Two Full Days In Cinque Terre - Need Suggestions On Intinerary

Hi Ron,

I explored them one day, and did the hiking another day. The hiking can be tiring enough. The only exception might be the town of Corniglia, as there are so many steps required to get up there, you might be tempted to only go the one time.

Just remember that you will be there during very hot temperatures. When I did the hiking, I made the mistake of hiking from Riomaggiore in the morning up to Monterosso. The problem with doing this is that I ended up hiking the most difficult portions (Corniglia-Vernazza and Vernazza-Monterosso) in the heat of the day. If you are going to do the hike in one go, I would recommend that you do the reverse route so you can get the hardest parts done while it's cooler.

Steven, thanks for the quick reply and for the suggestions. On your hiking day, did you bring your lunch with you or stop at one of the villages to eat?

definitely recommend stop and explore while you hike along; otherwise you're spending time doubling back by train or boat to places you've already been. The trains and boats aren't that frequent, you'll lose a good amount of time.

What I'd suggest is doing the difficult stretch a previous poster mentioned one day, the other 3 easier ones the next. That leaves time each day to explore, have lunch, and still get back to your host village with time to relax a bit on the beach.

I ate at a tiny bistro in Corniglia - the entire CT area is wonderful and I would go again in a heartbeat.

Although there are not trains every fifteen minutes, I enjoyed hopping on a train to one town, checking the schedule to see that I could catch a train in either 1:15 or 2:45, and then enjoying the town until it was time to move on to the next one and repeat the process.

The food is especially good in the CT. The fresh-caught anchovies are unbelievable, and the Spaghetti al Nero di Seppia (squid ink pasta) was a surprise favourite.

My preference would be to explore each village as you hike, and even take it further and break the hike into two days, forcing yourself to spend time at a restaurant, a beach, or just sitting and watching the world go by. As for Corniglia, skip the steps up, take the shuttle bus.

I was there in early May, and though I planned to hike between all 5 in the same day, I ended up exploring each village a little as we hiked to it. We stopped & either got ice cream or a snack at each village. We ended up hiking Riomaggiore to Manarola to Corniglia to Vernazza the same day. We decided to stick around there for a while & hike from Vernazza to Monterosso the following day. We caught the ferries back to Riomaggiore both days.

I'd recommend seeing what happens when you're there. Splitting it up into two worked perfectfly for us. Personally, we found it hard to just pass through the beauty of the towns.

I'd also recommend the exact opposite of the poster who suggested walking from Monterosso to Riomaggiore. Photographically, the sun is much better starting in Riomaggiore in the a.m. & walking to Monterosso. There are also a lot of steps from Monterosso to Vernazza, we ended with them, but saw many hikers struggling & winded before the hike even began. In July, you'll probably be warm regardless, we were in May.

I can understand your desire to plan this ahead as this is what I tried to do. We also had 3 nights, 2 full days. We arrived in the afternoon on our first day, so we explored Vernazza, climbing to both sides for views of the town during the evening. The next morning we had planned to walk to Monterosso, but we found that we were taking path #8, instead of #2, which was intesting as it is up in lemon groves, olive groves and high, but not what we planned. We returned, had another breakfast at Il pirata, resumed later than planned. The idea here is that you have ferrries, a hike, and a train between towns, so the plans are almost endless. We only took one ferry, from Monterooso back to Vernazza, as we walked the other routes. I regret that we did not take the ferry to each town the following day. Another consideration is that it seemed like the steps to Monterosso we more downhill going north, and those who were walking against us were more often walking uphill, but I don't know that for certain. You will be glad you have 3 nights.

Here's what we did in May of this year:
We were staying in Monterosso. The first day we took the train to Riomaggiore for the start of our hike. We hiked to Manorola and had a great lunch then hiked to Corniglia. Very easy hiking. We then hiked to Vernazza which was a little more strenuous. When we got to that town we stopped and had a beer before taking the train back to Monterosso. The next morning we did the hike from Monterosso to Vernazza - also a bit more strenuous. It took us about one hour and 45 minutes. When we got to Vernazza it was lunch time. After a leisurely lunch we wandered around town for a bit before we took the boat back. The trains were on strike until 9pm and the 5 minute boat ride was fun plus it another nice way to see the coastline.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. It sounds like it might be more beneficial to take two days to do the hike and stop and explore the villages along the way, especially since the weather most likely will be pretty warm. Looking forward to our trip!!

Hi Ron,

My husband and I were there for the same amount of time in May. We did the hike from Riomaggiore to Vernazza. Once we stopped and had a bite to eat were were too tired to finish the last 1.5 hours to Monterosso. So then our 2nd day we took the boat to Monterosso and then stopped at the towns on the way back that we wanted to spend more time in.

Originally we were going to spend our 2nd day going to Pisa or Porto Fino...but we fell in love with Cinque Terre and just wanted to relax and enjoy our second day.

I say see how you feel that 2nd day and then decide what you want to do. You will love it. Have a great vacation!

We were there in May staying in Vernazza & hiked from Vernazza to Riomaggiore, then the following day we took the train to Monterosso & spent the day there. This worked well for us :) Have fun!

I'd recommend not cutting out the hike from Vernazza to Monterosso (or vice versa), though known as the most difficult, I felt it was also the most scenic. I probably stopped every 10 feet to take another photo as the views kept getting better.

The ferries are a great way to see the towns also. Regardless of what you decide, you'll have a great time.

We stayed in Monterosso for 3 nights in May. We took the train to Riomaggiore the afternoon we arrived and had a drink/snack. On the second day we spent the most part of the day relaxing on the beach (a must for us with 4 yr old daughter with us) and had dinner at Ciak in Monterosso. On the third day, we started out hike at 11:00 am from Monterosso to Vernazza. It took us 2.5 hours but we had to take it slow with our daughter. But she did make it all the way there! We had gelato and then caught the last ferry back before their siesta time. Later that afternoon we hired a cruise through Stefano's boat cruises (located at dock in old town Monterosso) and went on a breathtaking 2 hour cruise to Riomaggiore and back to Monterosso. It was well worth the money. So unfortunately we missed out out Manarola and Corniglia...but we are certain to return to the 5terre in the future. It really is heaven on earth. Enjoy!