Day Trip: Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre - Manarola, Riomaggiore, and Monterosso al Mare

Cinque Terre, literally meaning 5 lands, is made up of the following centuries old towns. In order from South to North: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso Al Mare. As well as being a National Park it is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site, so if you have a trip to Italy in the works, don't forget to add these 5 gems to the list! I'm sure I don't have to remind you. 

My friends and I booked a beautiful sunny Saturday to visit this string of centuries old villages with SmartTrips. They took us to three of the five villages. We rode a bus from Florence to Manarola and spent an hour exploring the village and its magnificent vistas, then hopped on the train to Riomaggiore and soaked up the scenery there as well. Finally, we hopped on the train one last time and headed to Monterosso al Mare. 

Here we spent time relaxing on the beach, pretending to be mermaids out on the rocks, and sipping on drink buckets. To find the drink buckets there is a place to the left when you come out of the train station called Bar Colpe Di Timone. There you can get what I would call a spiked smoothie in a large bucket. Very very delicious, and the perfect beach drink. The beach at Monterosso al Mare is split into the public beach and private beach (where you can pay 10 euro for a chair). We opted for the public beach, but if you have 10 euros to spare I would def pay for a chair because the public beach can get quite crowded. Also better photo ops with a cute chair and umbrella. (The same goes for the beaches in Positano in the Amalfi Coast.)

Pesto originated in Cinque Terre! So I decided to try anything pesto flavored possible. In Riomaggiore I got a slice of pesto pizza from a delicious pizza place called Mamma Mia. In Manarola I tried a type of calzone thing stuffed with pesto. Both were freaking amazing.  

While my friends and I chose to visit with SmartTrip, I had originally hoped to take the train from Florence and spend the night in a hostel or Airbnb in one of the towns. Unfortunately, planning with a group isn't always the easiest and I didn't give myself enough time to find a place for the night. Try and solidify night plans at least two weeks in advance if this is something that you want to do. I'm sure seeing the sunset from there would have been beyond beautiful.

Ciao for now, 

Aleksandra