Cinque Terre question
 

We will be visting CT in October for a couple nights. Would it be sensible to stay in Santa Margherita, take a train to Riomaggiore, hike north until we're tired, and then take a train back at the end of the day? Or is SM too far? Would we really miss out by not staying in one of the CT towns over night?
Thanks for any advise.

SML is a long way from the CT---about an hour. I would stay in one of the villages or Levanto the first town to the north and a lovely resort town.

Hi s,

We did exactly that. Yes, the train took an hour from SML to Riomaggiore. We hiked as back as far as Vernazza (after stopping for a very long lunch in Corniglia), where we pooped out, got gellato and trained back.

We wished we had started earlier for the hike. 10:30 am was far too late for the temps in May.

I would suggest just staying in one of the CT towns. They're wonderful, have great places to visit for dinner, and you won't have to worry about getting a train back. I'd suggest Monterosso or Vernazza...

Good luck!

I too daytripped in by train - to Monterosso and walked to Riomaggiore for the train back

We really liked SML - a few miles from portofino

Last month i again went to each 5 Lands towns - this time by train from Florence and all of them are dreamy, etc., esp Vernazza IMO but i still like the more real SML - where there is an active fishing industry and fish market, etc. more.

You may want to walk from Monterosso as the first segment is the hardest - get that over before the end of the day - the easiest is the flat Via d'Amour to Riomaggiore - rather than having the hardest part when you are most tired.

Thanks so much for all your help. We want to base out of a town that will allow us more easy access to other places outside of CT (Genoa, Pisa, etc). Any suggestions other than SML would be welcome.

We stayed slightly farther north in Camogli. It's a smaller town than SML, very scenic. And it's also on the trainline south to the CT, north to Genoa.

We too stayed in SML at the Hotel Continental. The hotel was directly across from the train and there was parking at the hotel which would make daytrips easier.

nice hotel.

We enjoyed our stay at Santa Margherita Ligure. This is from my trip report:

"We really enjoyed the Nuova Riviera, via Belvedere 10, www.nuovariviera.com. The little B&B hotel is located on a slight hill, on a quiet narrow road, in a nice semi-residential neighborhood, only 200 meters from the harbor and the center of town. They call it a “liberty villa with garden”, and you feel at home there.

Our room was very reasonable, 98.50 EUR for a double/twin with breakfast. (It would have been slightly less expensive if I hadn't gone through venere.com)

Actually, our room had three twin beds, and was quite large with a big wardrobe, a desk, a roll-top desk, and two upholstered chairs. The room had a unique rounded wall, with large windows, and also a ceiling fan. The bathrooms are relatively new, with nicely tiled shower stalls. It was sparkling clean and very charming.

The next morning was slightly overcast, and since we were planning on going to the Cinque Terre, I asked the manager at breakfast if he knew the weather forecast. He said it could clear, or it could rain; then he very kindly found the forecast on his computer and printed it out for me. Another example that service at the Nuova Riviera is very personal and friendly. In fact, my daughter had chosen to sleep in and skip breakfast that morning, but the manager insisted on preparing a tray for me to take to her in our room.

We decided to risk the weather and head to Cinque Terre, which was a good decision as it turned into a beautiful blue-sky day after all. We took the train to Vernazza, and had a simple picnic of yoghurt and fruit at the waterfront. Before leaving, I picked up a card from a hotel there, which looks nice, the Gianni Franzi, Piazza Marconi 1, www.giannifranzi.it."

:)>-

All the C.T. towns are great options, although SML is the largest by far with many more hotels and places to eat. Remember that in addition to the trains between towns, you can also take a boat from several of them unless the weather is too rough. A great way to spend a day is to hike from SML to Portofino and then have an expensive $$$ two hour lunch by the harbor and a boat back in time for your nap before a big dinner. There are no trains from SML to Portofino. You can take the public big boat $ or hire a small private boat $$ for the 15-20 minute return trip. Bob

I stayed in Levanto in October and found it convenient to the CT towns. I think I would have preferred Riomaggiore or Vernazza had I been able to find advanced, affordable accommodations there, but those towns have limited train connections to the large Italian cities - mostly local service between La Spezia and Monterosso. Monterosso and Levanto both have much better train connections to Pisa, Genoa, etc. than the other CT towns do.

Levanto was fine, really - a pleasant beach town, only 10 minutes by train into the CT. It's more "ordinary" than the CT towns but it worked out fine for me.

We stayed in Levanto, too, in May. Loved it!! (My 10-year-old just said, "When are we going back to Levanto") It was only about 45 minutes drive to Pisa and there is a train station. We had a car so I don't know the details of where you can connect to from Levanto, but it's a pretty popular vacation destination so I'm assuming Pisa and Genoa are easily accessible from there. It's a 10-15 minute ferry ride to the CT from Levanto or a 5 minute train ride to Monterosso, the first of the CT.

My choice would be Levanto..(referred to as the 6th town of the Cinque Terre)...October is a great time to visit, you will still be able to enjoy the beach (better than any of the 5 CT towns), numerous wonderful restaurants and shops...and it has a major train station as well for easy connections to the CT (10 minutes by train) or to travel north or south of the CT area...good luck, Mikek

We stayed in Vernazza, and it was such a golden experience! Very small, but plenty of restaurants. We took the boat to the other towns, and got off at each one (south, not north towns), and then walked from one to the other, too. Our room overlooked the town square, and it was just magical. I did laundry there one morning, and I have to say that I've never enjoyed doing laundry quite so much! It took forever with those little machines, but I would put it in, then sit outside with a coffee, then check it, then buy some raspberries. One thing I would think about is that when we were arriving, i think it was a Sunday, there were hoards of people leaving who had been there for the weekend. You might want to pay attention to when you plan to stay there. And we drove to Pisa, got the train there, and it took us to Vernazza, no problem. All the little towns we saw looked great, though! But it seems that one or two of them had a longer hike downhill to the harbor, and in Vernazza it's right there.

Search here for a thread I posted, which is a compilation of fodorites' comments on the CT trail itself. It will give you good advice about the trails.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34871747

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Thank you everyone! It sounds like we will decide between SML and Levanto. Ideally we would stay in each place but we don¡¦t want to do that much moving around. Thanks for the thread on trails Mambo, I will print that out and bring along. October sure seems a long time from now! Look for more questions over the next months. ƒº

Another vote for Levanto - great
little town for restos, but still
much quieter than the 5T's. The
majority of the tourists seemed to
be European rather than N.American.

Easy train access to the 5T's.

Another vote for Vernazza. We visited last October and LOVED the town of Vernazza. We stayed (and highly recommend La Mala inn. http://www.lamala.it/en/index.html Once you see this place, you won't want to leave.

Of our 4 city visit in Italy, Vernazza was our hands down favorite. After a day of hiking, we looked forward to watching the sunset from La Mala's terrace.

For a couple nights, I'd consider just staying put in one area instead of trying to explore 3 cities. I really don't think you'll miss much by not visiting Genoa or Pisa. We just stopped in Pisa for a few hours (all that I'd recommend) to see the leaning tower.

October will be here before you know it!

Enjoy....

sgerhar1:

Here's a photo montage of our October 2007 (3 night) stay in Vernazza. It also shows images from the other villages and the hiking trail.

http://tinyurl.com/2hbobe

Ciao!

adventureseeker, I was in the CT in October too - stayed in Levanto but took quite a few pictures in Vernazza. Maybe you are in a few of these from my Cinque Terre gallery?

http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,5D...que-terre.html

I actually have a few town shots of Levanto that I left out of this gallery but if someone wants to see them I can add them in...