Cinque Terre: A Gentle Guide to Italy's Five Villages

Almost every photograph of the Cinque Terre is taken from halfway up a hill. That is the problem with its reputation: the five villages have become a hiking destination, a place you are supposed to earn. Walk the clifftop trail end to end, the story goes, or you haven't really been.

We would like to offer a different idea. The Cinque Terre was built by people carrying things up and down these slopes for a thousand years, and they would have thought the modern urge to walk it for pleasure very strange. The villages are linked by a train that takes about five minutes between stops and by small ferries that cross the bays in half an hour. You can sit on a harbour wall with a glass of cold white wine and see everything the walkers see, from below, which is where the villages were meant to be seen from.

This guide is written for that kind of visit: one village a day, a boat when the sea is calm, an afternoon in the shade. Slower, cheaper on the knees, and — we think — more faithful to the place.

A little history

The five villages — Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore — grew up along about 15 kilometres of steep Ligurian coast between Genoa and Tuscany, from roughly the 11th century onwards, under the Republic of Genoa. Monterosso and Vernazza came first; the others followed on whatever narrow ravines could hold a church, a street and a few boats.

What the inhabitants did next is the real monument. Having almost no flat ground, they cut the hillsides into terraces held up by dry stone walls, built and rebuilt by hand over many centuries, and planted them with vines and olives. Nothing here was pretty by design. The houses are tall and narrow and painted in different colours because there was no room to build sideways, and a fisherman wanted to recognise his own from out at sea.

After prosperous centuries the coast slipped into poverty, and the villages stayed genuinely remote until the railway from Genoa to La Spezia arrived around 1870 — and even then they remained hard to reach. In the 16th century they had built watchtowers against raids from the sea; in the 20th they lost their young people to the shipyards and arsenal of La Spezia, and many terraces went back to scrub.

Tourism turned that around from the 1970s. UNESCO inscribed the villages, the coast and the terraced hillsides as a World Heritage Site in 1997, and they sit within the Cinque Terre National Park. The park was created to protect a landscape made by human hands rather than an untouched wilderness — a rare and rather moving idea.

One more date matters, because you will see its traces. On 25 October 2011 a violent storm sent mud and water down the valleys, killing nine people and wrecking much of Vernazza and Monterosso. Both have been rebuilt with great care, but the hills here move, and trail closures after heavy rain are a normal part of life.

Terraces climbing from Manarola towards the hamlet of Volastra, mostly vineyards, built up over many centuries.

What to see

Treat the five as one long village with a train running through it. Each has a character, and none needs more than half a day.

Manarola

The most photographed of the five, and our favourite base. Houses in ochre, pink and faded red pile up on both sides of a rock cleft that ends in a tiny harbour where boats are winched onto the slipway. The village is pedestrian-only and its one main street slopes gently down to the water — easy walking, though the lanes off it rise in steps.

The classic view comes from the level path that leads out past the cemetery to the Punta Bonfiglio terrace. It is a short, mostly flat stroll from the church square with benches at the end, and it is where almost every postcard of the Cinque Terre was taken. Go about an hour before sunset.

In December and early January, Manarola's hillside carries an enormous illuminated nativity scene, with hundreds of figures lit across the terraces above the village. Winter visitors should check the current dates before travelling.

Vernazza

Many people's choice as the prettiest of the five, and hard to argue with: a small natural harbour, a piazza that opens straight onto the water, and the remains of a castle tower on the point. The square is flat and full of cafés; the tower involves steps. Arrive by boat if you can — the approach is lovely.

Monterosso al Mare

The largest, the flattest and the only one with a proper sandy beach, with sunbed sections and a long seafront promenade. If walking is difficult, or you want to actually swim, this is the village to spend a whole day in. Its anchovies are famous along the whole Ligurian coast.

Riomaggiore and the Via dell'Amore

Riomaggiore tumbles down a ravine to a photogenic boat ramp and is the closest village to La Spezia. From here the Via dell'Amore, the short clifftop walkway to Manarola, reopened in 2024 after many years closed for rockfall works. It is the one famous Cinque Terre path that is genuinely level — paved, railed and cut into the cliff — which makes it the only stretch of the coastal trail we recommend without hesitation. Numbers are limited, so you book a time slot in advance; access is covered by the Cinque Terre Card.

Corniglia

The odd one out: perched on a headland about a hundred metres above the sea, with no harbour, so the ferries pass it by. From the station you either climb the Lardarina staircase of 377 steps or take the little shuttle bus up. Take the bus. The reward is the quietest of the five villages and a view straight down the coast.

Manarola, in the protected area of the Cinque Terre in Liguria.

Seeing it from the water

If you do one special thing here, make it the ferry. Boats run along the coast through the warmer months, calling at Monterosso, Vernazza, Manarola, Riomaggiore and onward to Portovenere and La Spezia, with Levanto at the northern end. Corniglia, having no port, is the only village they cannot serve.

From the sea you finally understand the place: the villages appear as thin bright wedges in the cliffs, the terraces rise behind them in step after step, and you grasp how little flat land there ever was. A hop-on, hop-off day ticket lets you cross a bay, have lunch, and come back on a later boat.

Two honest cautions. The boats are cancelled when the sea is rough, which happens often outside summer, so keep the train as your fallback. And boarding means a gangway with a step or two and sometimes a swaying deck — crew are helpful, but it is not step-free. If balance is a worry, ask for a hand and take your time; nobody will hurry you.

A passenger ferry approaching Manarola along the Cinque Terre coast.

A day trip nearby

Portovenere, just south of the five villages at the tip of its own peninsula, is the natural excursion and the ferries go there directly — roughly half an hour from Riomaggiore, or up to about an hour and a half from Monterosso. It is included in the same UNESCO listing as the Cinque Terre and, to our eyes, is the handsomest town on this coast.

It is also kinder to walk. A wide flat quayside lined with tall coloured houses and restaurants runs the length of the harbour, and you can enjoy the whole town from it. The black-and-white striped church of San Pietro stands dramatically on the rocks at the far point; reaching it means a gradual climb and some steps, but the view back along the cliffs is worth the effort if you are up to it.

If the sea is too rough for boats, Portovenere can also be reached by bus from La Spezia in around half an hour.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

• Stay in one village and commute. Manarola or Monterosso are the gentlest bases. Monterosso is the flattest overall and best if stairs are a real problem; Manarola is more beautiful but its side lanes climb steeply.
• Ask about stairs before you book a room. Many guesthouses are in tall old houses with no lift, and some are reached by long flights of public steps from the main street. Email and ask directly how many steps there are from the street to the door. This is the single most useful question you can ask about the Cinque Terre.
• Cars are not the answer. The village centres are pedestrian-only, parking sits above the villages on the hillside, and the approach roads are narrow hairpins. Arrive by train if you possibly can.
• The train is the lift. The Cinque Terre Express runs between La Spezia and Levanto roughly every 20 minutes in season, about five minutes between villages. Stations are small but some platforms involve stairs or underpasses — allow extra minutes and don't rush for a train, as another comes soon.
• A Cinque Terre Card can earn its keep. The version with train travel covers the local trains, the shuttle buses up to the hilltop hamlets and the park paths, including the Via dell'Amore time slot. The shuttle buses are the quiet secret here: they lift you to Corniglia, Volastra, Groppo and San Bernardino without a single step.
• Skip the Sentiero Azzurro. The famous coastal trail between Vernazza, Corniglia and Monterosso is narrow, uneven, exposed and relentlessly up and down, with sections frequently closed after landslides. The Via dell'Amore gives you the same sensation on the flat.
• Mind the heat and the midday boats. July and August bring highs around 29 °C with very little shade on the paths, and the villages are at their most crowded between about 10am and 4pm when the day trippers and cruise groups arrive. Mornings and late afternoons are yours.
• Toilets and benches are scarce in the smaller villages. Use the ones at stations and cafés when you see them.
• Wear real shoes. Even a flat stroll here crosses polished cobbles and slipways that are slick when damp.

The parking area outside Manarola — the village itself is closed to cars.

What to eat

Ligurian cooking is herb-led, light and built on olive oil rather than butter, and it suits warm weather and older appetites rather well.

Pesto was invented in this region, and here it is served not on spaghetti but on trofie, little hand-rolled twists, or flat trenette, often with potato and green beans tossed in — the traditional way, and better than it sounds. Focaccia, dimpled and salty, is sold by weight in bakeries and makes an excellent light lunch on a bench by the harbour.

From the sea come the anchovies of Monterosso, salted, marinated, fried in batter or stuffed; they have their own village festival. Elsewhere look for stuffed mussels, fried mixed seafood, and torta di riso, a savoury rice tart sold in slices.

The white wine of these terraces, Cinque Terre DOC, is dry, mineral and made largely from Bosco, Albarola and Vermentino grapes grown on the walls above your head. The treasure, though, is Sciacchetrà: the same grapes dried before pressing to make a sweet amber wine, strong and scarce, poured in small glasses at the end of a meal. Glasses are expensive and worth it once.

Getting there

Our verdict

The Cinque Terre is over-visited, and we still send people here without hesitation — just not in August, and not with a trail map.

Go in September. Take the train in from La Spezia, settle into one village, and let the days be small: the bakery in the morning, a boat across one bay, lunch where the fishing boats are winched up the ramp, and the walk out past the cemetery in Manarola when the light goes gold and the day trippers have gone back to their coaches. The villages change completely after six o'clock. They become quiet, domestic places where people water their plants and call to each other across the lane.

If stairs are difficult, be strategic rather than discouraged: Monterosso for flat ground, the Via dell'Amore for the one level cliff path, the shuttle bus instead of 377 steps, the ferry for the view everyone else works so hard to earn. Ask about steps before you book your room and you will have no unpleasant surprises.

The thousand-year-old walls above the villages were built by people who had no choice about the climb. You do. Use it.

Manarola's village, harbour and terraced hillside, Cinque Terre, Liguria.

“Five villages that chose the cliff over the plain, and have been painting themselves bright ever since so the boats could find their way home.”

Photo credits

• Cinque Terre from Manarola: СССР, CC BY-SA 2.5 ca via Wikimedia Commons
• Terraces Manarola Volastra Cinque Terre Sep23 A7C 06874: This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves . Feel free to use my photos, but p, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Manarola, Cinque Terre Liguria, Italia: PlacePictures, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Trei Fre VG3744 Ship Cinque Terre Sep23 A7C 06850: This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves . Feel free to use my photos, but p, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Parking Manarola Cinque Terre Sep23 A7C 06885: This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves . Feel free to use my photos, but p, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Manarola NW Cinque Terre Sep23 A7C 07233: This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves . Feel free to use my photos, but p, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons