Cinque Terre in late October

Darlene, I've been in that area at the beginning of October, and on that occasion the weather was great. Although forecasts will indicate "typical" weather for a particular time of year, there are no guarantees so best to be prepared for a variety of conditions. I expected nice weather when I was in Rome and Tuscany in May, however it was uncharacteristically cold and wet. As Rick often says "there's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing". Cheers!

We were in CT the first week of October, 2010. It was rainy and muggy. The seas were so rough all boat trips were cancelled. Worse than the weather, however, were the crowds. CT was packed shoulder to shoulder with English speaking tourists with rolling luggage. It was the end of 2 weeks in Italy and we had not encountered crowds anywhere like CT. We left much earlier than planned and went further up the coast and had a wonderfully quiet time.

"there's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing". We use this saying a lot here on the helpline. However, for the Cinque Terre it doesn't quite work. If the weather is indeed bad no amount of "right" clothing will change the fact that a) boats are not operating b) hiking paths will be closed In that situation, there is not much left to do in these tiny villages. At that time of year you might get lucky and the weather is ok. But you do need to be prepared to experience poor weather. In that case I would change plans. There are so many other places in Italy that would be great places to visit regardless of the weather.

Thanks much. We live in the mountains in CO and are used to hiking in inclement weather, but don't want to go to Cinque Terre to sit in a room. Although, not what I was hoping to hear, I appreciate your advice to spend those days elsewhere.

Hi Darlene, I was in the CT during the last week of October 2009. The weather was fantastic! It was about 25 degrees C ( I think that's around 75F) and bright sun. I was glad I had capris and sun glasses! It did cool off at night, but we sat outside to eat wearing only sweaters. Didn't see a cloud in the sky for 3 days. Enjoy your trip, prepare for rain, hope for sun!

We were there late October and I thought it was perfect. The days were warm, nights were cool and it was quiet and peaceful. A week before we arrived, however, a rain storm had knocked out part of the trail so it can rain and apparently hard (but we didn't see any) that time of year. The other down side is the sidewalks get rolled up pretty early that time of year (at least in Vernazza). Restaurants usually don't start serving until 7:30, before nine everyone wanted to go home and seemed impatient for us to clear out so they could close. After we left the restaurant, everything else was closed up and quiet.