Cinque Terre - which village to visit?

Hello Cynthia,

I stayed in Porto Venere for 3 nights in 2022 in September and while is a charming and provides some amazing pictures - especially when they light up the buildings at night and they are reflected in the water - I found it to be too small for crush of tour groups that came through on the ferry to and from CT.

I spent a day on the south side of the bay in Lerici and in retrospect I would have rather spent my time on that side of the bay instead. There are three towns San Terezno - a former fishing village with beaches - which has a continuous ocean front walkway down to Lerici with the marina and further down the coast is Tellaro which is like a CT town that hasn't been discovered yet. Lerici boats a marina, a pretty central square, waterfront shops and castle on the point for effect.

These towns - especially Lerici - are touristy and summer destinations but they are mostly Italian tourists rather than American. You will need to take a bus or a taxi to get there from La Spezia unless you ave a car. This is also true for PV as well but the taxi rates are extortionate versus walking a little ways to catch the bus. There is a cross bay ferry (non ferry) from PV to Lerici but the timing doesn't seem to coordinate with the CT ferry if you're trying to put those together.

Beach parking is always an issue in every country - there is a parking garage in PV or hopefully your lodging has that sorted out.

A quick look seems to show the season and schedule for the 2024 ferries isn't posted yet in the past late March was the renewed service if not the full blown summer schedule yet so hopefully you'll thread the needle on good weather and fewer tourists for your visit with the exception of the 1st.

With one town to shoot I would chose Vernazza.

Have a great trip, you'll get some amazing pictures,
=Tod

Hello Tod,
Thank you for sharing your information, especially about Lerici and Tellero. We will have a car (the reason we chose Porto Venere - Colonna 24 has guaranteed parking). Did you visit Levato, Corniglia, or Manarola? We are considering visiting one of the two on our second day, probably parking the car up above and walking or taking the shuttle bus down to the village. Do you have any restaurant recommendations for any of the villages mentioned?

We visited Monterosso, Vernazza, Riomaggiore and Manarola a bit over several days but honestly this was more than a decade ago - maybe two. This was before the ferry, passes or tickets for the via dell'Amore and you had to depend on the printed local trains schedule to get around. We went debating whether to re-visit the CT towns but after seeing the tour groups streaming through PV we decided to leave those villages in our memories and explore other places instead. This lead to visiting La Grazie on the north side and Lerici on the south side of the bay.

Consequently I don't have any meaningful recommendations in CT for you.

There is a lovely little pastry place in Lerici with a little patio just up from the harbor L'Ambrosia Pasticceria Caffetteria next to a soap store.
If you go I recommend the climb to the castle if you're up to it since it takes you through the paths only neighborhoods up from the marina. The castle is now renovated as an art gallery. The art was "okay" when we were there but the renovated castle and views from the top were worth the small admission charge and the stairs.

In PV most of the restaurants facing the harbor and little beach are seafood places aimed at tourists. Travel up the upper streets for more interesting local restaurants. Your hotel is well situated right in this area so I'm sure you'll have good guidance on nearby places. We had a very nice meal at Antica Osteria del Carugio but it an osteria in the sense that it is original area grandma's cooking.
I recommend F.lli Cicciotti as the last bar on the piazza circle mostly because it feels like an old, original bar for crabby locals versus something made up for tourists. I enjoyed a Negroni or two here spritzing and having the guy at the next table yell at all the locals encouraging them to come have a drink as they passed by.
I really wanted to try Trattoria Tre Torri right near there but could never catch it open.

I doubt you'll have time but if you run out of things to explore but Sarzana is 15 minutes over the hill from Lerici with nice old town and a reputation for good restaurants and funky shopping. I didn't get there but I have a coworker who lived in San Terenzo - one reason I had some inside information on the south side of the harbor - and they said that Sarzana was where you lived if wanted the small inland Italian town experience rather than the seaside town experience.

Hope that helps, have a great time,
=Tod

You might get some insight from this website/blog https://www.apathtolunch.com/. It’s been a few years since we spent time in Liguria, but over the period from 2010 to 2018 I relied on A Path to Lunch for several visits.