Cinque amici @ Cinque Terre
FYI, "amici" means "friends" in Italian! Indeed, the next leg of my eurotrip 2022 was to Cinque Terre with Cora, Alex, Tiffany, and Haochen. Upon Alex's arrival in Bologna (HCS missed his flight and would join us later), we spent the morning taking a series of trains. Cinque Terre is not the easiest place to get to, yet it's somehow still super busy. It is somewhat more rustic-feeling than places like the Amalfi Coast, but certainly not off the beaten track. Western voices were rampant.
We decided to make Riomaggiore our home base, as it was the closest connection from Bologna, seemed to have good accommodation options, and is known for its sunsets. After seeing all five terres, I would rank them as follows:
- Monterosso: My favourite! The best beach and the largest town. Would recommend staying here.
- Manarola: The best view and nice swimming areas, although we didn't go in.
- Riomaggiore: I had a soft spot for it since we stayed here. The plaza in town feels relatively grander and the sunset is lovely here, although it loses points for a rocky beach.
- Vernazza: Do not believe the hype!! Many consider it the "prettiest jewel" of Cinque Terre, but I thought it was swampy and dirty with murky green, jellyfish-infested water and a small beach).
- Corniglia: There's not much to it, plus it's the only town without a beach.
Exploring Riomaggiore
On our first day, we got lunch at a pricey osteria. I had beef tartare and bread for lunch for €15. Cora paid similarly for salad & Alex paid similarly for cherry tomato bruschetta (but hey, it used whole tomatoes!!). Such is the premium for dining somewhere relatively remote.
Next, we went swimming at Spaggia di Riomaggiore! It was underwhelmingly pebbly and crowded. BUT: the water was warm and salty, and it was fun to go down the stepladder and float along the waves. As one does post-swim, we got a snack at Old School Cafe afterwards. I got freshly squeezed OJ and a fruit crepe. The fresh fruit was nice after a month of travel, but it would've been better with ice cream.
For dinner, we eagerly dug into a local delicacy: Tutti Frutti cones filled with fried calamari, shrimp, and arancini. The calamari really hit the spot, although the prawns were too salty and the arancini was a bit dry. I'm biased, but the arancini at Goodfellas in Streetsville remains my favourite.
We enjoyed sunset at the Riomaggiore harbour, which we'd continue to do every night as the trip wore on. Tons of people had the same idea. It was difficult to crop them out of our pictures!
To cap off the evening, we got gelato at the only 4.1-starred spot in all of Riomaggiore. Every other gelato spot had a Google review average of 1-2 stars (a huge red flag). I tried pomegranate gelato for the first time. It was tart and vaguely tasted like watermelon. After our gelato, Haochen finally arrived after two days of missed flights and delays! So brutal. We sat on the steps of the town as he devoured his own seafood cone. At that point, we'd already exhausted everything to see in Riomaggiore. Turns out you really only need a day (or less) in each of these towns.
Hike to Manarola
For our second day in Cinque Terre, we hiked from Riomaggiore to Manarola, the closest town nearby. I would definitely recommend starting EARLY. We departed around 10 am, and it was exhausting in July due to the heat. I felt like I was dying, especially given the steep climb both uphill and downhill to get between the towns.
Cool views! But why does the shrubbery remind me of crop circles?
Manarola was very cute. I think it would be a better place to swim than pebbly Riomaggiore. It also had good food and nice viewpoints. We ate the best pasta on this Italy trip here, and enjoyed milkshakes, gelato, fruit smoothies, and granitas at a "vegan, lactose-free" gelato place (clearly they have good marketers).
We couldn't escape the cloying heat, despite our best efforts.
I'd never walk Corniglia Streets again
That afternoon, we headed to Corniglia. This was my least favourite Cinque Terre town. We went in knowing there wasn't a beach, but we were surprised to discover there wasn't a viewpoint, either! The views were blocked by shrubbery. The food was good though: we enjoyed lemon-basil gelato, orange granitas, and warm focaccia (my fav).
For dinner, we returned to Riomaggiore and ate at a place called Da Dubin. I tried pesto pasta with mussels and clams, since pesto was invented in Cinque Terre. It was good, but felt like the kind of thing we could make ourselves. By 2025, I actually did end up making my own pesto at the Willoughby!
We capped off the night with another sunset by the marina. This time, we went up by the rocks for a better (less crowded) view. Yes, the views are nicer from up above!
Let's go to the beach
We got up early the next day (8 am!) for a beach day in Monterosso. The early start turned out to be a great call. The beach was completely empty and the sun wasn't too harsh when we arrived around 8:45 am. The crowds descended as the morning wore on.
Monterosso definitely had the best beach in Cinque Terre, although there were still rocky patches. I am also personally against super commercial beachfronts with umbrellas and loungers occupying prime beachfront real estate. But in the water, those qualms faded away. We swam far towards the buoys and enjoyed crystal clear water.
For lunch, we ate at Restaurant da Ely, per a recommendation from Matt (from Duo!). We enjoyed two salmon white pizzas. I actually liked the pasta more than the pizza: hard to go wrong with sea bass ravioli and prawns.
An afternoon in Vernazza
After lunch, we headed to Vernazza. Here, we sat by the dock and consumed three sweet treats in quick succession to keep cool (a granita, cold-pressed juice, and gelato). We did a short walk up to a viewpoint, which offered a cool view of the narrow town. Otherwise, this town didn't have much to it. It was overhyped and dirty.
Don't let influencers fool you, this is the real Vernazza experience in July.
By that point, we were surprised to discover that we exhausted all cinque terres in just three days. I had squid ink pasta for dinner at Il Grottino back in Riomaggiore. We watched the sunset a bit farther out this time, crashing a romantic couple's date with our silly throwback tracks (Shawty is an eenie meenie miney mo looover). This turned out to be the best spot to watch the sunset unobstructed, although without any aesthetically painted buildings in the foreground. It was nice to catch the sunset from slightly different vantage points each night!
Sestri Levante
Since we exhausted everything at Cinque Terre already, we went an hour away to Sestri Levante. I'd say this day trip was well worthwhile! It was super pretty and cool to see fresco walls of pillars and tile alongside actual church pillars. We checked out a couple viewpoints and considered renting bikes, only to be thwarted by our unusable Airalo eSim phone numbers. A highlight of the day was trying a pistachio tartufo! It was delicious and reminded me of the time I made strawberry tartufo with Ama, inspired by a recipe in the free Longo's calendar. Spoiler alert: tartufo is NOT easy to make.
Final night in Riomaggiore
That afternoon, I did a bit of shopping in Riomaggiore and purchased a striped linen tank top. Tiff and I explored a bit and grabbed another seafood cone. In Riomaggiore, the cones at Tutti Frutti were much better than the ones at Il Pescatore. I had a nice raspberry popsicle as a palate cleanser.
To cap off our last night in Cinque Terre, we did a sunset boat cruise. This was the highlight of the trip!! Unfortunately, Cora was feeling unwell and had to miss out. I took over as DJ for the boat, which was super fun. We met some cool strangers on the boat: Dan and Ana from New York, and a Tasmanian couple. We also chatted a bunch with our skipper, Marco. We even got to see dolphins swim past as the sky turned pink. I'm always in awe when marine animals grace us with their presence.
And with that, my travels with Cora, Tiff, and Alex came to an end! Hao Chen and I continued on to Spain and Portugal from there, ready to meet with incoming HBS classmates and Jenny.
Trip dates: July 2-6, 2022