Italy Trip Sept 2025 - Part 2 Cinque Terre, Liguria

We then took the small ferry on to the village of Manarola. You can stop at all vllages apart from Corniglia which doesn't have a quay big enough for the ferries. We gave that one a miss anyway as it is perched up on a steep hillside and is something like 300 steps up from the train station - umm no thanks!

This ferry that passed us was larger than the one we were on. It was only a short journey onto Manarola, about 15 minutes I think, but so enjoyable and scenic that the time passed much too quickly.

This is Corniglia, mostly perched up on a rock.

Manarola. Loads of people were swimming off any bits of rock where they could find a space. Some young guys were jumping in from high up which was fun to watch.

There was more to see here than the previous village we visited. Don't you love all the different colours of the buildings? However I know for sure that a lot of the photos I've seen of these villages (postcards particularly) are WAY oversaturated as the villages just do not look so brightly coloured as they are portrayed.

We had an enjoyable lunch out, and that salad is not my lunch! I had fried fresh anchovies which are delicious - like whitebait but larger and you eat the whole fish, bones and all. Keith had a mixed fish and shellfish grill.

These villages have terraced hillsides where traditionally farmers could eke out a living cultivating olives and vines on the stony ground.

There's a path you can take between the villages as well but we just walked to the viewpoint.

Looking back in the direction we came from.

I discovered after a while that my lens hood had moved and appeared in many of my photos! Thankfully I was able to crop it off the photos above.

We then took the train on to the last village of the day - Riomaggiore, which is close to Manarola. There was a bit of a walk from the train station but the central, scenic bit was quite small. The village was only really colourful right by the water as well.

And then we took the train back to Levanto, after an enjoyable day out! Would I recommend a visit - yes of course, but unless you are really fit and can do some good walks up in the hills or between villages there is not a lot to see in the villages themselves. But to have a potter, mooch around a few touristy shops, have a nice meal and enjoy a mix of ferries and trains like we did, it was still a fun experience. In fact the last time I had taken a train was in Switzerland in 1997 so that was fun for me too! 😀