How to cover the Cinque Terre in a day

Check out my photos from the Cinque Terre here.

I think a lot of people were surprised when I announced that a friend and I were planning to do a day trip to the Cinque Terre from Milan.

Having read plenty of posts on the region, I knew it was going to be a bit of a gamble – many blogs said (in no uncertain terms) that spending less than several days there was pointless. On top of which, each journey was going to take just under three hours – a lot of travelling for one day.

And yet, our day was little short of perfect. We had a fantastic time and I left feeling like I had covered a lot of ground, got a flavour of each different town and made the most of the region.

And what’s more, it was relatively easy.

I would definitely recommend it. And here’s how.

Manarola

Getting there

A hardcore day calls for a hardcore start: we set our alarms for 04.15am (which caused me physical pain) and got the 06.10 train, which arrived in Monterosso al Mare at 08.59.

This train is one of the few daily direct trains from Milan to the Cinque Terre and cost €19.

Monterosso al Mare is the northern-most of the five towns, and so made the perfect first port of call.

Getting around

In Monterosso, we bought a day ticket for the boat (€20), which included the journey between the five towns, as well as Portovenere and La Spezia – two important regional towns closeby.

Boat is both the quickest way to get around the Cinque Terre and the most scenic – the view of the towns as you sail into the harbour is simply unforgettable. You also get some fantastic views of all five towns perched perilously above the rocks.

Our trusty boat timetable

Due to the boat schedule, it wasn’t possible to spend an equal amount of time in each town (though looking back, I’m not sure I’d have wanted to) and thus we spent our time like so:

Monterosso al Mare:     09:00 – 10:00
Vernazza:                            10:10 – 12:10
Manarola:                           12:30 – 15:30
Riomaggiore:                     15:40 – 16:40

With such limited time in each place, we really strived to make the most of it – we had lunch in Manarola and just a quick iced-tea break in a cafe in Vernazza. The rest of the time was spent on our feet, exploring the towns.

TOP TIP: We checked out the boat timetable online before even getting to Italy and were able to plan out which connections we wanted to make. As the boats weren’t every hour, this allowed us to plan roughly how long we would have in each town.

View of the coastline from Manarola

Getting home

At 16:40, we boarded the hour-long boat to La Spezia, where we were able to get another direct train back to Milan. The train departed at 18:40, getting us back to Milan for 21:50. The train cost €26.50.

The drawbacks

Surrounding Vernazza harbour

Of course, a day like ours isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and it did have some downsides.

Firstly, we didn’t get to see the area at night, which was a real shame. We saw quite a lot of postcards showing the towns lit up by street lamps overnight, but it would have been something else altogether to see the illuminated towns along the coast from the castle in Vernazza, or the viewing point at Manarola.

Secondly, it was a tiring day. By the time we got to Riomaggiore, I can honestly say I was exhausted. Of course, I wouldn’t go so far as to say the town would have been my favourite had I had more energy, but I do wonder if I would have warmed to the town a little more (I would probably say it was my least favourite).

We didn’t manage to get to Corniglia either, as it has no port, nor did we hike between the villages.

And yet despite this, I would 100% recommend the area as a day trip from Milan. We had a very long, action-packed day, but I loved it.

We saw a large part of the region from both land and sea, enjoyed some fantastic weather and due to the short time we were there, the villages never lost their appeal. Not once did the beauty of the place feel mundane: we spent the entire day in awe.

A perfect day.