Cinque Terre

Posted by andrejw on 07/08/25 03:59 AM

Hi all,
11 of us are staying in a villa near Lucca Mid October. We have cars. Was thinking of driving 1 hour or so to Lerici or La spezia and get on a boat to visit Cinque terre towns.
Question 1. Which stop is better to leave a car all day, then board the boat ( Lerici or La Spezia)
Question 2. If we left early in the morning, around 9 am where would you go first ( say for brunch,coffee etc) and where to go for lunch. Is there a town you would spend more time in? Or do you think we should do it by train instead?

Any advice or recommendations appreciated.

Posted by hiredman

San Diego, California, USA

07/08/25 04:42 AM

1537 posts

Hello andrejw, and welcome to the forum,

Lerici is connected to Porto Venere by a boat but it is not well coordinated with the CT ferry. If your goal is to see CT then you should definitely head to La Spezia for ferry access to CT not Lerici.

I would recommend checking out Lerici - and the rest of the southern side of the Bay of La Spezia - but it is not connected to CT in a meaningful way. That area is residents and Italians taking to the coast for the longer periods or the summer not day trippers.

Hope that helps,
=Tod

Posted by Ken

Vernon, Canada

07/08/25 05:17 AM

32486 posts

A few thoughts.......

In mid-October, the five towns of the Cinque Terre will probably be very "quiet", and hopefully the weather will still be reasonably pleasant.
In October some of the tourist businesses may be starting to wind down for the year.
I'm not sure if the Ferries will be operating at that time of year?
As you'll be driving, you might consider parking in either La Spezia or Levanto, and using the trains to explore the towns (my choice would be Levanto). Regardless of which town you choose to park, start by taking the train to Riomaggiore and then work back towards Monterosso.
If you start in Riomaggiorre, one possibility would be to "hike" the Via dell'Amore to Manarola (assuming it's open - reservations may be required). It's a very pleasant walk and mostly level. If it's not open, jusst take the train. Stop for brunch/coffee in Manarola.
The next town is Corniglia and it's located high on a hill, accessible by many stairs or a shuttle. You may want to skip that one?
Continue by train to Vernazza, where you could also stop for lunch or coffee.
Continue to the final town of Monterosso, planning to arrive in the late afternoon, just in time for supper. There are two parts to the town so allow more time to look around. As it's the largest of the five towns, there will probably be a few restaurants and shops still operating. A big favourite with many here is Cantina di Miky, which is close to the train station. There's also the more upscale (expensive) Miky if you like seafood.
From Monterosso it's only about a five minute train trip to Levanto.
The towns are only a few minutes by train from each other, so rail ticket costs are cheap. You may find this helpful - https://www.cinqueterre.eu.com/en/cinque-terre-card .

Posted by andrejw OP

07/08/25 05:34 AM

2 posts

Thanks Ken for your advice. I was thinking starting at Lavento was too far to drive, but according to maps its only another 15 minutes! There is a 10am boat from Levanto, arriving Rioaggiore at 11.15am, so we could maybe do that, see cinque terre from the water one way, train it back the other as you have suggested. And the fact that there will be 11 of us, I notice many of the smaller towns probabgly couldnt accomodate us for lunch or dinner, so Monterosso probably makes sense.