After getting a little taste of Cinque Terre by visiting Vernazza, we decided the next day would be dedicated to seeing the rest of the towns.  But first, some Italian breakfast, made by our wonderful B&B host.

We decided to start at the furthest town and then make our way closer to home, so that took us to Monterosso first.  (In case you don’t know, the towns are Monterosso al Mare,Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore).

Monterosso is known for being a beach town, so we were excited for some nice beach time!  We packed bathing suits, towels, and those sandwiches made with the chicken carcass and headed over! It was beauuuuutiful and the crystal clear water was breathtaking.  And hot.

It was quite warm, but without an umbrella we thought we would take a quick swim and keep moving, right?  Wrong.  We tried to put our towels down and they said “beach privati!”, meaning, you want to be on the beach, you pay for the beach.  Ugh.  So we put our towels away and tucked our tails between our legs and walked away.

We did stop to have one of the sandwiches.

And then we continued along, only briefly stopping on the public beach for a bit.  But like I said, it was hooooooooot.

After Monterosso, we hopped on the train to Corniglia (skipping Vernazza).  We considered hiking there, but it’s unclear which trails are open and which are not, and whether you have to pay.  Not to mention, the city of Corniglia is actually at the top of the mountain, so there was some hiking involved.

Up, up, up a few hundred steps, and then you find another colorful little town.  In this one, we just walked around and took in the views.

From Corniglia, we hopped back on the train and were in Manarola less than 5 minutes later.  What a beautiful place!  I think this one was my favorite.

I finally found the place where people take those iconic Cinque Terre photos!

And we got to go swimming in this really pretty place…

And then sandwich time 😉

We sat there for a bit longer and then got dressed and attempted to hike the last part of the trail, Manarola to Riomaggiore.

Fail.  The trail was closed, which we found out about ten minutes into the walk.  At least the views were nice!  So we got back on the train and made our final stop in Riomaggiore.

We walked around the city, which at that point, was blending into all of the other ones…

And then went down to the water and sat there for a bit.  So pretty!

We walked up some steps and watched as the sun set next to those awesome buildings…

It was a long, and hot day, but a really great day as well.  Visiting Cinque Terre is such a special experience, and if you ever have the opportunity, go!  For reference, my favorite town was Manarola (for the swimming and view of the town), as well as Vernazza, but they are all wonderful.