Say YES to postcard perfection, Cinque Terre, Italy (some useful advice)

Hello stemians,

How is your week going? Mine is great, I just can not wait for Christmas and snow to come, also love spending quality time with my family an friends.
Today's post is about one of the most colorful places in the world, about my visit to Cinque Terre.
Cinque Terre is composed from five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The entire area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, remember when I mentioned I have a thing for UNESCO sites, now became more clear than ever.

I love that these villages are especially for pedestrians, no traffic jam, no pollution, though you can find few roads where you can drive, but it’s better to get here by train.

Actually I visited only three villages from five, unfortunately we ran out of time. My journey started from Pisa, where we stayed during our Tuscan holiday, and to get to Cinque Terre we took two trains, one for La Spezia (ride took less than 1 hour), and there we changed for a train that's stopping in every of these five towns. We bought from La Spezia a Cinque Terre Card, that costs around 8 euro. I remember there are two types of cards: Cinque Terre Trekking Card and Cinque Terre Card Train multiservice, you should search more info to see what's the best option for your trip.

We took the train until Monterosso,the last town, the ride took aproximately half an hours. Monterosso is the most beach friendly place among all the villages from Cinque Terre, the view is incredible and the water is perfect. Moreover this is the largest of the five towns. It’s such a beautiful place becuse you can admire both sea and mountain.

You see what I am talking about?

We thought summer is too hot and crowded to visit this UNESCO site, so we went on autumn.

Huge Sansevieria trifasciata

It was a lovely and sunny day of September when we got here, we even stayed to get a little tan and the water’s temperature was good for that time of the year.

We treated ourselves with bunch of ice cream and enjoyed the city, also we did a little souvenir shopping, as I have my fridge full of magnets,
The Garibaldi Square is the bigget square in the city, situated very close to the beach. It is a popular place among both locals and tourist and here you have chance to observe the people who live here. In the center of square you cand find the statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi, a hero of Italy.

Piazza Garibaldi is the main square of Monterosso al Mare, the biggest of the five Cinque Terre towns. The square is located next to the beach at the entrance to the old part of the town of Monterosso. The square is named after Giuseppe Garibaldi, a revolutionary hero.

We enjoyed our cup of espreeso next to the beach, i love the sound of the waves.

From the beach we decided to hike to the next village, Vernazza, the most beautiful from my point of view. It was a quite a long hike but it was totally worth it. We weren't at all prepared for this hike, actually this is what I wore.

Advice: So if you are planning a visit in Cinque Terre and want to go also on a hike, be more prepared and don’t take flip flops or sandals...

From my point of view I think it’s better to go toward Vernazza, because the views are epic. As I previously mentioned, we weren’t properly equipped, we had just a little water with us, and temperature was quite high, but we were lucky.... in the middle of the way there is a guy who sells orange juice, and that saved us and we gain power to finish this hike. It can be challenging in some place, because it is steep.

I strongly recommend you to bring a lot of water and something to eat.

This path is one of the longest of the five, but definitely worth all the pain and effort, because when you approach Vernazza, you see such astounding views.

Funny story: When we were close to Vernazza, a nice lady told me she is more tired and sweaty and just started and that it’s not fair that I look so good after this hike. She just started the hike from Vernazza to Monterosso.

After almost two and half hour hike we arrived in this beautiful town and we treated ourselves with pizza and pasta and bunch of still water.

The centre of Vernazza is Piazza Marconi, you just can miss it, it is very close to the train station and the main street runs directly in this square.

As I mentioned before, like in Monterosso, the main square is where we had the chance of meeting both locals and tourists. It is such a colorful place and so glad they had recovered from the event that took place in 2011.
In 2011, Cinque Terre, especially Vernazza and Monterosso were affected by one of the most devastating flood. Almost every first floors of the building in Vernazza ere damaged and had to be renovated and rebuilt.

We took some time to watch the locals passing by. Near this main square is a small beach.

Located in the square Marconi, The Santa Margherita d’Antiochia Church was built almost 700 years ago by the Maestri Antelami. The bell tower is 40 meter tall. It’s worth a visit if you are in this city, because it gives you a quiet place.

After we visited some little shops, we walked around this little town and from there we took the train and stopped in Riomaggiore. I forgot to say that the prices are really acceptable in this region!

As I previousley menioned we ran out of time and we managed to see only three form five towns, but that's a pretty good excuse to come back here real soon, I heard that Manorola is the most beautiful village...

Riomaggiore is the most southern towns of Cinque Terre, we arrived around 17.00 but we walk around the main street, Via Colombo, where you can find bunch or restaurants and souvenir shops.

The smallest ambulance I ever saw, Riomaggiore

In Riomaggiore we got to see this pretty sunset and after a good walk and some astounding pictures, we went back to train station and got strayed home to Pisa. Don't worry I will obviously write about Pisa, so stay tuned. It’s a perfect destination for your Tuscan holiday.
Even though I did not have the chance to see all five towns of Cinque Terre, I know I will be back for more.

Be right back

One of the greatest joys of traveling through Italy is discovering firsthand that is is, indeed, a dream destination.
Debra Levinson

Hope you enjoyed my post, if so please upvote and resteem it.
For more, stay tuned and follow me!
Until next time,
Xo A

If you are planning a holiday in Tuscany, take a look on my previous posts:

• https://steemit.com/travel/@alexandraioana26/florence-the-centerpiece-of-tuscany
• https://steemit.com/photography/@alexandraioana26/you-may-have-the-universe-if-i-may-have-florence
• https://steemit.com/photography/@alexandraioana26/livorno

Source:

• www.visitacity.com
  [//]:# (!steemitworldmap 44.132449 lat 9.696121 long CINQUE TERRE, Postcard Perfection d3scr)