Cinque Terre, Italy is life’s hidden gem. For real. This place is so magnificent and my absolute favorite place I have ever traveled to. It has so much to offer you! Cinque Terre is located on the Italian Riviera and means, “five lands” in Italian. The five coastal villages are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. There are a lot of things that I wanted to do and see, but my time was so limited. I actually thought this would be my least favorite part of my trip. It was kind of just added on as we were planning our itinerary. Boy, was I wrong! We stayed two nights and I truly wish we had more time, but we used our time wisely and made the most out of it.
We were in the South of France prior to coming to Italy. We took the train from Nice, France to Riomaggiore, Italy. We had to do 2 train transfers before getting to Riomaggiore. This is why I suggest packing light and only bringing only a carry on if you are going to be hopping and bopping all over the place like I was. It is no joke when you are running around, transferring trains and whatnot. Sometimes there will be elevators, but not all of the time. It gets real hot and sticky guys if you travel in late summer, so definitely always have some water on hand too! Tara tip* Many places in Europe have drinkable water fountains where you can fill up water bottles. It is a good idea to bring a small bottle with you, if you want to save some extra money.
I would recommend staying in Riomaggiore if you had the option to! I believe that it had the best overall of everything compared to the other 4 towns. Honestly, each village is such a gem, it is truly hard to pick one! The good news is that they are SO close to one another by train so it’s very easy to see all 5 during your stay regardless. We chose to stay in an Airbnb, which turned out to be out of this world. I felt just like a local and like I actually lived in Riomaggiore myself! It was unbelievable really. I would stay here again any day of the week and highly recommend looking into an Airbnb here. (I will link the house and short video clip of the AirBNB we stayed in at the bottom of the page).
Riomaggiore is such an incredible sight, as you can see. It is almost out of a movie with all of the locals, authentic shops, and houses. It is the first stop out of all of the Cinque Terre towns and is a great starting point. Major plus is that Cinque Terre has the best food, hands down. I’ll get more into the food later. Even if it was the worst meals, I don’t think that would even have an impact on my thoughts about Cinque Terre! Really! The colors are breathtaking, the views are amazing, and the experience staying in the town of Riomaggiore was totally incredible.
After we met up with our AirBNB host, we took lots of pictures and soaked in the town of Riomaggiore. We walked around a bunch and did some window shopping and window eating. If you go here and don’t try out on some of these delicious foods you are missing out on life. My favorite food from this area is the potato rosemary focaccia (although it is so hard to choose between that or the pesto, both equally amazing). You would think it was somewhat of a strange combo but it makes complete sense once you try it!
It really doesn’t get much better in life than that piece of focaccia. Yum. Since I am on the topic of food I will list below the absolute must try foods in Cinque Terre 🙂
Must Try Foods in Cinque Terre:
*Potato and rosemary focaccia (or any other focaccia bread for that matter, but this is by far the best combo and most enjoyed) Best focaccia I found was in Riomaggiore at a cute little pink focaccia shop on the main street ❤
*Pesto ANYTHING. Period. Done.
*Pesto pasta-dinner @Vernazza (order the local pasta and/or gnocchi) | Pesto sandwich-lunch or app @Corniglia (order the pesto and stracciatella cheese sandwich. Completely out of this world and costs 5€. We literally just ordered one sandwich as an appetizer with our Aeperol Spritz and then quickly ordered a second one. That good.
*Seafood Cups. These little things are ridiculously fresh and fun to eat! You can mix and match to cater to what types of seafood you like most. Don’t make the mistake I did and go to Mama Mia instead of Tutti Fritti when you are in Riomaggiore. You must go to Tutti Fritti! It is so fresh and such great quality seafood. I should have taken a picture f the place and the seafood cup, but completely missed the mark on that one. You get the picture though!
We also walked down by the water to check out the scene. There were so many people laying out on the rocks, jumping in the water, taking a swim, shopping, walking around, taking pictures and just simply enjoying life. I will say this, there are A LOT of tourists in the towns so if you want to just get away from it all and be left alone, this is not the place for you. I am sure you could tell that already, but just in case! With that being said, there are many peaceful places and experiences you can have in these towns and that is the beauty of Cinque Terre ❤
After walking around for awhile, we decided to go to a local wine shop and grab a few items for our AirBNB. We picked up some local white wine and snacks and headed back to our house to relax and get ready for dinner in town. We stayed in Riomaggiore and had drinks and dinner at a lovely restaurant called, Bar Vini (Bar e Vini a Pie de Ma), overlooking the water. It was quite picturesque!
After dinner and drinks, we walked back to our AirBNB and settled in for the night. It was quite an adventure already and we only just explored one village. I was super excited for day two because we were heading to all of the other towns in Cinque Terre.
Goodnight Italia!
Tara Tips*
To Stay
AirBNB | Stay in an AirBNB to get a better idea of what life is really like in Cinque Terre! Don’t skimp on the balcony and/or ocean view!
Riomaggiore | This is an excellent town to stay in and a great starting point!
*Our AirBNB link below 🙂
To Do
Walk | Walk around Riomaggiore and take in all of the sights. It’s a pretty spectacular place. Everything is SO colorful and full of life here!
Beach Day | Hang out on the enormous rocks by the sea just like the locals :). Take your beach towel down there and enjoy life!
Train Hop! | Cinque Terre means “five lands.” You can visit all 5 coastal villages, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso by train, each within about 5 minutes apart. Get the Cinque Terre all day train pass if you are going to visit multiple villages
To Eat | Drink
Taste all of the foods from this area! The focaccia bread, the pesto, the seafood cups, it’s all so tasty. Cinque Terre is the best food I have ever had in my entire life!
Bar Vini | Riomaggiore | Visit for dinner and/or drinks overlooking the Italian Riviera. Make a reservation if you would like to have dinner at the very top because they only have few seatings available. The bar area below is equally impressive. We ended up having our drinks and apps on the lower level. It was a beautiful night ❤
Cinque Terre ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
Tara Correll | Travel & Lifestyle 