Cinque Terre

This Wednesday afternoon, me and my roommates took a late afternoon train out to Cinque Terre National Park in northern Italy. The National Park has five small coastal towns and four trails that guide hikers from one town to the next. The towns are infamous for their brightly colored, cliffside houses. I am obsessed with this National Park and would go back in a heart beat. Although if I ever return, I would make sure all four of the trails are open because the one trail we hiked was amazing. Not only was it a good workout, it had beautiful views. 

We got in to the first town, Riomaggiore, pretty late on Wednesday night. After getting the keys from our budget hostel, we set off to the listed apartment address. The apartment happened to be right in the main port overlooking the rowboats and ocean below. I was in awe of how perfect the situation was. 

Early the next morning we headed out to hike the towns with open trails. To keep this post short and sweet I will give you a little overview of the towns and their trails.


Riomaggiore
Small, quaint, and picturesque port town that we slept in before our day of hiking. Probably the smallest of all five but one of my favorites aesthetically.​

Trail: Closed due to bad weather and potential landslides. Supposed takes 20 minutes to walk.

Monarella
Small, pretty, and simple. Nothing too unique about it, but it is very picturesque.

Trail: Closed due to bad weather and potential landslides. Supposed takes 90 minutes to walk.

Corniglia
A cliffside town with a small historical center. 

Trail: 75 min of walking up stairs, through the woods, past hillside vineyards, and spectacular views of the beautiful, blue ocean. Definitely worth breaking a sweat! 

Vernazza
In comparison to the others, Vernazza is a large and beautiful port town. This town was my favorite for activities. The food was amazing, especially the Batti Batti fried seafood stand and the focaccia bread shop. There was a cave underpass to a rocky beach, a watchtower people can climb, shopping, and a large stone jetty people hung out on. 

Trail: At this point, it had just started pouring rain and we did not hike the last trail to the final town.

Monterossa
The most resort-like town. This town has a huge beach lined with shops and restaurants. A little further down there is a large historical center with another beach, lots of shops, and plenty of places to eat. I would recommend friends stay in this town if they were to spend more than one day in the National Park because they would have easy access to the beach. There are also views of all five of the towns from this one.

Watch my video blog from Cinque Terre: