We didn’t have school on Thursday, June 2nd because of the La Festa della Repubblica Italiana which is a national holiday celebrating the Italian republic. We decided to take advantage of this and make it a long weekend vacation in Cinque Terre!
One thing that we didn’t realize was that because of this national holiday, everyone in the country was traveling. Hostels were completely booked, and hotel and airbnb rates were much higher. Our planning process took extra long trying to find affordable and convienent housing.
Planning Our Trip
My roommates and I all sat down for a good three hours doing research of things to do, places to eat, and where to stay. We organized a document of links to places and compared their prices and location as our priorities. The key to finding good deals is the thoroughness in your research, deals won’t be on the first Google search result.
Once we agreed on a place to book, one person was in charge of booking it and the rest would venmo them. Another person was in charge of organizing the train tickets for everyone there and back. Since we are planning two big trips, this allowed us to assign responsibilities to everyone and take turns making the down payments.
I created an excel document to organize the prices we were paying in euros, convert it into dollars, and calculate how much each person owes each other. This was essential to our planning process and maintaining a budget.
Here you can see that for the two trips, we prepaid for housing, train rides home and back (not between towns of Cinque Terre) and a boat excursion. Our trip to Lake Como in the coming weeks doesn’t have any excursions planned yet.
*This document does not include all of our weekend expenses.*
All in all, $250 per person for housing for three nights, transportation, and a private boat tour was a great price!
We ended up deciding to stay in Sestri Levante, a small beach town 40 minutes outside of Cinque Terre. It was much more affordable but easily accessible by train for day trips. We ended up absolutely loving Sestri Levante because of it’s beautiful beach and cute little town. It was the first time since being abroad where we were around only Italians rather than a million international tourists. It was so refreshing to be in an authentic area where no one spoke English.
Our AirBnB we decided on was absolutely perfect because it was just down the street from the train station and a 15 minute walk to the beach. There was even a little grocery store across the street with the kindest owner who helped us pick out ingredients to make local cuisine.
Our First Day in Sestri Levante
On Thursday, we took the train from Florence to Pisa, then to Spezia, then to Sestri Levante. The train ride was not bad at all except the quick turnover time between trains really stressed me out. We had less than four minutes to get from one platform to the next. Once we got there, we spend our day at the Sestri Levante beach. All of us just laid out and read our books. It was the most relaxed I’ve felt since being in Italy.
For dinner, we ate at La Cantina dei Vinaccier Ballerini. Since pesto originated in this region, I had the traditional pesto dish with green beans and potatoes. I would have never thought to put potatoes in my pasta but it tasted delicious.
After dinner we walked down to the pier which had stairs to an incredible lookout spot. You were also able to walk down a set of stairs to sit on the rocks near the ocean. It was perfect to watch the sunset.
Day One In Cinque Terre
Manarola
Our goal was to explore all five towns within two days. The first day we started in Manarola because it is smaller. We began with coffee and pastries at Bar Enrica. My friends loved the nutella pancakes there. Manarola is one of the towns with the iconic view that you see on the postcards, so we did an easy walk up to the lookout point. The bay looked so fun to swim in and had so many people jumping off rocks. We wished we got in but since it was the start of our day we weren’t ready to swim just yet.
Riomaggiore
Then, we took a five minute train ride to Riomaggiore which is the second biggest town. We wanted to spend a good amount of time and lunch here because of its size and popularity. We didn’t really know what to look for or where to start so we just began walking inland.
Emily really wanted to just start taking random turns and see where we end up so we ended up veering left. We headed up some steep steep stairs and boy was I huffing and puffing. I was really doubtful of Emily’s idea, I’m not going to lie. Thank god for the light rain cooling me down on those stairs. It looked like we were headed to a parking lot. When we got up there, it was in fact a parking lot, but one with incredible views of the island.
We kept walking through the parking lot and ended up at this wonderful view point that was bustling with people. It had a beautiful cross overlooking the ocean, a small church and a castle. After later research, it turns out we had stumbled upon the iconic Castello di Riomaggiore. I’m pretty proud of us for that.
We continued to wander, admiring lemon trees, cuddly cats, and the ocean breeze. The path led us to Chiesa di S. Giovanni Battista which was actually the first church we had been into in Italy! It was beautiful and so peaceful.
My favorite thing about walking through Riomaggiore was that although it was a lot of stairs, it was like a fun maze in between houses on the cliff. Each turn had something exciting and incredible views. We found viewpoint after viewpoint. It was the first time abroad that I actually intentionally got lost and enjoyed it. We didn’t feel rushed, we didn’t have anything we needed to see, we just got to purely enjoy it.
We didn’t swim here either, but the easy access to the ocean was very appetizing. I think that Manarola’s beach was better though.
We ate lunch on the edge of the cliff at La Conchiglia and the views were incredible! First, we split a large bruschetta appetizer, then I ordered a panini which I LOVED. They had tons of fun drinks but they were super strong so be aware of that haha. Oh, and they had the sweetest dog that roamed the restaurant and napped by our feet. I already want to go back.
Corniglia
I was pretty tired after wandering around Riomaggiore and that drink from lunch made me need a nap. Our goal was to get to Corniglia and head straight to the beach and rest rather than explore. The only problem is, the town was built on top of the cliff and did not start at the coast line or near the train station. Once we got off the train, we had to climb 382 stairs to reach the town. I was not happy. When we reached the top I was very dehydrated and felt sick.
We had to walk through the town and then descend another 400 stairs to reach the beach. I couldn’t tell if I was going to puke or pass out first. My friends are such fast walkers but my tiny little legs couldn’t do it, not to mention all the breaks I had to take. My legs were so shaky, I was really worried I wouldn’t make it. After a slow descent, I did make it to the coast but decided to just sit on the edge with my feet in the water because my body couldn’t physically handle swimming. The water was bright turquoise and the beach was a super cool hidden cove. It wasn’t crowded at all, probably because it was so hard to get to.
After enjoying the beach, we had the dreadful climb back up. And then back down. I honestly hated Corniglia and will never go back. The stairs and physical pain were simply not worth it haha. I’m proud of myself for pushing through it though.
Day Two in Cinque Terre
Vernazza
After such an exhausting day yesterday, we slept in before attacking day two. Thank God we did. We had a quick lunch in Vernazza at a place called Lunch Box right by the train station where you can customize sandwiches. There was nothing too special about it but we enjoyed them. Since I’ve been comparing the beaches at all of the towns, I’ll say that this one was pretty busy but did have a great area to wade into the water.
We really wanted to do the hike from Monterosso to Vernazza but realized that we wanted Monterosso to be our final destination so we did the hike backwards. Supposedly it is easier this way, but I still had a very hard time. There were so many uneven stone stairs with large heights between each step. My knee went past my hips as I stepped up.
Once again, I learned how out of shape I was and almost maxed out my heart rate, reaching 190 BPM. This is when I realized I really needed to slow down. I took several breaks where I would monitor my heart rate and wouldn’t begin walking again until it had dropped to 130 BPM. This began my strategy of walking by heart rate and never letting myself go above 170 BPM again. I felt so much better once I paid more attention to my body instead of walking at my friend’s pace.
Once the hike flattened out to an incline rather than stairs, it was much more enjoyable. The views were spectacular. This hike is absolutely worth it, but don’t let the website mislead you. While it is only 2 miles, so much of it is stairs and the fact that it is categorized as a “simple” hike is out right wrong. It left many tourists unprepared. We passed an old woman with a cane who could barely descend the stairs, a teenager completely unconscious from dehydration on a rock, and people in platform sandals and swimsuits. If you are going to do this hike, come prepared.
Monterosso
Once we finished the hike, we ran for the Mediterranean! There is no better reward than swimming in the refreshing clear water. Not only did we swim, we laid out on the beach and read our books.
In the evening, we had a private sunset boat tour. The tour took us to all five towns, showed us caves to swim in, had free wine and beer, and provided focaccia and pesto to snack on. I had the time of my life on this boat. It is a bucket list item for sure and something I will never forget.
I highly recommend our company Cinque Terre Sea Tours, we had a great tour guide and when they messed up our reservation we were able to negotiate a great deal on the tour. These mistakes happen frequently when traveling so it is super important to go with the flow but also ask for a discount and you will receive it! Sometimes it is okay to be a “Karen” if you are kind about it.
Tip: Pack a towel, sunglasses, sweater because it is windy, and dramamine 🙂
We finished off the night with an ocean view dinner at Ristorante Belvedere! It is a bit more on the fancy side but it wasn’t a big deal.
Cinque Terre challenged me more than I could have imagined but the reward was oh so amazing. I have never traveled to a place that offered both beach and mountains and I loved it. Although I hated Corniglia because I felt so sick, I am glad that we went to all five towns. I feel like I truly experienced it all, and yet would still love to go back.
