Italy: Cinque Terre

Last summer, my family and I went to Cinque Terre in Italy. Cinque terre stands for 5 lands and it is part of the unesco world heritage. There are 5 little towns/ villages connected to each other by walking trails, train roads or you can also take the boat. Inside the 5 villages, cars are not allowed, so you'll have to either drive to the nearest car park and walk further to the center or take the train from La Spezia. We took our car and parked it very close to the town center and walked down to our hotel. We stayed in Hotel Margherita in Monterosso, the only village of the 5 that has a sand beach.

We arrived late in the afternoon so we decided to wonder around and see what Monterosso had to offer. We stopped at a little place called Lo Spuntino, a typical Italian bar, to grab a small bite. We ordered Focaccia con pomodoro e mozarella, Focaccio con ricotta e spinaci and a tiny Pizza Margherita. We were all very hungry so even these small bites made us very happy, though I wasn't such a big fan of the Focaccia with spinash because I didn't like the taste of it.

In the evening we went to a restaurant called Oscar, which was recommended to us by our hotel. It is a fish restaurant but they also have several pasta's. We ordered:

- spaghetti "Felicetti" ai frutti di mare (€16)

- Gnocchi al pesto (€13)

- Polpo con patate (€16)

- Totani alla griglia = Calamari (€18)

We all enjoyed our meals very much, only the calamari were a bit dissapointing in size and also compared to the price it could've been a little bit more. After dinner we also tried the Panacotta; one with strawberries and one with caramel. I never tried Panacotta before and was pleasantly surprised by the taste of it, though I have to admit that I still am a bigger fan of Ice cream. My dad liked the panacotta that much, that he even ordered a second one. A small note/ tip about this restaurant: if you like lemonade, you should really orde some here, it is really good and very refreshing.

(All pictures are in the same order as the list)

The next day we woke up bright and early to walk the cinque terre trails. Some trails were closed at that time so we only had 2 trails left. We took the train to Corniglia where our first work-out began instantly. When you get of the train in Corniglia, you have to walk up a ton of stairs to get to the centre, so that's what we did, all 382 of them. We wondered around Corniglia for a bit, got a small drink and then began our walking adventure.

We walked from Corniglia to Vernazza, the Azure or Blue trail which is 3,2km long. It doesn't look like a lot but the trail is very intensive as it goes up and down hill constantly, so it'll take you around an hour to get to Vernazza.

(Pictures of Corniglia)

(Pictures of Vernazza)

When we finally arrived in Vernazza, we sat down at this lovely cliff-side restaurant called "La Torre" for some lunch. This restaurant was situated perfectly, as you could see the entire village from up there. If you don't walk the trails the chance that you find this restaurant is very small if nobody recommends you to go and find it. The staff was really nice here and the food was simple, but good. I was craving for some pasta ragu, so that's what I ordered 'Taliolini al Ragu" (€12). My mother and sister weren't that hungry so they ordered an Insalate Caprese (€12). And my dad went for a salad with tuna, which wasn't on the menu, the kitchen just made it for him because he asked for it.

After our batteries were charged again from the very-much-needed lunch, we went to explore Vernazza. A very beautiful town but also very touristy, so not my favourite. We didn't stay long as it was so bussy so we continued our walk back to Monterosso. This last trail was the heaviest I've ever walked before. It started immediatly in the town centre, with many, many, many stairs. There is a short and a long trail between Vernazza and Monterosso, but at that time only the long trail was open, which is 7,3 km long, so yes we did walk for 3 hours to Monterosso. The views are amazing, but the trail is hard and long, if you want to walk in cinque terre I would suggest to do the first trail from Corniglia to Vernazza as this one isn't that hard.

At night, we took the train to Manarola to eat dinner, but unfortunately our dog wasn't allowed in the restaurant we went to. We looked for more options, but there wasn't anything we liked so we took the train back to Monterosso and got pizza at a place called "Lapo's". It has a very lovely terrace outside, but it was too cold at night to eat our dinner outside. We ordered 3 pizza's, namely: Pizza Bufala (€9), Pizza Vegetariana (€9) and Pizza Nikolas with tomatoes, mozarella di bufala, spicy salami, cherry tomatoes and basil(€11). Unfortunately we were too hungry to even take the time to take a picture of the pizza's but I can tell you that we all really enjoyed our dinner.

(Manarola at night)

The last day we took the train to Riomaggiore, which was also a very lovely town, but my ultimate favourite was Corniglia. We didn't have lunch in Cinque terre anymore as we left around noon to Tuscany. What we ate in Tuscany will be in another post so keep an eye out for that one.

(Riomaggiore)

A bientôt!

Bisous