A Few Links and Practicalities

(Just sharing the love. I absolutely don’t get paid for these.)

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Getting there

Train from Pisa, Genoa or Florence airports, or an extension to your Tuscan retreat.

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Getting around

This is easy once you’ve figured it out, but may hurt your head as much as your thighs. I’ll try to make it pain free, but brace yourself.

 

Your options for getting between villages are train, walk or ferry. Only a crazy person (or a local) would drive. Trains take two minutes between villages, walking is measured in hours. Equally crazy.

 

The whole system encourages you to buy the ‘access all areas’ Cinque Terre card for the duration of your stay. There’s a pricey one with trains included and one without. You really don’t want either. Because you shouldn’t try to visit multiple villages in a day, (unless you’re a crazy person, or a day-tripper - same thing). Just pick your village each day, buy a single train ticket, then either walk back or let the train take the strain.

 

There are limited exceptions to this rule: Three of the walks have tolls. (All others are free, although definitely not easy). For the Blue Line linking Monterosso to Vernazza and Vernazza to Corniglia you effectively pay cash at the checkpoint. (Technically, you’re buying a daily Cinque Terre card).

 

The third is the Via Dell’Amore connecting Manarola and Riomaggiore. Nowhere on earth does mankind make a ten minute walk more complicated. You must book and pay. There are limited 15 minute time-slots, mornings only, and you must walk in the direction Rio to Man. Furthermore, you can only do this if, guess what, you buy a Cinque Terre card and upgrade it. You can book online up to a day ahead. On Sunday morning, the ticket booth had a two-hour queue. As discussed, the Lovers Way is lovely and the way to get between these two villages. You may even find yourself taking it more than once. The solution to this Gordian Knot of a riddle is the residents QR code your accommodation gives you. This entitles you to a discount and unlimited walks, in either direction, until 1 am. You ‘just’ buy a ticket (which is valid for your whole stay) on top of, surprise surprise, a daily Cinque Terre card. Then flash all three bits of paperwork at the checkpoint. I do hope you’ve got all that. There will be a short test to check.

 

The ferry is a fine way to see the villages, not least for the views from the water. But skip any notion of the all-day all-village pass. There aren’t enough hours and ferries in the day to make it worth doing. You can’t get a ferry to Corniglia anyway, on account of her being 100 meters up a cliff.  Simply take one single passage from Riomaggiore to Monterosso, or vice versa. That takes about an hour and will lay on the whole show for you.

 

Where to stay

While there’s much discussion about which village is the best to stay in, the answer is clearly Manarola … or possibly Riomaggiore … maybe Corniglia if you want somewhere really quiet.

 

I found one decent hotel room and www.cinqueterre.eu.com/en has done the hard work of picking some of the best apartments.  

 

www.hotelmarinapiccola.com/en is right in the thick of the pointy end of Manarola, but their junior suite delivers sharp styling and the requisite balcony.

 

Cantina Burasca.

Nice place up in Manarola. Also, a wine tasting room / experience.

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Cantina Capellini, Voltara

If you’re up for it, this is the place to taste wine, eat platters and feel like a soaring bird. But I do mean ‘up’. (Don’t click on this link if you’re at all nervous about heights)

www.cantinacapellini.it/en/muvi/?v=a53ed5f9cae8

 

Trattoria Dal Billy.  www.trattoriabilly.com/en

This is the place everyone recommends, and you can see why. Slogan: ‘Where good lobsters die happy’.

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