My 26 year old daughter will be in Cinque Terre for three nights in May. Her home base will be La Spezia and she will not have a vehicle. Do folks have any activity suggestions for her? She is an avid hiker so walking is not an issue, but she may also have her dog with her as well.
Thanks for any feedback.
vfinn,
I think I would break up my Cinque Terre visit into a couple days:
Day 1 -
Day 2 -
The "activities" are discovering the people, places and food in all these towns along with the hiking and views. You can also swim in all of the towns with the best deep water swimming in Manarola. Monterosso and Riomaggiore have big public breaches I believe.
NOTE: The Blue Trail linking Monterosso - Vernazza - Corniglia. For those two trails you will need a Cinque Terre Trekking Card. All other trails are free!
Hope this helps.
Steve.
Don't forget the ferries! We enjoyed taking the ferry to the opposite end of where we were staying and then trained back. Must admit we never made it up the hill from the train to Corniglia. The shuttle bus was packed but that shouldn't be an obstacle to a young hiker.
She probably needs to figure out the dog thing--I am not sure what the regs are for the train or the ferry.
https://www.trenitalia.com/en/services/travelling_with_yourpets.html
Is she locked in to staying in La Spezia? La Spezia seemed industrial and uninspiring to us. If at all possible she may enjoy staying in Monterosso al Mare which then she could take the regional train easily between the 5 villages and have more ready access to available hiking and beautiful sea views.
Enjoying and appreciating the responses this far. She is staying in La Speinza due to lodging costs. With May being the start of the season, she said that prices had really ratcheted up. I will suggest she give Monterosso another try, though.
Small and medium sized dogs are allowed on the ferry with a leash and a muzzle. I suspect the muzzle part is only enforced when Captain Bligh is on duty.
La Spezia is a nice city with some good attractions - the waterfront especially is pretty and active. I think she'll enjoy it. According to local news, every hotel room in the whole La Spezia/ Cinque Terre area has been booked 10 days before Easter and Liberation Day weekends. I would expect no different for May.
Dogs on trains-- allowed in 2019
May 2019 (which seems so long ago but one of our last pre-covid trips) I was on the train between the CT villages that was absolutly crammed full of people. I had a seat between two immense well behaved St. Bernards. I wish I could post the photo as it was delightful chaos.
Consider Levanto also (the town north of Monterosso) - Levanto is itself a nice town though not quite the same feeling as the five villages. But you can hike from Levanto back to Monterosso or take the train one stop back to Monterosso. I've stayed in Levanto three times when visiting the Cinque Terre and have always found budget options there even last minute.
I'd suggest taking the train to Monterosso and hiking to Corniglia on the first day. The coastal trail is open for now so hopefully it will remain that way. The next day I'd take the train to Riomaggiore and from there hike to Corniglia Station. There are a bunch of stairs to climb up to Corniglia if you want but you probably can see all of that town on the first day. The third day I'd highly recommend taking the train to Levanto and hiking from there to Monterosso. On each of these days you can utilize the trains and boats to see more of whichever town you like. I am planning to do this myself very soon. Good luck and happy travels!
