Our second day in Cinque Terre was another blue bird one. The plan was to catch the train to Riomaggiore and walk between Riomaggiore and Manarola. However, due to neither of us paying attention, we missed the stop and ended up in La Spezia!

La Spezia Diversion

It turned out that it wasn’t such a bad mistake as La Spezia was a really interesting medium size town.  We started with a coffee and brioche in the charming little C’est Bon Expresso Bar and then walked down the main street towards the port.

There were numerous attractive treelined stepped passages running off the street and up the hill.

We came upon this street artisan crafting bicycles from electrical wires. At 7 Euros it was a lovely momento of this visit to a place that turned out to be more than expected.

At the bottom of the main street there was the Salvador Allende park with a monument to Guiseppe Garibaldi.

Having had a quick look at the town, we walked back up to the station, stopping in a couple of shops on the way. The accidental stopover was not wasted but now was the time to board the train back to Riommagiore and commence the walk to Manarola.

Riomaggiore to Manarola

The train arrived at Riomaggiore and we stepped out from the station to overlook these crystal clear waters below.

The beautiful bustling village of Riomaggiore has a little harbour and an assortment of houses and narrow streets, all painted with the compulsory colour palette of the region.

The most popular way of walking between the two villages is on the 592-1 Via Dell’Amore path which stays low, follows a walkway along the base of the cliff, and takes only 30 minutes. This walk needs to be booked in advance as it is very popular.

We decided to take the 531 route via Beccara which is longer (1hr) and was the most challenging of all the walks we did during our 3 days in Cinque Terre. The walk starts a by climbing up a small road out of the village and then takes a narrow path off to the left, crosses a stone bridge and then starts the long climb up the steep hillside. Once again, follow the red and white horizontal markings, even though they seem to endeavour to hide them!

The path is formed with rugged stones shaped into often large steps and can at times be quite taxing. It was certainly a place where it was great to have hiking poles. As we climbed the path there were great views back to Riomaggiore below.

As we approached the top of the ridge there was a pleasant surprise. The local vintner had set up a little sideline to assist his business while he tended the vines. There was a choice of either a glass of the vinyards white wine or you could prepare you own drink from fresh lemons. It was the perfect little stop, amongst the vines, to take a rest and enjoy the view to Manarola below.

The village of Manarola is built on a steep cliff face and as we descended we could see people swimming amongst the rocks below. The water looked so inviting that we took a walk down with the thought of having a swim. However, the entry to the water on the slippery rock seemed a “degree of difficulty” above what we were prepared to risk given this was the first week of a 6 week tour!

Manarola really is the poster child of Cinque Terre although many of the publicity shots enhance the saturation of the house colours which are a much more muted palette. It is still a stunningly beautiful place, all the same.

After a short walk through the town we caught the train back to Monterosso for a swim on the very accessible, but crowded, beach. Then it was back to Levanto for drinks at Bar Levanto and onto the local La Mela Pizzeria. Here they even served Hawaian, much to Neil’s delight and no doubt the locals horror!

La Mela Pizzeria, Levanto

Tomorrow would be our last day in Levanto. We planned to explore the only village of the Cinque Terre that we hadn’t yet visited – Corniglia.