ITALY BLOG SEPTEMBER 8th, 2025 - CINQUE TERRE

 

9/8/25– Our train to Cinque Terre (which means “the five lands”) leaves at 10am and takes an hour and a half including a twenty minute stop half way through. We actually leave the train at that stop not realizing the rest of the journey is on the same train (as the remaining journey is under a new train number).

The first town we arrive at is Vernazza. We are let off the train in a tunnel, which throws us for a loop at first, and follow the crowd to the upper part of town. The weather is fair with the clouds covering most of the sunlight, but we can still see the vibrant colors of the buildings as we make our way down to the water.

After finding a souvenir, we see the church and venture inside. There’s not much going on with it and filled with numerous tourists, perhaps just escaping the humidity.

Then we walk around the boats to capture the view of the town from the furthest point we can go without jumping into the water. This is where the sun begins to peek through the clouds every so often, which really brings out the colors.

Next up is Doria Castle, which is only a few minutes walk but many stairs to climb. Sharece stays back while I power through to the top for a higher view. It cost 2 Euros to enter (credit card accepted) and basically it’s a single tower with a winding staircase. The views are excellent, much better than I expected.

It’s now 12:30pm and we originally thought about taking a ferry over to the next town, but the next one doesn’t leave for another two hours. We decide to take the train instead (since it’s only a 12 minute journey and half the price).

The second town on the list is Riomaggiore (dating back to the thirteenth century). After leaving the train station, we are led down a half kilometer long tunnel to reach the town. Once there, we have to work our way down a cave like stairwell before finally reaching the base. I’m already seeing the jog back to the station will be an interesting one if we need to catch our return train quickly.

We climb a small amount of stairs while dodging the mass amount of people (I swear this place is a huge tourist trap, I don’t even know how this town can sustain it all). On the other side is the sea wall full of large boulders that I climb down upon to get a very nice shot of the town. Sharece hangs back and catches a picture of me lying down on the job. It’s much more peaceful out here.

Now that everything is done on what we want to do, we check the train schedule to return to Santa Margherita Ligure and see they have a faster one leaving soon (only forty-five minutes and six stops as opposed to the 1.5 hours). Using the train app, we purchase our two tickets. There is some thought to check out the other towns (Manarola, Corniglia [lots of stairs] and Monterosso [beach town]) , but honestly we are quite done so two out of five isn’t bad.

We are very happy to have our AirBnb at SML compared to the smaller towns and opt to stay in and rest for the remainder of the day. Tomorrow the thunderstorms start, but if there’s a window we may venture out.