There we were, in a picture-book village 100m above sea level in a quirky hole-in-the-wall bar. It was day three of our walking holiday on Italy’s northwest coast, and my friend Debbie and I seemed to have stumbled into something out of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, its handkerchief-sized terrace overhung by vines, festooned with lanterns, paper streamers and flower-stuffed birdcages. The Terra Rossa wine bar in the village of Corniglia was a one-off. Glass bottles half-filled with pink and green liquids dangled bizarrely from ribbons on twisted tree branches. The only things missing were labels saying “Drink Me”.
Pint-sized Corniglia has only about 200 permanent inhabitants and is the smallest of the five jewel-bright Cinque Terre villages that stud Italy’s Ligurian coast (Cinque Terre means “five lands”). These run along the 16km stretch of rocky seaboard between the town of Levanto (in the northwest) and the harbour of Porto Venere (southeast). All five villages — Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore — are showstoppingly photogenic.
Linking the five settlements, ancient paths and former mule tracks lead hikers along cliffs or through idyllic vineyards and lemon groves, where lizards laze on dry-stone walls and kestrels hover overhead. The only fly in the ointment is us — the Cinque Terre is no longer the well-kept secret it once was. This trip was pre-Covid, and we felt we’d hit the bullseye with that morning hike to Corniglia, the trickiest of the five villages to access, a steep climb on a 382-step stairway from the railway station.
Our adventure had begun two days earlier in Levanto, the northern gateway to the Cinque Terre and just four minutes by train from Monterosso. Set in an amphitheatre of citrus groves and chestnut trees, it’s a charming place in itself, a slightly old-fashioned resort with a broad, sandy beach and an old quarter of narrow streets lined with cinnamon- coloured houses that once belonged to wealthy merchants. It was an ideal first base. On our second evening, after an initial day’s hiking that had been wetter than we’d bargained for, we sat in perfect peace under a canopy of plane trees next to a 13th-century loggia, sipping limoncello. Swifts flitted in and out of the archways. The only voices at the tables were speaking Italian.
You don’t need walking boots to visit the Cinque Terre. A boat service connects all the villages except Corniglia. And they’re minutes apart on the 19th-century railway line that tunnels through the cliff-side like a Tube service. But Debbie and I had promised ourselves to try to avoid public transport and discover the joys of travelling on foot. Our walking-holiday specialist provided maps, route notes and a luggage-collection service to transfer our bags between hotels. Hiking-lite? Perhaps, but we weren’t simply getting to know all of the Cinque Terre villages; we were also discovering the awesome, lost-in-time spaces between them. It was like joining up the dots of stars in a constellation.
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Our first proper walk had its ups and downs, in more ways than one. We’d accidentally chosen one of the toughest trails: a two-hour trek from Monterosso to neighbouring Vernazza. The route was precipitous, with flight after flight of unevenly stepped pathways. There were fantastic sights along the way: grottoes where crystal waterfalls hopped with frogs, and secret pools where bees sipped water. But there were also treacherously slippery descents through dense tangles of thorns and branches. A downpour didn’t do much to lift our spirits.
Then, as a fierce-looking procession of hikers with trekking poles approached at marching pace, it dawned on us that we’d picked the worst time of day for what was supposed to be a leisurely stroll. We’d got caught up in the hectic two-way rush for Sunday lunch tables.
But then the rain cleared. The landscape opened up into fields scented with wild herbs. Below us, into view came Vernazza, with a small beach in a blaze of ochres and burnt sienna. It’s the beauty queen of the Cinque Terre’s five villages. But it was packed to the gunwales. Should we avoid the popular coastal paths in future, in favour of gentler, more bucolic inland routes? Solicitous locals in the bar pitched in with advice. The key thing was timing. We should aim to arrive wherever we were going well before 11am to beat the crowds. Or wait until after 3pm.
Flushed with success after the next day’s walk to Corniglia, we repeated the same pattern on day four, arriving in its nearest neighbour, mellow Manarola. Its beauty was less obviously film set than Vernazza’s, but the tumble of sherbet-coloured homesteads captivated us. This time we arrived in time to find a table at family-run fish restaurant, Trattoria dal Billy, its walls adorned with grainy 1970s photos of its fisherman founder. The views — over a valley terraced with vineyards — were unforgettable.
By now we’d moved hotels to Monterosso, more of a resort than the other villages. But if it lacked the fairy dust of its neighbours, it offered breathing space after our daily exertions. On our final day we took a boat trip from there back to Manarola, striking out beyond its headland to our final port of call: Riomaggiore, deemed the most picturesque of the Cinque Terre. Its tiny harbour is the wildest and least sheltered in the region: in bad weather fishing boats get hauled up the slipway into a square overhung by tall, thin houses with bright façades. Here we spent our last evening, showing up for sunset as Vernazza’s helpful locals had advised.
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Vivid bands of colour reflected from sea to land, and the lurching parade of houses blushed with peachy light. We sat quietly on a rock at the edge of the near-deserted harbour. Our feet may have been aching, but our hearts were soaring.
This is an edited version of an article that appears in the November issue of The Sunday Times Travel Magazine. Linda Cookson was a guest of Inntravel, which in 2021 has a seven-night self-guided trip through the villages of the Cinque Terre from £945pp, B&B, including luggage transfers (inntravel.co.uk). Fly to Genoa or Pisa.
The Foreign Office currently advises against all non-essential travel to Italy. For more details, see gov.uk
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