I am not a fan of crowds, but I am a fan of Italy. In summertime, crowds are unavoidable, particularly if you stick to the most-visited destinations. Rome, Florence, Venice, Pisa, the Amalfi coast, and of course the five teeny tiny villages that make up Cinque Terre are hugely popular, and alas, hugely overcrowded. So I’ll be honest, these days if I find myself working on a Mediterranean cruise in the height of summer, I tend to steer clear of the hotspots and seek out alternate places to visit. But Cinque Terre is a place that I had never seen; so after almost the entire summer of staying in the nearby city of La Spezia each time we docked, I finally gave in and began to branch out. It was early September, the weather was still warm (in fact I’d call it muggy), and my pal Chris had come to visit. We decided to hop on a train to spend one day in Vernazza. (And I’m truly glad we did.)
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My opinion of Cinque Terre is that, if you’re a person who likes to wander and observe, soaking in the atmosphere as much as taking in the sights, these villages are the perfect place for you to visit. If you need a checklist of activities and photo opportunities, I genuinely think you should steer clear. Ditto goes for attempting to see every single village in one day. Which is why we stuck to just the one village. One day in Vernazza was ideal; it’s big enough to wander, with plenty of options for eating and drinking, and it only takes twenty minutes to reach by train from the port city of La Spezia.
We ambled aimlessly through the winding narrow lanes and stone staircases, seeking out hidden viewpoints in the hills around the village, getting slowly soaked with sweat despite the blurry clouds hanging low overhead. We chatted and dug into bowls of pasta with bright green pesto, and sat on the little harbour wall watching shoals of fish swim in the clear aquamarine water. The streets were still busy, but honestly not as jam-packed as I’d built them up to be in my head, and only a few families swam at the little beach. It was a lovely, lazy, day.
So pals, this one day in Vernazza post is less about the words, and more about the pictures. Just, enjoy. I have no recommendations for how to spend your own day here, other than to soak it all in like a sponge and enjoy every single second of it. That’s exactly what we did and I’m happy to say that we have absolutely no regrets.
Hiking the Via Beccara from Riomaggiore to Manarola
