The five, north to south
Monterosso al Mare is the largest and the only one with a real beach. Vernazza has the small harbour and the church on the water that appears in every photograph. Corniglia is the odd one — the only village not at sea level, reached by a long staircase or a shuttle bus from its station. Manarola stacks up a ravine above a tiny inlet. Riomaggiore is the closest to La Spezia and the busiest entry point.
They were built where they are because the land was defensible and the terraces above them could be farmed. The dry-stone walls holding those terraces up run for thousands of kilometres in total, and maintaining them is a permanent job.
⚠️ The paths are not a given
The coastal footpaths between the villages are the reason many people come, and they open and close — landslides close sections for months or years at a time, and some stretches require a card that also covers the local train.
⛔ Do not plan a walking day without checking what is currently open. The most famous section, between Riomaggiore and Manarola, has spent long periods shut.
The local train between the villages runs frequently and takes a few minutes between each, so the day works even if nothing is walkable.
Whether to do it at all as a day trip
From Florence it is roughly two and a half hours each way, normally changing at La Spezia. That is five hours of travel before you have walked anywhere, and it makes for a very long day.
⭐ It is much better as one or two nights. The villages are entirely different in the early morning and the evening, when the day-trippers are not there.
If you only have a day, pick two villages and accept that; trying to see all five in one visit from Florence means spending the day on trains.
⚠️ This is the one trip on this list I would think twice about doing as a day trip. Two nights turns a tiring day into the best part of a week.
The Cinque Terre in pictures
