Thriving 30, Volume 10: Everything you need to know about Cinque Terre
If you are doing Italy tour, you must visit Cinque Terre. I honestly wished I stayed here longer. Cinque Terre is definitely a nice break from the fast paced cities of Rome, Venice, and Florence. Cinque Terre is on coastal region of Italy. The next time I come to Cinque Terre, I will book a hotel because everything here is quite affordable.
To do: Hike! In my table below there are hiking tips, but my tip is hike from the top and go down. The highest city in Cinque Terre is Monterosso, so hike from Monterosso to Vernazza, and that will be a 1:45-2:00 hours hike that has hills and will be challenging. There are two routes, one in red/white and the other is blue/white. Red/white signals that it is a harder trail. If you are ambitious, you can hike from Monterosso to Vernazza, and then Cornelia, and that will be about 4-5 hour hike. Below I will list the cities from highest to lowest and a quick summary:
1. Monterosso: There’s a lot to do here since it might the biggest cities of Cinque Terre. 2 beaches, a public and a private beach. There is a really good calamari stand right by the train station. Don’t be fooled by the Mama Mia stand by Riomagiorre, it is only popular because of the name but the stand in Montorosso by the train is much better.
2. Vernazza: A little smaller, we only made a small pit stop here for the entrance of the hike.
3. Cornelia: From what my hostel mates tell me there if you walk down from the hike, there is a small beach that no one knows about because everyone goes to Monorola. Probably something I want to discover more next time. It might be a great spot to take great photos.
4. Monarola: You have to come here for the sunset, it is beautiful. It is also the spot where all gorgeous photos of Cinque Terre are taken. Food here is meh, but swimming here is a must!
5. Riomagiorre: There are a lot of fancy restaurants here. Another great spot to watch the sunset and eat dinner. You can go out to the rocks, grab a couple beers and hangout.
To Eat:
Eat as much as you can because this is probably one of the cheapest part of my Italy trip.
· Drink a cappuccino every morning. ~1.50 euros
· Eat calamari! It is so fresh! ~8 euros
· Pesto! ~ 7 euros
