly recommended. We tried two or three of Rick Steves’ recommendations as walk-ins before we lucked out. We ended up at our fourth attempt, Trattoria La Grotta. They looked completely full but we hit the jackpot and a family was just leaving as we were arriving. This was lucky because at this time, Riomagiorre’s streets were alive with stragglers doing the same hunt we were. So the timing was perfect and we ended up relieved and full of pasta.
One other thing initially caused a panic but ended up not being a big deal. Make sure to know the last train times. This PDF is a good resource to have saved on your phone to make sure you make the last train. We got a little nervous when we were waiting for more than 10 minutes after dinner to go back to La Spezia. However, the last train from Riomaggiore to La Spezia departed at 11:19pm. So we were good, but could’ve saved our nerves a little bit by having this info preemptively.
Wrap Up
Cinque Terre was incredibly beautiful and picturesque. Ideally we would’ve spent more like 3-4 relaxing days getting to know the towns more intimately (and eating more anchovies, good lord they were good). As a reminder, check out my thoughts on time vs. money when traveling. But, if a day is all you have, this ideally serves as an adequate guide. At the very least, you can avoid the pitfalls that we experienced during our time here. Feel free to email me at andrew@themeticuloustraveler.com if you’d like further detail or if I can provide any clarification. If you make it to Cinque Terre, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
