Five Villages, One Coastline, Zero Regrets: A Day in the Cinque Terre

Somewhere between the third and fourth village, sweaty from a staircase I hadn't planned for and slightly sunburned, I remember thinking: this is objectively too much walking for one day. And then I turned a corner, the sea opened up between two cliffs, and I forgot the complaint entirely. That's the Cinque Terre in a nutshell — it wears you out and wins you over in the same breath.

Here's how the day actually went, village by village.

Monterosso: The One with Sand (and It Knows It)

Monterosso al Mare is the odd one out, and it doesn't apologize for it. While the other four villages cling to bare cliffs, Monterosso shows up with an actual sandy beach, rows of colorful umbrellas, and — as a result — the most tourists of the five. I didn't mind. After a morning of trains and stairs, twenty minutes with my feet in the water felt earned.

What I didn't expect was learning that this quiet beach town is the birthplace of Eugenio Montale, a Nobel Prize-winning poet who wrote about these exact hills and cliffs. Looking out at the water, it suddenly made sense why his poetry apparently leans so heavily on landscape — when your hometown looks like this, it's hard not to.

Vernazza: The Postcard You've Already Seen

I recognized Vernazza before I'd even arrived — that little harbor ringed by pastel houses stacked over the water is one of those images that circulates everywhere, on posters, on Pinterest boards, on the cover of guidebooks I never bought. Seeing it in person didn't disappoint the way overhyped places sometimes do. If anything, it was better, mostly because you can actually feel the fishing-village pulse underneath the tourism.

I learned later that Vernazza was almost completely destroyed by a flood in 2011 — buried under mud and debris — and rebuilt by hand, house by house, by the people who lived there. Standing in that same harbor, freshly painted and full of life, it's hard to imagine it any other way.

Corniglia: The Only One Without a Beach (On Purpose)

Corniglia is the Cinque Terre's introvert. It's the only village that doesn't touch the sea directly — instead, it sits on a promontory a hundred meters up, wrapped in terraced vineyards on three sides. Getting there means climbing the Lardarina, a staircase with 33 switchbacks, unless you take the shuttle and arrive with your dignity and lung capacity intact. I chose the stairs. I regretted it for about five minutes and then didn't think about it again.

Because it's harder to reach, Corniglia felt noticeably calmer than the other villages — fewer souvenir shops, more actual residents going about actual days. I sat with a glass of the local white wine and watched someone's laundry dry in the wind, which felt like the most authentic five minutes of the whole trip.

Manarola: Sunset, and Everyone Fighting for the Same Rock

By late afternoon we reached Manarola, and it became instantly clear why this village owns Instagram. The cliffs here catch the sunset in pink and orange in a way that borders on unfair to the other four villages. I joined the small crowd of photographers all perched on the same two or three rocks, phone out like everyone else, and got the shot I'd been half-planning all day.

Later I found out that every Christmas, a local hillside gets covered in a nativity scene with over 300 illuminated figures — a project one retiree started as a hobby in the 1960s and that's apparently grown into one of the largest of its kind in the world. I like imagining Manarola glowing like that in December, long after the summer crowds are gone.

Riomaggiore: Where the Day Started, and Somehow Also Where It Felt Complete

We'd actually passed through Riomaggiore first that morning, but it's the village that stuck with me most on the way home. Its tower-houses stack on top of each other up the narrow valley in that unmistakable "layered" silhouette that's basically become the symbol of the whole region. The tiny harbor, boats pulled up on the ramp, had street artists set up at almost every angle — apparently painting this exact view is a full-time occupation for some of them.

Someone told me the houses were built narrow on purpose, partly to block the strong libeccio winds and partly, allegedly, to dodge taxes based on street-facing width. I have no idea if that's true. I choose to believe it anyway.

Worth Every Staircase

Five villages, one long day, more stairs than I want to count — and somehow it never felt like too much. Each village had a completely different personality, which is the real trick of the Cinque Terre: it never repeats itself, even though every village technically offers "cliffs and colorful houses."

Skip the Train Schedules, Keep the Views

Getting between all five villages usually means juggling trains, tickets, and timetables. If you'd rather spend your energy on sunsets than schedules, our private transfer and guided day trip handles the logistics so you can just show up and wander.

[Book Your Private Transfer →]

Curious about the rest of Tuscany? Read about Cortona, Montepulciano & Pienza · Monteriggioni, Siena & San Gimignano · Pisa & Lucca