Cinque Terre

The five villages of Cinque Terre

During our stay in Milan, we had made a decision to go to Cinque Terre that has become one of the hot destinations in Italy. There is so much written about these villages on the cliffs that I will just let you decide with the various photographs, how beautiful this region is.  The people are friendly and very very hard working.  The locals have adapted to the terrain and have terraced the hills to grow grape vines for wine.  The villages are clean. Plenty of cafe's and food to suit every palate.  Cinque Terre is made up of five small coastal villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso located in the Italian region of Liguria.  We also visited Portofino and Portovenere.  Portofino was made famous with the love song sung by Engelbert Humperdinck.  And we had to go there. We also got a seat on a floating restaurant in Portofino.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Since our trip was in September of 2016, it was high tourist season and the trains that went from one village to another were packed.  We took the train from Milano Centrale early morning to La Spezia.  We had given ourselves only 2 days for this trip.  So we checked into our hotel in La Spezia and left our overnight bag there and headed to the train station to catch the next train to Cinque Terre.  You can buy a day pass and get off between the villages.  You have plenty of time to wander around and take pictures, sit at cafe's have a drink or lunch or just a snack.  For the adventurous, there are hiking trails along the coast.  The water is blue and you will find people swimming in many places.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The villages have special kind of Italian pasta called "Trofie" that is made locally and served at restaurants which is an absolute must to try.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Every corner has a gelateria, and flavors that are exquisite to the palate. And restaurants on the water with colorful umbrellas that adds to the charm of this region.

Many people hike the five villages.  The trails are designed for hikers and the local tourist office will give the instructions on which areas are easy to hike and the one's that can be a bit strenuous.  So depending on your fitness you can decide how much you want to hike.  Or like us take the train.  Cinque Terre was on my bucket list for a long time and finally, I had made it there.  Everyone loves Vernazza, which we did too.  But Corniglia was also one of our favorite. High up on the cliff where not many tourists stop as it does not have a waterfront.  On the second day, we took the ferry as we were told that the villages look spectacular from the ocean.  We had lovely weather and the ferry ride gave us a different perspective of how the locals live in this region.  After the ferry ride, we took a bus to Portovenere and were pleased to have made the extra effort to get there.  This quick side trip was nice, and we were happy to get back to home base in Milan leaving the tourists behind and back to being a local in Italy.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.