cinque terre question?
 

We hope to stay a night or two in Levanto and take the train to the other "5 towns",,,,perhaps staying a night or two at one of them.
WHICH of the 5 would be the "most flat",,,,or rather which one would have the fewest steps.? We can do some steps of course, but would like some suggestions. Vernazza looks to be beautiful, but also looks in pictures to be the hilliest.
Is Montesorro "less hilly". ?
Thanks for any suggestions....because this a question that is a little harder to be answered by looking at a MAP or from HOTEL information.

Yes, Monterosso is almost flat, but you do have to walk up to the train station. But Levanto is so close to Monterosso I would choose one but not both. The ferry is the best way to see that coast IMHO, and the villages are all flat very close to the water.

The five cinque terre towns are all so close, I would suggest just staying in one spot. Taking the ferry/boat is very, very easy to each little town... although you do have to walk up steps from the ferry launch to each town. Monterosso is, by far the flatest. It's also the best, in terms of restuarants, etc. We stayed at Hotel Pasquale, and it was amazing. They are all waterfront rooms, and the breakfast is the best we had in Italy. You can read more about the hotel at www.pasini.com. Have fun!

Levanto is very different from the five Cinque Terre towns, it has roads and traffic for a start! From memory, Corniglia is by far the hardest to reach, many steps uphill from the train station or there is a road, which we chose to walk up, that winds uphill. There was supposed to be a little mini van to collect people but it didn't turn up - very Italian.

In Manarola there weren't many steps but it is definitely all uphill. There was a little hotel down near the harbour in Manarola which looked nice (something like Marina Piccola I think) and there wouldn't be many steps at all between that hotel and the train station. The rest of the village is uphill from there.

The walk between Manarola and Riomaggiore is mostly flat and paved and took about half an hour. The other walks between the villages would be much harder.

Kay

fireman415: the hotel Pasquale sounds perfect....thanks so much.
I'll do more research and keep options open, but this is encouraging.
We'll have a car before AND after cinque terre...so will need to leave it "someplace.".

The ferry sounds like the best way
(for US) to do cinque terre....and Monterosso may be the place to stay a couple of nights. Can't one drive into Monterosso?
If not, then we leave the car in Levanto, and take the ferry???
I know levanto is not one of the 5, but apparently it is a better option for leaving the car than LeSpezia. Right?

Thanks.