Cinque Terre

---

Sometimes it's hard to decide where to go for a long weekend in Europe, this time we decided to visit Cinque Terre in Italy after a recommendation from a friend.

Flying in to Genoa, we immediately headed to the train station for a 1.5hr, slow train, ride along the North West Coast of Italy to the first Terre, Monterosso Al Mare where we were staying.

Cinque terre comprises of five small and different towns along a small section of the coast. The five towns are Monterosso Al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. All can be accessed by train but to go just one train stop will cost 4 euros. You can get a pass but we were quite sneaky and didn't pay for any tickets. As it was a sunny day on a Sunday, lots of the towns were very busy and subsequently so were the trains so we thought the conductors wouldn't check all those people for tickets. So we did save a bit of money!

You are also able to walk along the coast to all of the towns, but at this time of the year there were some parts of the trail that were closed. You also have to pay 7 euros to be able to walk it but it is worth it. It did get very busy along the trail but the views are great! You can also do walks higher in the hills above the town. I recommend having a map and taking the correct path! We took the wrong path and ended up on a small trail with a dead end!

My favorite villages were Vernazza and Manarola and probably most other people's too as they offer the best views. All in all, three to four days is plenty to see it all and in my opinion it's better to visit in the shoulder season as I can imagine it gets very packed in peak season.

---