Wanderlines
Aerial view of Vernazza and the Cinque Terre coastline
Italy · Liguria

Cinque Terre

Five villages stacked on cliffs between Genoa and Tuscany, joined by a railway, a path and a boat, with two thousand years of dry-stone terraces above them and a sea the colour of a swimming pool below. Beautiful, tiny, overrun at noon and empty by seven.

Jump to the trailsThe villages
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Overview

Five fishing villages and seven thousand kilometres of wall

From north to south: Monterosso, the biggest, with the only real beaches; Vernazza, the prettiest, round a natural harbour; Corniglia, the odd one, on a cliff a hundred metres above the water with no harbour at all; Manarola, the oldest and the one on the postcards; and Riomaggiore, the liveliest, where the houses tumble down a ravine to a slipway of boats. Behind them rise the terraces, held up by an estimated seven thousand kilometres of dry-stone walls that generations of families built to grow vines and olives on a cliff, and above them, the sanctuaries, one to each village, and the ridge where the high route runs.

The villages became a national park and a World Heritage site in the 1990s and a global phenomenon in the 2010s; now about three million people a year come to a coast that is home to four thousand. The park has responded with rules: a booked, one-way Via dell'Amore, dynamic pricing on the trail cards and the trains that charges more on the busiest days, fines for flip-flops on the paths, and a dedicated shuttle train from March to November. The coastal path itself is fragile, and in autumn 2026 most of it is closed after geological checks, so the walks in this guide lean on the sanctuary and vineyard trails, which are free, open and better anyway.

Two days covers the five villages by train and boat and one good walk. Three adds the high trails and Portovenere. A week in a village, out early and late and on the hill in the middle of the day, is the way to actually like the place.

Manarola's pastel houses on the cliff at sunset
The fiveMonterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore, a few minutes apart by train and a day apart on foot.
Above themThe sanctuaries of Soviore, Reggio, San Bernardino, Volastra and Montenero; the Alta Via ridge path from Portovenere to Levanto.
The bookendsLevanto's beach and the cycle path through the old railway tunnels to the north; Portovenere, Palmaria island and La Spezia to the south.
The waterHop-on boats from late March to early November, the marine reserve for divers and snorkellers, and swimming off the rocks everywhere but Corniglia.
The villages

What to see first

Five villages, two neighbours and the two ways between them. Book the Via dell'Amore before you arrive; everything else is a train ticket.

The seafront promenade of Monterosso al Mare
North · Beaches · Lemons

Monterosso al Mare

The largest village and the only one with sand: the old town of lanes and the striped Gothic church of San Giovanni Battista on one side of the San Cristoforo headland, the Fegina beach and station on the other, joined by a tunnel. The Capuchin convent on the hill has a Crucifixion attributed to Van Dyck and the best view of the village; the 14-metre concrete Giant holds up the rocks at the west end of the beach. Lemon groves climb the slopes behind, celebrated at the lemon festival in mid-May, and the anchovy festival in June fries the village's famous catch on the seafront. Paid lidos on Fegina, free strips between them.

Monterosso in detail →
Vernazza's harbour and colourful houses seen from above
The harbour · The photograph

Vernazza

The one natural harbour of the five, a square of boats and café tables with the church of Santa Margherita d'Antiochia on the rocks beside it and the Doria watchtower of the 15th century above, a couple of euros to climb for the view down. The classic picture is from the coast path ten minutes up towards Monterosso, looking back at the harbour; with that stretch closed, the viewpoint is reachable as far as the ticket barrier. The tiny harbour beach and the rocks behind the breakwater are the swim. In October 2011 a flood buried the main street four metres deep in mud; the rebuilt village shows no sign of it.

Vernazza in detail →
Corniglia's houses perched on their cliff above the Ligurian Sea
The cliff · 382 steps

Corniglia

The village that faces the land: a cluster of houses on a 100-metre promontory, reached from its station by the Lardarina, 382 steps in 33 flights, or the park shuttle bus. Via Fieschi, the one lane, runs from the Gothic church of San Pietro to the Santa Maria terrace hanging over the sea, past Alberto's gelateria with its basil and honey ice cream. The quietest nights, the most central base for the hill trails and the start of the vineyard path to Volastra and Manarola. The rocky cove of Marina di Corniglia, down more steps, is the only swim.

Corniglia in detail →
Aerial view of the colourful houses of Manarola above the sea
The postcard · Sunset

Manarola

The oldest of the five and the one everyone has seen: tower-houses in pink, yellow and ochre piled above a slipway where the boats are winched out of the water. The view is from Punta Bonfiglio, the headland path north of the harbour past the cemetery and the children's playground, where the Nessun Dorma bar fills at sunset. Swimming is off the rocks of the marina, deep and clear, by ladder. Above the village the terraces climb to Volastra, and from early December the hillside becomes the biggest nativity scene in the world, thousands of lights laid out by one man over forty years.

Manarola in detail →
Riomaggiore's harbour with colourful buildings and boats
South · The lively one

Riomaggiore

The southernmost and the busiest after dark, a steep ravine of a main street from the station tunnel down to a harbour the size of a tennis court, where the view from the rocks along Via San Giacomo is the one in the brochures. The castle and the church of San Giovanni Battista sit at the top of the village; the pebbly beach at Fossola is five minutes south when the rockfall fences allow; the sanctuary of Montenero is an hour above with the whole coast to Portovenere below. The dive centre is on the marina and the Via dell'Amore starts at the station.

Riomaggiore in detail →
Houses on a cliff above the sea in the Cinque Terre
Booked slots · One way

The Via dell'Amore

The kilometre of flat, paved path cut into the cliff between Riomaggiore and Manarola in the 1920s, closed by a rockfall in 2012 and reopened in 2024 with booked half-hour slots of 200 people, walked one way only from Riomaggiore to Manarola with your name on the ticket. From about €10 with a Cinque Terre Card, more on its own; open nine to nine in summer and nine to six from late October to late March. The Lovers' Way is twenty minutes of sea on one side and rock on the other, and the only piece of the coast path open in autumn 2026. Details in the trails section.

Via dell'Amore in detail →How booking works →
Aerial view of the church of San Pietro on the rocky point of Portovenere
South · Boat or bus from La Spezia

Portovenere and Palmaria

The sixth village, outside the park but inside the World Heritage site: a wall of tall painted houses along the harbour, the striped Gothic church of San Pietro on the rocky point where a temple of Venus stood, Byron's grotto below it, where the poet is said to have swum off towards Lerici, and the Doria castle above. Shuttle boats cross to Palmaria island every half hour for a few euros, for a three-hour loop walk, the Pozzale beach and lunch at Locanda Lorena. By bus from La Spezia in 30 minutes, or by the hop-on boat from the villages.

Portovenere and Palmaria in detail →Walk the Palmaria loop →
A coastal village beside the sea with boats in its harbour
Late March to early November · €42 day ticket

The boats

The villages were built to be seen from the water, and the Consorzio's hop-on boats from Levanto, Monterosso, Vernazza, Manarola, Riomaggiore, Portovenere and La Spezia show them that way: Manarola and Vernazza from the sea are the two best pictures on the coast. The 2026 day ticket is €42, €28 after two in the afternoon, €15 for children, bought at the quay on the day and not in advance, sometimes cash only; single hops €10 to €20. No stop at Corniglia, which has no harbour, and no boats in rough seas or from early November to late March.

Colourful houses beside the water on the Ligurian coast
North · The beach town

Levanto and the railway tunnels

The town outside the northern gate: a long sandy beach with winter surf, a proper main street, hotels at half the price of the villages and the start of two walks, the Punta Mesco path over the headland to Monterosso and the flat cycle-and-walking path along the old coastal railway to Bonassola and Framura, six kilometres through nine tunnels with windows cut to the sea. Four minutes by train from Monterosso; the right base for a family or a budget.

Levanto in detail →The railway path to Framura →

Also worth your time

La Spezia · Closed Monday

The Museo Lia and the city

Via del Prione · about €8, or a 72-hour museums ticket for €14

The naval city at the end of the line has a small, serious museum of medieval and Renaissance painting, Pontormo to Titian, in a former convent, a naval technical museum, the Castello San Giorgio over the gulf and a farinata tradition at La Pia, baking chickpea flatbread since 1887. The cheapest beds on the coast and eight minutes to Riomaggiore.

Above each village · Free

The five sanctuaries

45 min to 1.5 h up from each village · trails in the next section

Soviore above Monterosso, the oldest Marian sanctuary in Liguria with a bar and a view to Corsica; Reggio above Vernazza under ancient cypresses; San Bernardino above Corniglia; Nostra Signora della Salute at Volastra; and Montenero above Riomaggiore, with the whole coast at its feet. Each a pilgrimage path, a church and a bench in the shade.

The sanctuary trails →
Festivals

Lemons in May, anchovies in June, saints all summer

Monterosso, third weekend of May and a Saturday in June; the villages, June to August

Monterosso's lemon festival dresses the lanes in yellow and the anchovy festival fries the catch on the seafront. Then San Giovanni's candles on the sea at Monterosso on 24 June, Santa Margherita at Vernazza on 20 July, San Lorenzo's fireworks at Manarola on 10 August, the Palio del Golfo rowing race at La Spezia on the first Sunday of August and the Madonna Bianca's torchlit procession at Portovenere on 17 August.

December to January

The Manarola nativity

The hill of the Three Crosses · lit from about 8 December

Mario Andreoli, a railwayman, spent four decades building hundreds of figures from scrap and stringing them across the hillside above his village with kilometres of lights. Switched on each December, it turns the quietest month on the coast into the one with the best evening walk.

Trails & nature

The coast path and its closures, the vineyard route and the ridge

The Cinque Terre is a walking place first. The famous coastal path is the fragile one: the Manarola to Corniglia stretch has been shut since a landslide in 2012, with reopening not expected before about 2028, and the park closed Corniglia to Vernazza to Monterosso on 10 September 2026 for geological checks, with no date for reopening as this guide went online. The sanctuary trails, the vineyard path through Volastra and the high ridge route are free, open and quieter, and they are where the terraces are.

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Walking season: teal = the ideal months, with wildflowers in spring and the grape harvest in autumn; green = fine between the storms, with trails closed after every orange or red weather alert; grey = July and August, hot, shadeless and crowded, when the park warns against midday walking.

A coastal village on a cliff above the sea in the Cinque Terre
Moderate · Cinque Terre Card · Check status

The Sentiero Azzurro: Monterosso to Vernazza to Corniglia

The coastal Blue Path is the walk everyone comes for and the one most often closed. Monterosso to Vernazza is the hardest stretch, four kilometres of stone steps climbing 200 metres through lemon terraces and dropping to the harbour with the famous view; Vernazza to Corniglia is another four, gentler, past the hamlet of Prevo at the path's high point. Both need a Cinque Terre Trekking or Treno card, checked at the barriers, and shoes with soles: flip-flops carry fines of €50 upwards. Both have been closed since 10 September 2026 pending geological inspections, as they were for weeks in autumn 2025, and reopen only when the park says so.

4 + 4 kmtwo stretches
1.5–2 heach
200 mof climbing on each

Look at the park's trail status page the morning you walk. If it is open, start from Vernazza towards Monterosso to keep the climbing early and the view ahead, or leave Monterosso at eight before the heat. If it is closed, the Volastra route below is the better walk anyway.

Full route guide: the Sentiero Azzurro →
Houses on the cliff at Manarola with terraces above
Moderate · Free · Open

Manarola to Volastra to Corniglia, through the vineyards

The replacement for the closed coastal stretch and the best walk on the coast. From Manarola trail 506 climbs 330 metres in stone steps between terraces to the hamlet of Volastra and its 12th-century sanctuary; then trail 586 contours north through the heart of the vineyards, past the monorail tracks that haul the grapes, the dry-stone walls and the Case Pianca farms, with the sea 400 metres below and Corniglia ahead on its rock, before dropping on 587 into the village. Reopened in March 2026 and the one place to understand how this landscape was made.

6–7 kmManarola to Corniglia
2.5–3 hwalking
400 mof ascent

Taste at Cantina Capellini in Volastra on the way, or at the cooperative's cellar at Groppo just above Manarola before you start. Train back from Corniglia's station at the bottom of the 382 steps, or carry on to San Bernardino for the view.

Full route guide: the vineyard path →
Rock formations on a beach under a blue sky on the Levanto coast
Demanding · Free

The Alta Via and Punta Mesco

The red-marked ridge route runs about 35 kilometres from Portovenere to Levanto along the crest above the villages, through holm oak, pine and maquis with the sea on one side and the Apuan Alps on the other, free and almost empty. Most people take a day section: Portovenere to Riomaggiore over Campiglia and the Telegrafo pass, twelve kilometres and 700 metres of climbing with a descent past the Montenero sanctuary; or the northern end, Monterosso to Levanto over Punta Mesco, seven kilometres past the ruined hermitage of Sant'Antonio with all five villages lined up behind you. The whole route is two or three days with nights in the villages, or one for runners.

7–35 kmby section
3–12 h
1,400 mof ascent for the whole route

Carry water; there is none on the ridge. The Portovenere stage starts from sea level and climbs hard in the first hour. Levanto to Bonassola and Framura on the old railway, six flat kilometres through nine tunnels, is the recovery day, with bikes for hire in Levanto.

The Alta Via and Punta Mesco →Levanto to Framura →

Easy · 20–30 min · Book

The Via dell'Amore

Riomaggiore to Manarola · half-hour slots, 200 people · one way

A kilometre of paved cliff path at sea level, flat enough for pushchairs, booked online with your name on the ticket; from about €10 with a Cinque Terre Card. Open 9am to 9pm from late March to late October and to 6pm in winter. The only open piece of the coastal path in autumn 2026.

Booking and the walk →
Moderate · 45 min to 1.5 h each

The sanctuary trails

Free · one above each village

Monterosso to Soviore, 470 metres up an old mule track with a bar at the top; Vernazza to Reggio under cypresses in an hour; Corniglia to San Bernardino through vines; Riomaggiore to Montenero, 340 metres up for the finest panorama in the park, with a park shuttle bus on some days for the way down.

The five sanctuary paths →
Nature notes

Dolphins, peregrines and wild boar

Pelagos Sanctuary offshore; cliffs; terraces

These waters are part of the Pelagos whale sanctuary: bottlenose and striped dolphins are common and fin and sperm whales feed offshore, with summer watching trips from La Spezia and Portovenere. Peregrines nest on the cliffs, wall lizards own every stone wall, and wild boar, the park's enemy, root up the terraces at night; the cattle grids on the paths are for them.

Trails close after every orange or red weather alert from the Liguria civil protection, most often from October to December, and reopen only after inspection; fire-risk decrees can limit access in summer. Check the park's trail status page and the alert level on the morning you walk, wear shoes with grip, and carry a litre of water for every two hours. The park has charged rescue costs to walkers in flip-flops.
Scuba

Gorgonian walls off Punta Mesco, and a reason to keep your mask in the bag

The Cinque Terre marine reserve gives decent Mediterranean diving, sea fans, groupers and barracuda in summer, from one small centre in Riomaggiore. It is pleasant and not world-class, and the snorkelling off the rocks of every village is the more honest reason to bring a mask.

A diver descending through blue water
Open Water to Advanced · 18–33 mMid-May to early October

The Cinque Terre marine reserve from Riomaggiore

The protected area runs from Punta Mesco to Punta di Montenero, with a no-take zone at Mesco where only the authorised centre may dive. Its walls drop through posidonia meadows to forests of red and yellow gorgonians at 25 to 35 metres, with dusky groupers back in numbers, moray eels, octopus, nudibranchs for the macro photographers and shoals of barracuda hanging in the blue from late summer. The Scoglio Ferale, a rock off Riomaggiore, is the easy second dive; Punta di Montenero has the clearest water. Visibility is ten to twenty metres and falls after rain.

18–33 mdepth
Open Waterand up
10–20 mvisibility
14–25°Cwater

The dive centre on Riomaggiore's marina runs two-dive mornings for about €144, single guided dives from about €50 to €70 plus rental, try-dives and two-hour snorkel tours, daily from mid-May to the first week of October. Portovenere's centres add the walls of the Tino and Tinetto islets and wrecks in the Gulf of La Spezia. The Christ of the Abyss statue is not here but at San Fruttuoso near Portofino, two hours west, where the Ligurian diving is better.

A bottlenose dolphin in the water
Pelagos

Dolphins

Bottlenose and striped, most summer boat days.

Dolphins leaping out of the sea
Offshore

Whale watching

Fin and sperm whales, from La Spezia in summer.

Portofino seen from the sea
Two hours west

Portofino's reserve

The Christ of the Abyss and the better dives.

Good food

Anchovies three ways, pesto on trofie and a cone of fried fish on the harbour wall

Ligurian cooking is poor and perfect: anchovies, basil, chickpeas, olive oil and whatever the terraces grow. The villages have no grand restaurants and no Bib Gourmand of their own; what they have is a handful of very good seafood kitchens, trattorias up the back lanes and takeaway cones eaten on the rocks. We list the best tables, then the canon.

Anchovies with garlic, butter and herbs on a cutting board
Eat this

The anchovies of Monterosso

Caught by lamplight on spring and summer nights and protected by name, the acciughe come fried in a heap, marinated raw in lemon, stuffed and baked, or salted in jars to take home for €10 to €15. A plate is €12 to €16 and every menu on the coast has them; Monterosso's June festival fries them by the thousand on the seafront. Then muscoli ripieni, the stuffed mussels of La Spezia, and a fritto misto of the morning's small fish.

A plate of pasta with pesto and shaved cheese
Eat this

Pesto, trofie and pansoti

Pesto alla genovese, basil from the coast pounded with pine nuts, garlic, Parmigiano, pecorino and oil, belongs on trofie, the little twisted pasta, or trenette, with potatoes and green beans cooked in the same water, €12 to €16. Pansoti are herb-filled ravioli in walnut sauce; the torta di verdura is a chard pie sold by the slice; mesciua is La Spezia's soup of beans, chickpeas and grain. Lemons from Monterosso end up in limoncino.

A rustic Italian antipasto platter with bread and cheese
Eat this

Focaccia, farinata and the cone

Breakfast is a slab of focaccia, plain or with onion, for €2 to €4 from the bakery; farinata, the chickpea pancake from a wood oven, is best in La Spezia at La Pia, since 1887. The street lunch is a paper cone of fried anchovies, squid and prawns for €8 to €14 from the takeaways on Riomaggiore's and Manarola's main streets, eaten on the harbour wall. Alberto's gelato in Corniglia, basil or Corniglia honey, is the afternoon.

The best tables

Five kitchens worth booking, in villages where every restaurant has twenty tables and a queue in season. Michelin lists no Bib Gourmand in the five villages, Levanto or Portovenere; the nearest is Il Cardinale in Sarzana, twenty minutes by train from La Spezia, new in the 2026 guide.

The top table

Miky

Via Fegina 104, Monterosso · dinner, book · La Cantina di Miky next door for the casual version

The Miky family's creative seafood by the Fegina beach, pasta baked in paper and salt-crusted fish, a long Ligurian wine list and the most polished service on the coast. The one serious dinner of the five villages, with the Cantina for a cheaper, livelier night.

Mains €30–45; tasting €80–100 · $$$$
In the tower

Belforte

Vernazza, built into the Doria castle rocks · lunch and dinner, book the terrace

Tables on terraces cut into the watchtower above Vernazza's harbour, the sunset across the water and stuffed mussels, anchovies and lobster pasta that live up to it. The most romantic room on the coast; the terrace needs booking days ahead.

€25–40 mains · $$$
Up the hill

Trattoria dal Billy

Via Rollandi, high in Manarola · lunch and dinner, book

At the top of the village, a terrace over the roofs and the sea and a procession of seafood antipasti, raw and cooked, that is the meal; house wine, limoncino and a bill that has grown with the fame but stayed fair.

€50–70 · $$$
Riomaggiore marina

Dau Cila

Via San Giacomo, by the harbour · lunch and dinner

A wine bar and restaurant at the water's edge with fish crudo, the day's catch and the deepest Ligurian wine list in the park, Sciacchetrà by the glass included, at prices the 2026 reviews still call honest.

€40–60 · $$$
The harbour classic

Gambero Rosso

Piazza Marconi, Vernazza · lunch and dinner

Decades on the harbour square: stuffed anchovies, seafood pasta and a view of the boats, at prices that reflect the location. The long lunch after the morning boat.

€45–65 · $$$

Where locals eat

Riomaggiore · Takeaway

Il Pescato Cucinato and the fry shops

Via Colombo, the main street · lunch and dinner

Cones of fried anchovies, calamari and prawns from the window for €8 to €14, carried down to the rocks of the marina. The lunch of the whole coast, done best here and in Manarola's main street.

€8–14 · $
Monterosso · Family room

Osteria Il Cantuccio

Old town · dinner

A small family osteria in the old village for anchovies, trofie al pesto and the day's fish without the beachfront mark-up. Book; a dozen tables.

€30–45 · $$
Corniglia

Il Pirun and La Posada

Via Fieschi; by the station steps

Il Pirun pours wine from the spouted pitcher it is named for and serves Ligurian classics upstairs; La Posada has a garden terrace over the sea near the top of the Lardarina. The two reasons to eat in the quiet village.

€25–45 · $$
Portovenere and Palmaria

Locanda Lorena and the harbour front

Palmaria island, boat for diners; Portovenere quay

Lorena's fish restaurant with rooms faces Portovenere across the strait and sends its own boat for diners; on the Portovenere quay the trattorias fry the fish and the Byron grotto is a hundred metres away.

€40–70 · $$$
La Spezia · Since 1887

La Pia Centenaria

Via Magenta · lunch and early evening

Farinata from the wood oven by the slice, focaccia and a glass of Vermentino at a counter that has not changed its idea in 140 years. The cheapest good lunch in the province, eight minutes by train from Riomaggiore.

€5–12 · $
Sarzana · Bib Gourmand

Il Cardinale Vino e Cucina

Sarzana, 20 min by train from La Spezia

The province's one Bib, new in the 2026 guide: modern Ligurian cooking and a serious wine list in the handsome market town of the Magra valley. A reason to take the train the wrong way one evening.

€35–55 · $$
Evenings

Sunset at Nessun Dorma, a glass on the breakwater and bed by midnight

There is no nightlife here in the city sense, and that is the point. The evening is a sunset drink on a headland, dinner, one more glass on a harbour wall and the last train home. Riomaggiore stays up latest, Monterosso has the most bars, and La Spezia has an actual night out eight minutes away.

Manarola · Sunset

Nessun Dorma

Punta Bonfiglio path · no table bookings, queue from 6pm · closed in deep winter

An open-air bar on the headland facing the village, which turns gold and then pink as the sun drops behind it: bruschetta, cold cuts, cocktails and its own Sciacchetrà, with a queue in summer that is part of the ritual. Pesto classes by day. The one evening everyone on the coast has in common.

Riomaggiore · Latest

A Piè de Mà, Bar Centrale and the marina

At the start of the Via dell'Amore; Via Colombo · to 1am

A Piè de Mà is a café bar carved into the rock by the station with a terrace over the water, the aperitivo spot; Bar Centrale on the main street has been the late bar for a generation, with live music some nights, and O'Netto keeps going towards one. The marina rocks with a bottle from the shop is the free version.

Vernazza and Monterosso

The Blue Marlin, the harbour square and Monterosso's bars

Via Roma, Vernazza; Piazza Marconi; Monterosso old town and Fegina

The Blue Marlin is Vernazza's late bar with occasional live music; the harbour square's café tables and the breakwater at dusk are the rest. Monterosso has the most choice: the pub-style Fast Bar on Via Roma, Enoteca da Eliseo's tiny wine room on Piazza Matteotti for Sciacchetrà by the glass, and the Fegina promenade bars.

The city option

La Spezia and Levanto

Via del Prione and the Morin promenade; Levanto seafront · last trains around midnight

La Spezia's aperitivo bars around Via del Prione and the seafront gardens are a proper evening for anyone who finds the villages too quiet, with trains back until about midnight. Levanto's beach bars and summer street events are the lighter version at the other end of the line.

Glasses of wine on a wooden terrace
6pm

The first glass

Vermentino, somewhere with a view.

Manarola in the evening light
Punta Bonfiglio

The sunset

Queue, then watch the village turn pink.

A small coastal town at sundown
Last train

Home

Around midnight. Nobody minds.

Wine

Heroic vines on the cliffs, a monorail for the grapes and a sweet wine worth the climb

Wine is why the terraces exist. The Cinque Terre's white is saline and herbal and its passito, Sciacchetrà, is one of Italy's great sweet wines, made in tiny quantities by growers who harvest on cliffs, haul the grapes up by monorail and in one case carry them out by boat.

A glass and a bottle of white wine

What to drink here

Cinque Terre DOC is a dry white of Bosco, the local grape, with Albarola and Vermentino, grown on the terraces of all five villages; dry, salty and herbal, €15 to €30 a bottle and €5 to €8 a glass, made for anchovies. Sciacchetrà is the same grapes dried on racks for weeks until the sugar concentrates, pressed no earlier than October, aged at least a year and sold in half bottles for €35 to €50 from the cooperative and €60 to €90 and more from the small growers: amber, honeyed, dried-apricot wine for cheese or a biscuit, a Slow Food presidium and the thing to carry home. Vermentino dei Colli di Luni, from the hills behind La Spezia towards Tuscany, is the region's other serious white.

The Cantina Cinque Terre cooperative at Groppo, just above Manarola on the Volastra path, is the one walk-in cellar, with tastings from €15 to €25 and two hundred member growers behind it. Possa in Riomaggiore is Heydi Bonanini's heroic estate, vines on cliffs reachable only by boat and a Sciacchetrà aged in terracotta, by appointment; Cantina Capellini in Volastra tastes four wines ending in the sweet one on a terrace over Manarola; Buranco at Monterosso is an agriturismo with vineyard lunches; Cheo in Vernazza is a two-person estate with tastings in the village. The little single-rail monorails you see climbing every terrace are how the grapes come down.

Groppo, above Manarola · Walk-in

Cantina Cinque Terre

On the road to Volastra · high season 10am–6pm · €15–25

The cooperative's cellar and shop, the one place to taste the whole appellation without an appointment, on the way up the vineyard trail. Sciacchetrà, the DOC whites and the Costa de Sera and Costa de Campu crus.

By appointment

Possa, Capellini, Buranco and Cheo

Riomaggiore; Volastra; Monterosso; Vernazza

The small growers: Possa's cliff vines and amphora Sciacchetrà, Capellini's terrace tasting over Manarola, Buranco's vineyard lunch in Monterosso's valley and Cheo's village tastings in Vernazza. Book days ahead in season; many close from November to March.

September to October

The heroic harvest

On every terrace · the monorails run

The vendemmia eroica, when the grapes are cut on the cliffs and carried down by monorail and basket, is the best time to walk the vineyard trails. Monterosso's Enoteca da Eliseo and Riomaggiore's Dau Cila pour the results by the glass all year.

Practical notes

Before you go

Getting there

Pisa airport is the nearest: the PisaMover to Pisa Centrale, then a train to La Spezia in an hour or so, about €10, and the villages are two hours from landing. Genoa's airport connects by bus to the city stations and a train to Levanto or Monterosso in 60 to 90 minutes; Florence is three hours via Pisa, Milan three to three and a half by direct Intercity to Levanto or La Spezia. Everything runs on the Genoa to La Spezia coastal line, and all five villages have stations, Corniglia's at the bottom of 382 steps. Do not bring a car: the villages are car-free, the car parks are tiny and €25 to €30 a day, and the roads are narrow; leave it at La Spezia or Levanto.

Getting around

The Cinque Terre Express shuttle trains run between Levanto and La Spezia from mid-March to 1 November, every 15 to 30 minutes, with the Cinque Terre fare priced by day: €5 on green days, €8 on yellow, about €10 on the red days of peak weekends and holidays, valid 75 minutes for one trip; outside the season the normal regional fare is €2.50 to €5. The Cinque Terre Card bundles the paid trails, the shuttle buses and the museums for about €7.50 a day on green days, and the Treno version adds unlimited trains for €22 to €35 a day in high season depending on the colour, from about €17 in winter. Boats run from late March to early November, €42 for a day, not bookable ahead. Between villages, walk when the paths are open.

Rules and bookings

  • Via dell'Amore: booked half-hour slot, one way, named ticket; coastal path: Cinque Terre Card at the barriers, check the status page, closed in autumn 2026.
  • Footwear: flip-flops and smooth soles are banned on the trails, with fines from €50; rescue can be charged.
  • Tourist tax: each village sets its own, about €1 to €5 per person per night, usually in cash at the room.
  • Cruise days: La Spezia expects about 815,000 cruise passengers in 2026; check the port schedule and avoid the villages between ten and four when two or more ships are in.

Seasons

  • Late Apr–early Jun, mid-Sep–Oct: the best weeks, 18–25°C, wildflowers then harvest, sea at 20–23°C into October.
  • Jul–Aug: hot, crowded and expensive; walk before nine, swim after four; Italian holidays peak around 15 August.
  • Nov–Mar: storms and trail closures, boats stopped, many restaurants shut in January and February, the Manarola lights from 8 December and the villages to yourself.
  • Easter, 25 April, 1 May and 2 June are the busiest days of the year.

Money and accessibility

Euros; cards are widely taken, but carry cash for boat kiosks, focaccia shops, tourist tax and small bars, and note that the few cash machines empty on peak weekends and Corniglia has barely one. Steps are everywhere: Monterosso's Fegina promenade is the flattest village, Riomaggiore and Manarola have gentle tunnels from station to main street, Corniglia has the shuttle bus but lanes with steps, and the Via dell'Amore is flat and paved.

Where to base

Monterosso for hotels, beaches, families and the flattest streets; Vernazza for the harbour and the evenings, with few rooms and steep stairs; Corniglia for quiet and the hill trails; Manarola for the view and the sunset; Riomaggiore for the most rooms after Monterosso, the restaurants and the bars. Levanto for a cheaper, bigger town with a beach four minutes from Monterosso; La Spezia for the cheapest beds, city life and eight minutes to Riomaggiore; Portovenere for beauty, reached only by bus or boat.

Photography

Photo credits

Photographs on this page are by independent photographers published on Pexels under the free Pexels licence. Click a title to open the original.

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