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Cinque Terre and its quaint villages.. an Italian escapade

Alright! So after Pisa we went about our one hour train ride to La Spezia Centrale, our gateway into the beautiful Cinque Terre. 

Cinque in Italian means 5 and Terre means Land.. the Cinque Terre consists of 5 cute and extremely Instagrammable villages - Riomaggiore, Manarola, Vernazza, Corniglia & Monterosso. The regional/inter-city trains stop only at La Spezia and you need to change to the local trains heading towards Levanto. We picked Riomaggiore as our village to stay in and visit the other 4 during our 1.5 days there. Now you can either walk through the hiking trail, of-course with a cost, or choose to shuttle between the villages on trains. Each trail is a 2 hr walk between 2 villages and we hence picked the train as our travel option. Now Cinque is a tad bit expensive on transport - a train ride between 2 stations which would ideally last 2-4 mins costs about 4€ and that’s when we decided to take a Cinque Terre day pass which costs 16€. So after the check-in to our Air B&B and a quick bite we set out to explore Riomaggiore and Manarola.

Riomaggiore
The entire essence of Cinque Terre is to aimlessly walk through the villages, enjoy the magnificent views of the colourful village houses and Mediterranean sea with a glass of wine and eat lots of foccacia and gelato. Trust me, some of the best gelato on our trip was eaten here! 
Manarola

Both Rio and Manarola are very well known for the colorful pictures that you would have seen online and they are indeed beautiful. We spent some time wandering around the village, eating gelato and then headed to the best sunset view point in Manarola, near the restaurant Nessun Dorma. It offers a spectacular view of the village and the turquoise blue Mediterranean sea! Simply breath-taking! I will also recommend the Tiramisu at a place (which says Vegan at the entrance) near the port. It was amazing!
Tiramisu

 Our day 2 in Cinque Terre was where we had planned some village hopping. Monterosso was the most further out and we started there to find our way back to Rio. Monterroso is known for the beautiful beach where you can be a complete beach bum.. playing with the sand and water. Our next stop was Vernazza and more than the view we totally loved the gelato we had at a place near the port - absolutely divine! Try their Tiramisu & Pineapple flavour - we couldn’t get enough of it and the view of the village!

Vernazza


Monterosso
After wandering through Vernazza we headed to little Corniglia perched up on the hill. This is the only village wherein you can either climb the steps up or ride a bus from the train station to the village. Finally we once again visited Manarola and ended the day back at Rio. It was a super day spent eating a lot of gelato & tiramisu, drinking some great wine along with foccacia and olives! Cinque Terre is a great place to unwind with a great view and some great wine. 

Next up Roma!

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Sunset at Manarola

Sunset at Manarola


Sunset at Manarola

Sunset at Manarola
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Location: Cinque Terre, SP, Italy

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