Hiking in Cinque Terre

After a week in beautiful Tuscany which you can read about here, we took the train north to the five villages of Cinque Terre. Our original plan was to stay in one of the villages or in nearby La Spezia, but our travel agent Pirjo stepped in and suggested we stay in Levanto instead, just north of Cinque Terre. Pirjo found us an apartment in a small square with a bakery in the same building and an ice cream parlour around the corner. A perfect starting point for our trip!

Levanto is a few kilometres north of Cinque Terre, but is linked to the villages by boat, train and hiking trails. You can also head further north towards Genoa if you want to visit a larger city.

Cinque Terre is the name of the five medieval villages of Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore that cling to the hillsides by the water. The villages are all quite inaccessible and it's hard to imagine how it was even possible to build them here, a high-level logistical challenge.

Nowadays there is a train line between the villages with frequent departures so it may be good to buy a pass if you intend to spend a few days here. Our ambition was to hike as much as possible but it is important to keep an eye on the hiking trails. They are heavily used by tourists and as they stretch along the mountain, they are often in poor condition due to weather and wind. When we were here, for example, the trail between Monterosso and Vernazza was closed for maintenance. If you don't want to walk or take the train, you can also go by boat, then you can see the charming villages from the water.

We alternated between walking, travelling by train or boat, although I preferred the walking. It was like a little finish line every time you arrived at a new village to explore. It should be said that the villages are very small and there are sometimes a lot of tourists but it was still nice to stroll around and look at things or stop for a coffee or a bite to eat. Along the way we also found a restaurant that organised wine tastings with local wines. A bit impractical to get the feeling and fill your backpack with wine when you are hiking, but so it can go. In Tuscany we filled the bag with red Chianti wines, but here in Cinque Terre it was white wine that was produced. I can also tell you that it was after this trip that we invested in a wine fridge at home for all the wines we find when we are travelling.

If the villages are small and picturesque, the views from the hiking trails are breathtaking. It's hard to capture on film, but below are some examples.

From Levanto you can also head north. One day we tried to rent a tandem bike to cycle along the old railway line north towards Bonassola. Cycling tandem was really an adventure, not easy to manoeuvre and good communication is required between the two cyclists. Sharp turns are also good if you can avoid them. 🙂 However, the train tunnels were perfect for tandem, straight and wide and soon we arrived in Bonasola where we fell into a small notch right by the beach. But ops, there is a star hanging on the wall. The "little shack" turned out to have a Michelin star and the desserts were prepared by an award-winning chocolatier. Not quite what you expected to find out on the bike ride.

Levanto is really perfectly located for travelling in different directions. The day after a wet pesto course (wet because of too much Limoncino during the course) we took the train to Saint Margherita. Not as cosy as the old villages and considerably more expensive, but if you like it more "fancy pancy" and to look at nice boats and cars, this is a city to visit. From here you can also go on to Portofino where the celebrities hang out. However, we settled for Saint Margherita where we spent a sunny day strolling along the seafront.

A fantastic week in Liguria was now over and we headed back to Pisa where our honeymoon had started two weeks earlier. Italy is really a wonderful country with good food and beautiful nature and soon we hope to be back.