The Cinque Terre National Park is about five villages, listed from north to south, as follows: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. Of course, there are more than just these villages, including the beautiful shoreline on the Mediterranean Sea.
Photoblog, Cinque Terre, Italy, April 19, 2025
What are we doing in Europe? Here is the story. Touring Europe might be a crazy idea.
The villages are built on steep, rugged terrain with terraces that have been created over centuries.
“Terre” is a French word with multiple meanings, but its most common translation is dirt or land area. The same word in Spanish is Terra.
The Cinque Terre National Park
- The Cinque Terre National Park includes the islands south of and the coastline north of Porto Venere. Porto Venere is north of La Spezia. The park coastline from Porto Venere to Monterosso al Mare on the north end. The coastline, villages, and surrounding hills are part of the Cinque Terre National Park.
For our visit, we stayed in La Spezia but didn’t visit Porto Venere because it is not on the train route. The islands are located south of Porto Venere and are rarely visited by tourists.
If you missed our trip to the castle in La Spezia, here is a link. Beautiful views of La Spezia from the Castle of San Giorgio
Inside the national park, there are nine other villages in the mountains. These, too, are rarely visited by tourists unless they are traveling by car. For the most part, cars can’t go to the five villages inside the park. The exception is in the northernmost towns.
Ferries connect the villages, providing a scenic way to explore the coastline. While we were there, the ocean was angry, so we didn’t do this. The word ferry, in this case, ferry, means medium size boat. Most visitors arrive by train. The Cinque Terre Express train runs frequently between the five towns. When you purchase a pass, you can use the train as a hop-on hop-off train when visiting the villages.
Riomaggiore
The Via dell’Amore, meaning “Path of Love” in Italian, is a famous coastal path within Cinque Terre National Park. This section connects the villages of Riomaggiore and Manarola. The entrance to the Via dell’Amore is located in Riomaggiore and is one-way uphill to Manarola.
Manarola
Corniglia
Vernazza
Santa Margherita di Antiochia Church
The Santa Margherita di Antiochia is dedicated to Saint Margaret of Antioch (a place now in Turkey). Saint Margaret died in about the year 300 BC. The church was first built in the eleventh century (or even earlier), and I assume it included some relics of Saint Margaret. To me, the story at this point isn’t apparent. The church we see was built in 1318. It was later renovated in 1750.
Clear historical records about Saint Margaret and the church are pretty hard to obtain. The story about the church is that at one point, a storm gutted the church, and Saint Margarets (relics, I assume) were found later in a box on a nearby beach. This inspired the rebuilding of the church.
Monterosso al Mare
Tips for visiting Cinque Terre
We didn’t walk the coastline at Cinque Terre due to the wind and our lack of knowledge about the route and distance and instead visited by the traditional train route. Some of the routes are based on the Cinque Terre National Park. Other parts appear to be available at no cost.
Perhaps the worst way to visit Cinque Terre is by cruise ship excursion. This will involve taking a bus to one of the towns in the north and then using the trains for your visit. This will ensure that you are in a massive crowd for the entire duration of your visit.
The Cinque Terre can get crowded. This includes standing room only on the trains. To get a feel for the Cinque Terre without the crowds, I suggest staying in one of the towns. If you stay in one of the villages, then take the early train after you arrange to store your luggage at your hotel.
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About our photos
These photos were taken during our visit. Our photos are often “enhanced” to represent what we saw in person and correct for lighting and other things. Sometimes, this editing makes the images look better than they did in person.
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It is hard to believe, again, how these were built without modern construction materials. Yet the intelligence of their craft has held firm for centuries!!
Beautiful, mesmerizing 😊
Thx for the tour. I am pooped just looking at their stairs😂
Amazing! Nice photos