11 Wonderful Things to Do in Cinque Terre

Yes, it’s often overcrowded.

Yes, the weather can be woefully hot and sticky.

Yes, the trains will be full and the hiking trails will be full and the swimming coves will be full.

But this is all for a good reason: Cinque Terre is so exceptionally delightful.

Like many people, I wish I could have visited Cinque Terre — a seaside, cliffside string of five beautiful towns along the Italian coast — before it became wildly popular with visitors (if such a time ever existed!).

But I’m also happy to have visited Cinque Terre at all. It’s a uniquely beautiful and charming place, where the greatest pleasures to be found are simple ones: swimming in small coves, making pesto, hiking a seaside trail, watching the setting sun glow against pastel-colored buildings.

Here are 11 of the most wonderful things to do in Cinque Terre.

1. Explore the five towns via train.

If there’s one thing you simply have to do while in Cinque Terre, it’s really five things: visit each of the five towns that make up the region. Each town — Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare — has a unique setting and character, and it’s well worth exploring each of them to find your favorite spots.

The easiest way (by far!) to travel between the towns is to take the train. Because the towns are so close together, the train rides are quite short — in every instance, just a few minutes between neighboring towns.

Plus, the region makes this quite easy to do with train passes. I recommend that you purchase a Cinque Terre Treno MS Card, which allows you to take unlimited train rides throughout Cinque Terre for one, two, or three days (depending which card you select). It also gives you access to the Cinque Terre hiking trails.

If you must, it’s certainly possible to see all five towns in one day (though you won’t be able to spend loads of time in any of them). Particularly ambitious (and perhaps crazy) people — my parents included — even manage to make it to the Leaning Tower of Pisa and all five towns of Cinque Terre in one single day from Florence. (I do not recommend this.)

Unfortunately, for several years now, several segments of the Sentiero Azzurro have been closed to hikers for trail renovations. Nonetheless, you can still hike the Sentiero Azzurro between Monterosso and Vernazza, and between Vernazza and Corniglia. (The trail between Riomaggiore and Manarola is available on a limited basis — more on that later!).

3. Learn to make pesto.

Though they’re a popular thing to do in many destinations, I must be honest: I’m not all that wild about cooking classes.

I mean, I get it — cooking classes are often lots of fun, and they’re a perfect way to learn about the local cuisine. The problem is entirely mine: I’m quite a picky eater, which can making cooking classes a bit of a bummer, especially in countries that rely heavily on the ingredients I dislike the most.

But thank goodness I gave a cooking class a try in Cinque Terre.

I opted for the pesto-making class at Vernazza’s Cinque Sensi — an absolute gem of a shop that also offers food, wine tasting, and more.

Over 1.5 hours, the lovely Cinque Sensi folks taught us exactly how to make pesto using a mortar and pestle. Along the way, we sampled local wines, cheese, olive oil, fresh focaccia, limoncello, and chocolate — learning all about how these items are important to the region. At the end, we ate our pesto right out of our mortars, mixed with freshly cooked pasta and green beans.

It was absolutely fabulous, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat on a future trip to Cinque Terre.

4. Sunbathe at Monterosso al Mare.

There are a number of places to lay out in the sun in Cinque Terre, but Monterosso al Mare is the best. As the only town in Cinque Terre with a proper beach, Monterosso makes the most of it — lining the sand with rows of beach chairs capped with brightly colored umbrellas.

Unfortunately, these chairs aren’t available for free — you can expect to pay a hefty fee if you’d like to reserve a chair for an entire day. (The exact price depends on the area of beach and the time of year you are visiting!)

Still, if you have the room in your budget, a leisurely beach day (or afternoon) in Monterosso al Mare would be a delightful way to spend some time in Cinque Terre.

5. Visit a vineyard.

Like many parts of Italy, Cinque Terre has wonderful terroir for wine — and, in fact, the area is even famous for having some of the world’s steepest vineyards!

Besides the unusual setting, these dramatically terraced vineyards are best known for their crisp white wines and sweet dessert wines.

Some of Cinque Terre’s wineries are open for visits and wine tastings (particularly during the tourist high season), and you can arrange an independent visit if you’d like.

For convenience, you can also book organized vineyard experiences — like this one, in which you will walk with a guide from Vernazza to a hillside vineyard with panoramic views, where you’ll taste wines and local snacks.

6. Have a drink (or two!) at Nessun Dorma.

There’s no shortage of lovely places to enjoy food and drink in Cinque Terre, but my favorite option may be Nessun Dorma.

At this cliffside aperitivo bar, you can enjoy pre-dinner drinks and snacks while admiring incredible views of Manarola across a small cove. If you time it well, you can even sip your wine while watching the warmth of the setting sun make Manarola simply glow.

Nessun Dorma is about as far from a hidden gem as a place can be — it’s quite popular, and you should expect to wait a while for a table. However, in recent years, Nessun Dorma has started to use an app-based reservation system that will allow you to wait in line virtually instead of physically.

Learn all about how to get a table at Nessun Dorma here:

7. Climb to a castle in Vernazza.

Yes, there’s a castle in Cinque Terre!

Don’t get too excited, though: it’s really just one tower, and it’s largely a ruin, and it’s not immensely high up.

But it is there, and you can climb up to see the view. It’s called Doria Tower, and it presides above Vernazza, about 70 meters above the sea. The cost is small — just a couple of euros — and the climb is doable. Why not?

8. Get out on the water.

Experience Cinque Terre from a new perspective by venturing out onto the water. There’s no shortage of ways to experience Cinque Terre from the water — including sunset cruise, snorkeling trips, and more!

For example, if you’re interested in a Cinque Terre boating experience, consider these options:

• A full-day boat tour of Cinque Terre and the surrounding area, with food, drinks, sightseeing, snorkeling, and more.
• A boat tour of each town in Cinque Terre, plus stops for swimming in hidden coves.
• A sunset trip with drinks.

9. Admire the views from…everywhere.

You know this already: Cinque Terre is beautiful. So beautiful that it wouldn’t be crazy to spend much of your visit trying to find the very best views of Cinque Terre.

At least, I hope it wouldn’t be crazy, since that was a major element of my own trip to Cinque Terre!

Here’s what I learned: there are fantastic views to be found from afar — looking down at rows of striped beach chairs and the ways the towns’ pastel-colored buildings cling to cliffsides — as well as from within the towns themselves.

Many of my favorite views of Cinque Terre can be found on the Sentiero Azzurro, so be sure to pack hiking clothes if you’d like to see those for yourself.

10. Walk the Via dell’Amore.

In 2012, the easiest and most famous section of the Sentiero Azzurro — the Via dell’Amore, which is the path between Manarola and Riomaggiore — was closed due to the effects of flooding and rockslides.

It remained closed for more than a decade while it was restored and improved.

Happily, in 2024, the Via dell’Amore was reopened! Visitors can, once again, walk between Riomaggiore and Manarola without taking a grueling path over the mountains. Indeed, the Via dell’Amore is an easy, flat walking path beside the sea.

However, be warned that walking the Via dell’Amore requires a reservation, which you can make online here or in person at various Info Points through Cinque Terre. It costs €10.

Additionally, note that the Via dell’Amore is currently a one-way trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola.

11. Jump off the rocks in Manarola.

There are a number of places to swim in Cinque Terre — the gorgeous and calm cove of Vernazza, the small harbor of Riomaggiore, the beaches of Monterosso — but for fun and excitement, it’s tough to beat the rocks of Manarola.

Clamber up and wait your turn to leap off into the sea below!

pin this post