Cinque Terre, Italy

Throughout our travels in Italy, my family and I road tripped to Rome, Reggio Emilia, Cinque Terre, Venice, Pisa, Lucca, Salerno, and visited the ancient ruins of Pompeii.

 After traveling to all these locations in Italy, my favorite was definitely Cinque Terre. ​While we were in Cinque Terre, we stayed in Levanto, not technically inside Cinque Terre, but close enough to take a train from around 5-20 minutes to see all 5 of the cities and Bonassola. Levanto didn't have much to see, but was much less touristy than the Cinque Terre, which made it a good place to stay when visiting them. We stayed in a home exchange so it was nice for all of us to have our own rooms, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and a large terrace overlooking the sea.

Although Cinque Terre is a very touristy area, we still found decent food. Most of our time there we cooked food inside our Airbnb, but when we were traveling to each city we ate out. Throughout Cinque Terre we had lots of homemade pasta, ranging from seafood pasta to pesto pasta. All of the towns were very beautiful, with hundreds of colorful houses and lots to see! 

Anyway, Cinque Terre is a tourist attraction for anybody visiting Italy! Out of all 5 towns,(Vernazza, Monterosso, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore.) We spent one day hiking from Vernazza to Corniglia, enjoyed lunch, and then took the train to Monterosso. Monterosso was my favorite. Monterosso had beautiful architecture as well as stunning beaches. I really liked how much bigger it was than the rest of the cities, which gave us a break from all of the tourists. Even though I didn't get to spend a lot of time in Monterosso, it was definitely better than the other tourist-packed cities. 

The most disappointing part of Cinque Terre was definitely the Via dell'Amore(Trail of Love). The Via dell'Amore was closed for nearly 12 years due to landslides and an astounding 24 million dollars was poured into restoring it. Unfortunately, I thought it was garbage. First of all, it costs a staggering 17 euros a person, which is already ridiculously expensive. The Via dell'Amore is around a 15-minute walk,one way, for 17 euros a person, which is absolutely a robbery. I couldn't believe they would charge this much for a 1-way 15-minute walk. Besides the ridiculous pricing, the walk was alright. The view was beautiful, with seas views of the crystal blue water…but you can get the same view for free if you just hike for 5-10 minutes in the opposite direction. The Via dell’Amore could definitely improve if they charged less, and let you walk through it as many times as you wanted. In total, Cinque Terre was fun, but I recommend not seeing the Via dell'Amore, due to its expensive pricing and short time period.