There’s a Sunday, every now and then, when Genoa seems too big and too full of postponed commitments. You want the sea squeezed between the rocks, the narrow streets that lead straight down to a small harbor, the scent of lemons mixed with sea salt. You want, in short, the Cinque Terre — but not all together, not in the overcrowded postcard version you’ve seen a thousand times in other people’s photos.
It takes about 75 minutes by train from Genoa to reach Monterosso al Mare, the first of the five villages coming from the west. And from there, with a regional ticket and a little patience, you can reach Vernazza and Corniglia: the three Cinque Terre “above,” the ones that overlook the open sea before the coast bends toward Riomaggiore and Manarola. Three villages very close on the map — just a few kilometers as the crow flies — yet so different in atmosphere, in rhythm, in what they tell of themselves to those who stop to listen.
It’s no coincidence that 19th-century travel writers, arriving in these parts, were struck by the verticality of the landscape: sea and mountains touching without interruption, vineyards clinging to terraces that seem to defy gravity. Today those terraces are UNESCO World Heritage sites along with the Portovenere headland and the islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto — recognition that came in 1997, sealing a landscape that is both natural and built by human hands, drop by drop, stone by stone.
Monterosso: the beach, the lemons, the anchovies
Monterosso al Mare is the largest of the Cinque Terre and the only one with a true sandy beach — not the smooth pebbles of Vernazza or Manarola, but real, golden sand, complete with beach clubs and colorful umbrellas that stretch as far as the eye can see in summer. It’s also the most “normal” village in the best sense of the term: streets a bit wider, a walkable waterfront, shops that stay open even off-season.
Guyon, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The village is divided into two parts that face each other from a distance: the old town, gathered around the Church of San Giovanni Battista with its black and white striped façade in Genoese Gothic style, and Fegina, the newer neighborhood that grew around the station and the main beach. Between the two stands the statue of the Giant, a concrete colossus that once held a trident and that time and storms have made even more enigmatic, almost a warning.
But Monterosso is above all the scent of lemons. Walking through the yellow and pink houses of the old village, you catch glimpses of lemon groves hidden behind walls, and it’s not uncommon to find bottles of homemade limoncello in small family-run shops. This is also where the salt-cured anchovies are produced, which have made the village gastronomically famous: caught in the waters in front of the village, still worked according to tradition, served simply with oil and lemon or inside focaccia. Tasting them here, just a few meters from the sea that provided them, is a different experience from buying them in a jar at the supermarket.
In summer Monterosso fills up: the beach becomes a mosaic of towels and the promenade a river of people. If you can choose, come in May or September, when the sea is already warm but the queues for the train and the trails thin out, and the fishermen become the protagonists of the village again instead of extras on a photographic set.
Vernazza: the harbor that looks like a painting
If Monterosso is the village that looks toward the present, Vernazza seems to have stopped a century ago, and perhaps that’s why it remains more impressed on the memory than any other stop in the Cinque Terre. It has no real beaches — only a small pebble cove next to the harbor — but it has what no other village on the coast possesses: a natural inlet that opens like an amphitheater, with colorful houses rising in a semicircle behind the little square and the sea flowing straight up to the restaurant tables.
Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The heart of Vernazza is Piazza Marconi, which in summer becomes one large space of tables and umbrellas overlooking the water. Above the harbor rises the Belforte Tower, a remnant of the fortifications that once protected the village from Saracen raids, while the Church of Santa Margherita d’Antiochia, with its apse jutting out almost over the water, closes the square on the seafront side in a composition that watercolor painters from around the world continue to try to replicate, yet never quite manage.
Moving up from the harbor toward the interior, you also climb in elevation: narrow alleys, staircases, clothes hanging from one balcony to another. Vernazza is best experienced in the evening, when the fishing boats return and the village lights up with warm lights, or early in the morning, before the organized groups arrive from ferries and regional trains. It is the most photographed village of the Cinque Terre, and precisely because of this — during the central hours of the summer day — the most difficult to enjoy at leisure.
Corniglia: the village suspended without the sea
Corniglia is the exception of the Cinque Terre, the village that breaks the unwritten rule that every village must face directly onto the water. Perched on a promontory about a hundred meters above sea level, surrounded by terraced vineyards, Corniglia looks out at the Mediterranean from above, with no harbor and no fishermen returning in the evening with their nets.
Timothy A. Gonsalves, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
To reach it from the train station, which is located below near the coast, you must climb the Lardarina: a staircase of thirty-three flights and about three hundred eighty-two steps that winds up among olive trees and vineyards to the center of the village. It’s tiring, especially in the height of summer, but it’s also a rite of passage: those who climb it on foot arrive at Corniglia with the feeling of having earned it, not simply having been deposited there by a means of transport. Alternatively, there is a shuttle service connecting the station to the village, useful especially for those with mobility difficulties or those who simply want to save energy for the rest of the day.
Once at the top, Corniglia reveals itself as a small, quiet village, with a single main street, Via Fieschi, that runs through it from one end to the other among stone houses and small shops. It doesn’t have the frenzy of Monterosso nor the photographic fame of Vernazza: it’s the right place for those seeking the most authentic Cinque Terre, the one lived by the farmer-vintners who still today cultivate the terraces perched over the sea. From the Belvedere of Santa Maria, at the end of the village, the view over the gulf and the coastline stretching toward Manarola is among the widest in the entire area.
How to get there from Genoa
The simplest and most recommended way to reach the Cinque Terre from Genoa is by train. From Genoa Piazza Principe or Genoa Brignole stations, regional and Intercity trains depart that in about an hour and a quarter will take you to Monterosso, the first stop on the Cinque Terre line. From there, regional trains connecting the five villages are frequent, often every 20-30 minutes in the summer months, and the combined Cinque Terre Train MS (Multi Service) ticket allows you to board and alight freely for the entire day, also including access to some sections of the scenic trails.
Those who prefer to drive should keep in mind that Cinque Terre is not designed for cars: parking in Monterosso, Riomaggiore and Manarola is limited and paid, often full by morning during summer months, while Vernazza and Corniglia have no direct road access to the center. The most practical solution remains leaving your car in Monterosso (or not taking one at all) and then moving between the villages by train.
A suggestive alternative, especially during the warmer months, is the ferry: seasonal maritime connections depart from La Spezia and Portovenere that touch Vernazza, Monterosso and Manarola, offering a completely different perspective of the landscape compared to the train, with houses appearing suddenly behind a promontory.
An itinerary for the day
Leaving early from Genoa — a train at 7 or 8 in the morning — you can be in Monterosso by 9:30-9:45. The morning is perfect for a stroll through the old village, perhaps stopping to taste local anchovies or buy a bottle of limoncello to take home, before the heat and crowds take over the beach.
Around noon a regional train takes you in a few minutes to Vernazza: it’s the right time for lunch, perhaps at one of the restaurants overlooking Piazza Marconi, with a view of the harbor and the moored fishing boats. In the early afternoon, when the light is harsher but the alleyways more lively, it’s worth climbing up to Torre Belforte for the view over the gulf.
In the late afternoon, with another short train ride, you reach Corniglia. It’s the ideal time to tackle the Lardarina at a relaxed pace, perhaps stopping halfway up the climb to catch your breath among the olive trees, and enjoy from the Belvedere di Santa Maria the light that begins to turn golden over the sea below. An ice cream or a glass of Sciacchetrà — the DOC dessert wine of Cinque Terre, obtained from the drying of grapes harvested on the terraces perched over the sea — is a perfect way to end the day before heading back down to the station.
The return to Genoa in the late afternoon or early evening allows you to be back in the city for dinner, with tired legs and skin that still smells of sea salt.
On foot between the villages: the Sentiero Azzurro
For those who love to walk, the historic connection between the villages is the Sentiero Azzurro, the coastal path that links Cinque Terre following the coastline profile. Some sections, such as the one between Monterosso and Vernazza, remain scenic and passable for most of the year, although you should always verify locally the opening conditions of the trails, which are subject to temporary closures for maintenance or after significant weather events. The most famous stretch, the Via dell’Amore between Riomaggiore and Manarola, is located further south and does not directly concern the three stops of this itinerary, but remains an idea for those who want to extend their visit to the other two sisters of the park.
The detail that makes the trip worthwhile
What travel guides rarely mention is that Cinque Terre is not just scenery: it remains, stubbornly, a vertical agricultural territory. The terraces you see clinging to the mountain above Corniglia and Vernazza are supported by kilometers of dry stone walls built by hand over centuries, without mortar, stone upon stone: an agricultural infrastructure that made a slope cultivable that would otherwise look like mere rock to the naked eye. From those vineyards comes Sciacchetrà, produced in minimal quantities precisely because the harvest is still done by hand, often carrying the grapes down the slope with makeshift cable cars because no roads exist. Drinking a glass of this dessert wine, perhaps accompanied by a dry local biscuit, means literally tasting the labor of a landscape that seems made to be photographed, but which was actually built, step by step, to be worked.
Benjamin Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The return, and Genoa waiting for you
Returning to Genoa in the evening, after a day among the colors of Monterosso, the harbor of Vernazza and the climb of Corniglia, has a particular flavor: that of someone who has traveled far while staying close to home. The dwellings of genovabb.it in the heart of the city are waiting for you for exactly this reason — not simply rooms, but a fixed point from which to leave each morning and to which to return in the evening, perhaps still with Monterosso sand between your toes or the scent of lemon on your hands.
If Cinque Terre is calling you, organizing the day is as simple as booking a train ticket. We are waiting for you in Genoa, ready to suggest the right time to leave and the availability for your stay, so that each day trip remains just a chapter — a wonderful one — of a broader Genoa vacation.
