Italy · Liguria · Sea and coast
five villages high above the sea, visited by train with the motorhome left outside
Five villages clinging to the Ligurian coast, a National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. By motorhome you get as far as the two ends, La Spezia and Levanto, and from there you take the train: inside the Cinque Terre the roads are narrow and steep, free parking is banned or heavily restricted, and a large vehicle does not get in. Whoever accepts that rule travels better than whoever ignores it, because the train links the five villages in a few minutes.
Sleeping
Two areas outside the Park, both on the railway: in the villages there is nothing that takes a large vehicle.
Via Valdilocchi, 19136 La Spezia (SP)
the handiest base for doing the villages by train, with La Spezia Centrale station within reach of the city buses. The Cinque Terre line starts here, so you board while the train is still empty. There is a service point for filling and emptying, there are showers and sinks for washing up, and the 220V electricity is charged by use.
Via Nostra Signora della Guardia, 19015 Levanto (SP)
small and facing the road, but the station is two minutes on foot and it is the northern end of the line: from the platform to the first village takes a few minutes. The waste water drain is awkward to reach.
Getting around
Seeing
The five villages from south to north, in the order you meet them coming from La Spezia. The third is the only one that does not touch the sea, the last is the largest and the only one with a real beach. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.
Village · free entry · 44.09865, 9.73764
the southernmost village, an old sailors' town built in tiers: colourful tower houses that grow upwards and drop steeply towards the small marina and the harbour. From the station starts the Via dell'Amore, the footpath that leads to Manarola, reopened not long ago. All around, the terraced vineyards that give the DOC wines of the Cinque Terre.
Village · free entry · 44.10668, 9.72710
a hamlet of the municipality of Riomaggiore, and held to be the oldest of the five villages. It is the other end of the Via dell'Amore, and the place for sunset photographs, with the pastel houses hanging above the sea. Terraced vineyards and olive groves all around, and from them comes Sciacchetrà, the local dessert wine.
Village · free entry · 44.12006, 9.70799
the middle village and the smallest, and the only one that does not face the sea: it sits on a rocky headland about ninety metres high, ringed by terraced vineyards. You reach it from the station by a long stairway or by bus, and it is the quietest of the five.
Village · free entry · 44.13502, 9.68268
one of the Borghi più belli d'Italia, it opens onto a small natural bay, with the pastel houses pressed against the rocky spur. The centre is Piazza Marconi, the only square in the Cinque Terre that looks straight onto the sea, with bars and restaurants around it and the little harbour of the fishing boats in front.
Village · free entry · 44.14641, 9.65552
the westernmost village and the largest, cut in two by a headland that carries the Torre Aurora. On one side Fegina, the station end, with the widest sand and shingle beach in the Park and the Statua del Gigante, the Neptune of 1910; on the other the Borgo Antico, joined by a pedestrian tunnel, with narrow carrugi and colourful houses.
When
Next: Illuminated Nativity Scene · 8 Dec - 31 Jan
at Manarola, the largest illuminated nativity scene in the world, drawn across the hillside above the village.
at Monterosso, dedicated to the fruit that is the symbol of the Riviera.
at Riomaggiore, with processions and performances.
the picking of the grapes on the terraces above the sea.
Remember
Cinque Terre - La Spezia · part two
and then?
What to do, what to taste, and where to go tomorrow.
What we did starting from here, ordered by driving time.
The most typical dish, to cook again at home.
Looking
6 shots from our visit. Tap one to see it large.
