Cinque Terre
The Cinque Terre is one of my absolute favorite places. During our time here, we stayed in an Airbnb in Riomaggiore and highly recommend staying in this town as there is a good mix of restaurants, shops, and local life. We particularly enjoyed the tasty pizza and dessert from Pizza Kepris. The owners of this restaurant are incredibly kind. They stayed open late to make us fresh pizza our first night. Our Airbnb neighbors even loved the pizza so much that they ate there 4 times during their week stay.
On our first full day in the Cinque Terre, we ventured to Corniglia and Manarola. There’s nothing quite like starting your day climbing up the Lardarina, which is composed of 33 flights of 382 brick steps, to Corniglia. After this, we treated ourselves to some coffee and croissants before exploring the small town. We spent the latter half of the day in Manarola. We started the afternoon with lunch and drinks at Nessun Dorma, soaking up the views of the city and the water below. In order to avoid a long queue, have the app pre-downloaded on your device and reserve your spot in advance on the day you are visiting. After lunch, we shopped and wanders the streets of the town. Our evening was spent walking the Ring of Riomaggiore to see the whole town before grabbing dinner.
The next morning, we wandered around Monterosso Al Mare. We strolled past the iconic green and orange striped beach umbrellas to see the Statua del Gigante, a 110-year-old, 46-foot high statue of Neptune at the end of Fegina Beach. After grabbing breakfast in the new part of the town, we ventured into the old town. The old town is filled with shops, restaurants, the statue of San Benedetto d’ Assisi, and the Church of San Giovanni Battista. The black and white striped church was constructed in the Gothic-Genovese style in the early 13th century. Before leaving the town, we grabbed lunch at Torre de Aurora, a restaurant in an ancient tower originally built to fight back pirates’ attacks in the year 1000. We ended our day in Vernazza hanging at the harbor watching kayakers eating gelato.
