After my 9 day trip to New York, I flew from JFK to Rome, Italy. From the airport, I took the train, Trenitalia, from the airport to the seaside town of La Spezia. It was my dream to visit the fishing villages of Cinque Terre and La Spezia is a cute little town that is connected to all of the villages by train.
(CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM)
At the train station in La Spezia, I met my friend, Lisa for the start of our Italian travel adventures. It is amazing to think-I was coming from New York City and she had been in Florence, Italy. And yet, we managed to catch our separate trains and end up together as planned!!!
We decided to stay in La Spezia because all of our goggling suggested that La Spezia was cheaper and had more accommodations available. The 5 villages are of different sizes with different amenities and the accommodations can be hit or miss.
We stayed in an Air BnB which was really cute and centrally located. The town La Spezia was darling in and of itself.
As exhausted as we were, we still managed to walk around, eat and drink the first of many Aperol Spritzes! In the mornings, we went to one of the local cafes and had cappuccinos and pastry to start to the day.
Walking back to our Air BnB after spending the day in the villages was a beautiful sight!
THE VILLAGES
We were able to hit all of the villages by train. Usually, you can walk from one village to the next but a couple of the trails were closed for repair.
Cinque Terre is a very popular tourist destination which is why I would not go during the high tourist season. The crowds would definitely ruin the charm of each village. We went at the right time (September) and were treated to beautiful weather and got to enjoy each place fully.
MONTEROSSO
This was our first travel stop and I fell in love with the town not long after we got off of the train. It was scenic and gorgeous.
I plan to return here in the future and would like to stay in this village. This is one of the larger villages but again accommodations tend to be small and pricey. It’s definitely worth a night or two though.
MANAROLA
What can I say??? Another gorgeous location with good food, drink and scenery.
RIOMAGGIORE
We spent a little more time here. I hate to keep repeating myself but the beauty was stunning. One night we attended an event called Bachyard where we got to watch the sunset while the host played Bach on his grand piano and were fed delicious homemade food and wine. We met some lovely travelers from Ireland and the UK and it was a fun, celebratory night.
VERNAZZA
Another incredibly beautiful location! We decided to do one of the available hikes, going from Vernazza to Corniglia. Unfortunately, neither Lisa nor I can apparently read an Italian map or understand the map symbols. What we thought would be a 90 minute easy hike was actually a 5 hour extremely difficult hike!! The map said EE which we thought meant extra easy but in fact means Expert Expert!! It was all uphill, with extremely uneven terrain and stairs. We had no water or food with us. We did meet a very nice woman on the trail who we shared a beer with once we made it to the next village.
And yes, it was still beautiful!
Before the hike though, we managed to relax next to the water and have some delicious gelato! This is another village I could see staying in for a night or two!
CORNIGLIA
This town was the destination of our hike. It is one of the smaller towns so once we got there it was pretty easy to get around. We definitely spent some time sitting and drinking for a spell. It’s really great that the train stops at all of the villages so it was quite close to get the train once we had regained our footing.
We spent 3 full days exploring the villages which was a good amount of time to see all of them. La Spezia itself is a darling town and I wouldn’t mind spending some time there and exploring more there as well.
In the future, I would like to do a boat ride so that I can see all of the villages from the water. I can’t imagine the scenery would be anything less than spectacular.
And now, it’s time for our week at the villa in Citta della Pieve. Time to pick up the rental car and drive down the autostrada to the villa!! Stay tuned!
Any questions? Post in the comments.
