Today I want to bring you my Pisa and Cinque Terre travel guide. These are some of the most exciting places to visit in Italy, and they’re worth combining on a special trip.
Pisa and Cinque Terre
Before starting college I spent a semester learning French at a language school in Nice. The night before I left, my family went for dinner at an Italian trattoria where the owner came by to say hello.
Upon hearing that I was traveling to Nice the next morning, our Italian-born friend told me that the one place I absolutely could not miss visiting was Cinque Terre.
Young and foolish, I smiled politely and made a mental note to look into it. I never did.
Two months later my language school organized a weekend trip to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Having spent the last 11 weekends traveling all over Europe, I opted to stay in Nice for the weekend instead. I always had a little thorn of regret about it.
Visiting Pisa and Cinque Terre
This weekend I went to Italy to atone for my past sins. My boyfriend and I flew from London to Pisa, then took a train to the city center and explored for a few hours.
Afterwards we traveled by train to Cinque Terre to spend the rest of the trip in the famous 5 towns on the Italian Riviera in Liguria.
I spent just over 2 days in Pisa and Cinque Terre, and as such I feel it’s only appropriate to share my experience in numbers. Here goes…
Pisa
1: Number of famous leaning towers I saw. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is so famous it’s almost a cliche. But seeing it up close is stunning, and it was worth the 20-minute walk from the train station.
After seeing the tower, we meandered through the city and had lunch at a cafe with outdoor tables. I was impressed by the history and beauty of Pisa, which often gets overlooked in favor of Florence and other parts of Tuscany.
Cinque Terre Hotel
2: Number of good friends that joined us on our trip. After we traveled from Pisa to Cinque Terre, we met up with two friends who are living in Milan at the moment.
We checked into our rooms at La Baia di Rio, our hotel in Cinque Terre. It had beautiful views over Riomaggiore and a large terrace perfect for sunset drinks.
Cinque Terre Restaurants
2: Number of times I stopped for gelato in Cinque Terre on day one. The gelato was amazing and I couldn’t help stopping for seconds. Gelateria Golosone in Monterosso al Mare was my favorite of the trip.
3: Number of times I stopped for gelato on day two. My gluttony continued.
1: Number of times I stopped for gelato on day three. This unimpressive figure was improved upon by my consumption of an amazing tiramisu for dessert.
1: Number of whole crabs I consumed for dinner. One of the best things about visiting Pisa and Cinque Terre was the great seafood. With the 5 towns of Cinque Terre being right on the coast, fresh fish and shellfish abounded.
My favorite restaurant in Cinque Terre was Trattoria dal Billy in Manarola. This place serves some of the best seafood dishes in the 5 towns, and there are amazing views from the terrace.
3: Number of homemade pasta dishes I ate. While fish was my mainstay, I couldn’t visit Italy without eating pasta.
I consumed everything from pasta with squid ink (there’s that seafood again) to land-based specialties. They all went down a treat with Italian wine and Ligurian sunshine.
5: Number of focaccia sandwiches I consumed. We spent a lot of our time in Cinque Terre hiking between the 5 towns.
As such, snacks were in order. Thankfully Italy does sandwiches as well as pasta, and my foccacia sandwiches were just what I needed between walks.
Cinque Terre Hikes
5: Number of towns I hiked to and from. That’s all of them: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The hikes in this part of Italy are amazing.
It’s fun to walk the Via dell’Amore (Way of Love), the path that connects the 5 towns. There are beautiful views the whole way, making the steep climbs worth the effort.
8: Number of trail segments I hiked between towns. Each trail segment on the Via dell’Amore in Cinque Terre is unique. Some are completely flat, others have stairs, and still more have sharp ascents and declines.
Hiking in Cinque Terre is a great way to burn off the pasta and gelato calories.
100,000: Number of amazing views I saw along the trails. Cinque Terre is known for its spectacular coastal scenery and colorful towns, and hiking offers amazing views of both.
For the less inclined or able, there are trains that run regularly between the 5 towns.
Cinque Terre Weather
90: Degrees (F) it was outside every day (that’s 32 C). It being summer, Cinque Terre was hot while we were there.
It was nice to get out in the mornings and evenings, when it wasn’t as scorching. And even though the water was cold, we braved it to cool off in the Mediterranean Sea.
30: SPF I slathered all over my pasty-pale London skin 40 times a day. If there’s one thing I can’t travel without, it’s sunscreen (well, and my passport). I was glad I brought a lot of it on my trip to Pisa and Cinque Terre.
Trip to Italy
1,000: Number of times I said “these buildings all remind me of Nice”. The colorful buildings in Cinque Terre reminded me a lot of Vieux Nice.
Which brought me back to my memories of living there and missing out on traveling to Pisa and Cinque Terre. I’m glad I finally made up for it.
1,000,000: Number of times I want to travel to Pisa and Cinque Terre again. These places are beautiful and I hope this won’t be my last trip.
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