cinque terre places to stay
 

traveling from Florence and would love to stay close to cinque terre. I had a reservation in Rapallo but Lucca and Levante look lovely. From there I will be taking a train to Milan.

I enjoyed La Torretta in Manarola; it still gets great reviews.
https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/la-...-manarola.html

Villa Steno in Monterosso, about 12 years ago, was lovely. Friendly service, nice rooms, many with balconies and views of the sea.

Monterosso is the largest of the 5 towns and very close to Levanto.

I went to the hospital in Levanto when I fell on the hiking trail and dislocated my finger. It looked like a lovely little town.

Not Lucca--too far.

Depends on what you want to do in CT -hike the 7-miles direct footpath between the 5 Lands? And linger in each town - do other hikes -for one day there day-tripping in can be nice. We stayed in Santa Margharita Ligure, about an hour away and took train to Monterosso and hiked them all in one, for us easy, day- the actual villages were too mobbed to really enjoy IMO- SML is also on doorstep of Portofino if you want to see that old town (incredibly mobbed also even in October).

Rapollo is really nice and a lot closer if spending more than a day in CT -outside of tourist season CT may be nice to stay in but otherwise give me a SML or Rapollo or other nearby towns anyday - some semblances of being real towns not just tourist mob scenes (though in season everything in this area is heavily touristed - at least seaside towns.

I'm sorry ?what is IM)-SML

OMI=in my opinion..SML=Santa Margherita Ligure.CT=Cinque Terre
We stayed in the CT in Monterosso at Hotel Porto Roca, beautiful setting up on the hillside overlooking the sea. Have also stayed in SML twice, beautiful place.

We were in Italy this past May. A friend who had been to Rapallo recommended we stay there and then day trip into Cinque Terre but we decided to stay at Locanda Il Maestrale (http://locandamaestrale.net/?lang=en) located in Monterosso as we wanted to be in Cinque Terre. We really enjoyed our stay at Il Maestrale. Nice room and wonderful breakfast with excellent cappuccino.

The only downside we encountered was dealing with our luggage at the train stations. By the way Cinque Terre in the evening is much different from what it's like mid day as most of the people doing day trips have departed.

Whatever you end up doing be sure to visit Corniglia. It was my favorite of the 5 towns.

Have a wonderful trip!

When are you going? If it's not during chilly/rainy weather and you truly want the CT experience, I would recommend staying in one of the 5 towns because they have their own vibe. We stayed in Vernazza and it was lovely, though I wouldn't plug the place we stayed.I also really loved the atmosphere in Monterosso. The other towns are more quiet.

We hiked, so from that aspect it was ideal to be ready to go before trains filled with tourists/hikers started flooding in. Did a day trip to SML and took the boat to San Fruttuoso Abbey. Highly recommend, and SML is beautiful, but obviously much bigger than CT, so again it really comes down to what kind of experience you want. Also spent some time in Lucca. Loved it, but due to location, it doesn't belong in a conversation about the Ligurian coast.

Enjoy!