So Cinque Terre (pronounced Chinka-Terra) is 5 towns on the coast of Italy. It literally translates to Five Towns, but I never knew this until we were there and wonded why a bunch of places had signs for "5 Tere" and why they would use the English 5 instead of their own Italian 5 until I realised that they were - 5 in Italian was Cinque, but its pronounciation threw me off as I'd always thought it was said "Sinka" not "Chinka" (you know, like from the song "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" from The Offspring). So, 5 towns, and they are all linked by various pathways or trails. There are two towns which border Cinque Terre, being La Spezia and Levanto which although considered gateways to Cinque Terre are not considered part of Cinque Terre; and there are a few hill towns in between the 5 main towns which equally are not considered part of Cinque Terre. The towns are all a bit different, but all postcard perfect - one of the attractions for both of us to go there. It became a key feature of our time in Italy, and also would become our last Italian destination for our holiday. We had allowed what we thought was the minimum amount of time to both trek the towns and also relax here - almost a seemingly conflicting set of requirements, and yes more time was preferred but with trying to squeeze everything in already, time was not on our side; and the other aspect was Cinque Terre was not a cheap place to be. However we figured out a way that made it suited our requirements and needs, and budget - and we were very much looking forward to it!
Getting to Cinque Terre from Florence wasn't too hard. We caught a regional train from Florence to La Spezia, which took almost 2 hours and from there we caught a train the short distance from La Spezia to Manarola - literally the 2nd stop on the line, the first being Riomaggiore. It was then just a matter of walking through the tunnel from the station into Manarola, and then finding our accommodation - conveniently on the other side of the nearby square (which sat atop the train track tunnel!).
Being the area it is, Cinque Terre isn't exactly cheap to stay in. We looked at staying in La Spezia or somewhere else close to Cinque Terre, but Sasha rightly argued that in order to best experience Cinque Terre we should be staying in Cinque Terre. So we looked at all the accommodation options, our budget narrowed it down to 2 places in Corniglia and 1 in Manarola. The Manarola was the dearer of them all (not that there was much in it) - but by far the easier to get to, and Manarola was the prettiest town of them all and is the signature Cinque Terre location. So we chose Manarola.
Our accommodation was not a disappointment. We had a large cool room, close to the train station and close to the main harbourfront. It was very well appointed, very comfortable and had its own ensuite. It proved to be a great base to stay, and well worth the price! It proved to be rather warm during our visit, so to have a naturally cool room (partly nestled in the back of the hill I think) was very much appreciated.
Cinque Terre, apart from being 5 coastal towns that happen to be picturesque, is best known for having coastal walkways between them. Nominally the best, and easiest of the paths between each of the 5 towns (so 4 in all) you have to pay to access; while there are a few free, but harder and longer, paths up the hill. What isn't very apparent and well publicised is two of the 4 paid paths - the paths between Corniglia and Manarola, and Manarola and Riomaggiore - are currently closed and have been for some time due to erosion and storm damage. Like closed for years except most people don't know this because they don't make this fact readily known - if you look for it, you'll find the information but its not readily apparent. Thanks to Matt and Ellen discovering this and forewarning us about it, we knew and were prepared accordingly.
We had come up with a plan - trek 2 of the paths one day while we were there, and trek the other 2 the following day as Sasha really liked the idea of doing all of the 4 paths between the 5 villages. By doing the two free paths on one day and the two paid for paths on the next, we would be able to get away with just buying a single day path-and-transport pass rather than the more expensive 2 day pass. So the first day was the free day - with the first path being the one from Manarola, where we were staying to Corniglia. This was by far the longest of the paths we did - about 2.5 hours in total, because we in essence had to do 2 paths. The first was from Manarola up the steep sides of the coastal hills to the hilltop town of Volastra, which was rather scenic but fairly hard going (and the unmanned lemonade stand part way along was most welcome!). We reached Volastra just short of an hour later, and from there the path to Corniglia largely was flat, following the hill line through vineyards and forested sections before a rather steep descent with many steps down into Corniglia.
As mentioned the paid-for path between Riomaggiore and Manarola (known as the "Romantic Route") was closed due to erosion, but there was the free path over the hill. After a look around Riomaggiore (was nice but didn't seem to have too much going on), we started making our way to the beginning of the hill path. We had difficulty finding it and then we did - but the entrance was barriered with what appeared to be at first glance a gate, but on closer inspection it was a wire sprung mattress base complete with a sign saying the path is closed. Surely not? We were told that the path was open. We could see some people descending the path down the hill, so we waited until they got to the gated entrance and watched them scale around it, and then asked if they had seen any other signs to say the path was closed. They hadn't, they said the path was a little bit rough but definitely safely walkable. We found an alternative way down to the path through a side stream cover rather than scale the bed base, and then set off.
The whole walk only took us an hour, but it was very steeply uphill, and then very steeply downhill and was quite the workout. As we'd been told, the path was indeed a bit rough in places - occasionally missing a chunk out of a step, or partly overgrown. But we did it, and found a sign at the Manarola end saying the path was closed for a while hidden in the grass beside the trail - with no real other sign that the path was closed. We did stop a family with 2 small kids from going any further as they started to attempt the path - it wasn't going to be suitable for them. But we had done it!
When not walking the paths between the Cinque Terre, our time was mostly spent relaxing in Manarola - which mostly consisted of swimming in the harbour, usually post-walk to cool off. We swam in the harbour three times, it was a very pleasant and popular place to swim - but neither of us attempted to jump off the tall rock into the harbour, though we did swim in and out of the harbour and right up to the waterfall that comes out right below the town into the harbour. In the evenings, 2 out of the 3 nights we watched darkness fall on Manarola, just staring at the view of the town!
A surprise to us was some food complimentary breakfast-type supplies supplied by our accommodation, which was well received by us! Lunches were had in Corniglia, at a place called Pan e Vin where we had an amazing Bruschetta accompanied by local wine (white for Sasha, red for me) - at the end I went to pay by card but couldn't as the electricity to the shop and the nearby shops had gone out, but luckily we had cash! We also had lunch in Vernazza at a place called Lunch Box when we realised most places would probably be shut by the time we got to Monterosso, but we had a great Foccacia here each plus a smoothie made up of real blended fruits and vegetables.
We were in Cinque Terre for 3 nights, and for the first 2 of those we had picnics overlooking the town from the main vantage points in Manarola. For the first night, we decided we'd get some wine and olives from a nearby supermarket in the town (our accommodation had a corkscrew, so no barrier on the choice of wine this time!) and get some food from the various food vendors which lined the main street by the waterfront. Turns out most of these closed up or stopped making most of their food after 6pm, so we got some foccacia bread from the Pizza place which was no longer making pizza (but only selling it by the slice, which was pricey) and we got some chips and calamari rings from another restaurant which had some takeaway items. It threatened to rain, and did so very lightly for a bit but we had eaten up by then! We watched darkness fall on Manarola before heading back to our accommodation.
Aiming for something very much like the night before for the next night, we discovered that even before 6pm a lot of the places in Manarola stopped making the various food that they offer. We'd thought of getting a Pizza from the other Pizza place, only to find they were shut; and the other Pizza place apparently wasn't making pizza anymore, but did offer to make us a Margherita Pizza in the size that they would make in order to sell the individual slices if we agreed to buy the whole Pizza. Was a bit pricey but we agreed to it, and Sasha managed to pull off a coup when she managed to get the man at the Supermarket to agree to sell a bottle of refrigerated Sparkling Wine for the unrefrigerated price. It unfortunately started raining a bit when we went to have our picnic, and we ended up in a semi-covered area above the popular viewpoint restaurant that we (and I think others) had originally assumed was an upper area of the Restaurant but it seems it was not, it was just part of the park. This area provided enough protection from the intermittent rain and allowed us to have our picnic, with a nice view of the city as well!
As for the last night for dinner - we were so full from lunch and the afternoon bruschetta appetiser from the place in Monterosso where we'd had Aperol Spritz & Sparkling Wine cocktails that we didn't need dinner, and by then the weather was gross - we didn't much feel like venturing out into it anyway. By the way - at the cocktail place, Sasha got to pose with a massive Sparking Wine and massive Aperol Spritz glass! Unfortunately ours that we drank were normal sized.
Last but not least, an Italian beer or two were had down by the waterside in Manarola each evening after swimming - was a nice way to relax after the swim while waiting to dry off! For the record they were mostly Peroni's in the 660ml bottles.
Summing Up
If I were to pick a favourite Cinque Terre town, it would be Manarola - this might be a bit unfair because we did stay there, and also spent the most time in general there, but it is very pretty and also was very lovely. In 2nd place would be Corniglia, the town we also considered staying in - despite being the smallest of the 5, and the only one not to be served by the ferry (because it has no harbour being higher up on the hillside) it does have a charm of its own and we had an enjoyable time there. I would then go Vernazza in 3rd, Monterosso in 4th with Riomaggiore in 5th place in my subjective list. But I would also place all of them ahead of Amalfi; but probably put Positano ahead of the 4th and 5th place Cinque Terre towns. Which naturally leads to a conclusion for me on the Amalfi Coast vs Cinque Terre question - I would choose Cinque Terre over the Amalfi Coast, it feels less over-touristed, there seems to be more to do, its visually more interesting overall and certainly did not seem as expensive as the Amalfi area.
So this was our last bite out of Italy, and a really good one it was too. I would say my two favourite places in Italy were visited this trip, and they both bookended our Italy time - Venice, and Cinque Terre. For a country I didn't visit a lot while resident in Europe, I very much like Italy and would rate a lot of the places I have visited there quite highly in general. My first visit to Italy did not give me the best impression of the place, the 2nd was really a token visit just across the border while riding the Bernina Express, the 3rd really showed me that there are parts of Italy that are indeed very lovely and this last visit really showed off the country. There is more of Italy to explore at some stage - the Bari/Brindisi area, as well as Sardinia rate highly on where I would like to visit in Italy sometime in the future. That's aside from repeat visits to places already been. Venice, I'd revisit quite happily; Lake Como & Bergamo, I'd also be happy to do more of if ever given the opportunity. I feel like maybe I have done most of Rome, and the same with Florence but I would not begrudge going back to those cities. Pisa, Milan, Pompeii, and the Amalfi Coast - I feel like I have done all I have needed to in those places and I'm not sure I'll ever make it back to those. Which leaves lastly, Cinque Terre. I'm almost inclined to offer an opinion that I enjoyed it so much that I don't want to go back - it might taint the memory and we're hardly going to be able to do more there than we already did. On the other hand, it is very pretty and it would be a shame to not revisit it just because out of fear of spoiling memories. I will for the time being reserve judgement on the matter of a Cinque Terre revisit - we will see what transpires in the future!
But after 2 enjoyable weeks of coursing around Italy, it was time to carry on!