Flashback Friday: Cinque Terre Day Trip

Cinque Terre is a rugged coastline on the Italian Riviera and consists of the five beautiful hillside villages; Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.

The five villages are connected by hiking trails, Check out this blog by Wandering Italy excellent advice on navigating these trails (two of which require a Trekking Card. All other trails are free! There are trains running every 20 minutes between the five villages. You can also enjoy this scenic coastline by taking the ferry. We chose a day trip from Siena that would visit 3 of the 5 villages and also included a stop in Portovenere.

We were awake at dark o'clock for our tour to Cinque Terre from Siena, which also stopped to pick up some passengers in Florence. We were picked up in a mini-van and transferred to a coach just outside of Florence.

Our first stop was Manarola, the fourth village if travelling from the north-west, the second if arriving from the south-east, unless you're on a daytrip that misses Riomaggiore where the walking trails begin. Our coach parked and we walked along a fairly rough trail along the terraces of wine grapes into the village.