What a young couple can do while in the Cinque Terre
Are you going to the Cinque Terre with your sweetheart or a friend? A young couple on vacation in the Cinque Terre shared their impressions with us. Their story of how they planned their holiday can be a useful example from which you can draw some interesting ideas for your trip to the Cinque Terre. Here is their story.
A young couple in the Cinque Terre
We wanted to remember this holiday for a long time. Such beautiful places must be seen without being in a hurry. This is why we dedicated four days just to the Cinque Terre. Only after that we went to visit other cities in Liguria.
Day 1: Vernazza
We made Vernazza our base, because it is the most romantic village! We wanted to have wonderful memories of the Cinque Terre. We were very lucky with the hotel and had a comfortable room with a view to the sea, and what a view! Description of the hotel.
Once arrived in Vernazza and got settled in at the hotel, we immediately went out for a stroll. We visited the Doria Castle and other monuments in the village. We decided to save on lunch and got a pizza takeaway in the local restaurant and ate it at the beach in Vernazza, sitting on the rocks. It cost us less than 20 euros for two! For dinner we went to "La Torre", a bar restaurant in the high part of Vernazza. From there you have a view over the village and along the whole coast as far as Punta Mesco. The atmosphere is very peaceful and you can watch the sunset while sipping a glass of wine. Our aim was to try all the local delicacies and we did!
Day 2: Walking trails, Monterosso, Manarola, Corniglia
We decided to walk to Monterosso along the Sentiero Azzurro (Blue trail) and enjoy the opportunity to see the countryside. It was recommended that we take the route that passes two shrines, but we decided to save our strength and we chose the shorter one. At the entrance to the trail we bought the Cinque Terre Card, otherwise we would not have been able to walk the short trail.
We walked around Monterosso and took the train to Manarola. We wanted to return to Vernazza on foot. After carefully studying all the walking trails, we chose the road through Volastra. But the ascent of 1200 steps to reach the village scared us a little, so we took the bus (the cost was included in the Cinque Terre Card) which we easily found in the main street. Then we went to Corniglia. The track from Volastra does not present any major difficulties and passes through the vineyards, so as we walked we had the pleasure of the view and found very few people along the way. You don’t meet crowds of tourists on the short routes. We walked in Corniglia and went further, this time on the Blue trail, and we didn’t waste the ticket we’d bought in the morning! We had an enjoyable day!
Day 3: Portovenere and the island of Palmaria
In the morning we took the ferry to Portovenere. This little village is very close to the Cinque Terre. The landscapes which you can enjoy from the water are breathtaking! To reach Portovenere we purchased an unlimited daily ticket for the ferry (41 euro in 2024). Once we arrived in Portovenere we immediately checked the timetable for the excursions to the three islands, included in the ticket price (these excursions are very sporadic). After the excursion and a visit to the villages, we left for the island of Palmaria. It is very easy to get there and boats leave about every 20 minutes. You can take beautiful photographs from Palmaria and here too there are very few people so you can really relax.
On the way back we stopped for about an hour in Riomaggiore.
Day 4: a seaside vacation
We had managed to visit all the villages of the Cinque Terre and there was still time to spend a day at the beach. So we spent half a day at the small beach of Vernazza and the remainder of the day on the sand beach in Monterosso.