Cinque Terre: Five Villages, Slowly

There are five of them, and that's the whole idea. Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore — five fishing villages pinned to a steep stretch of the Ligurian coast, too small and too vertical for cars, linked instead by a train that ducks in and out of the cliffs and footpaths that climb over them. For a century they were poor and forgotten; now they are neither, which is the only problem.

The fix, as ever, is to stay the night and walk.

The five villages

Monterosso is the largest and the only one with a real beach — the easy place to base a family. Vernazza is the prettiest, a tumble of colour around a tiny harbour, and the one everyone photographs. Corniglia is the odd one out, perched high on a cliff with no harbour and a long stair up from the station — which keeps it the quietest. Manarola is the postcard at sunset, its houses stacked above a rocky inlet. Riomaggiore, at the southern end, is the workaday one, steep and lived-in. Sleep in any of them and you get the village at its best hours.

Walking between them

The point of the Cinque Terre is to walk between the villages, and the trails are the experience. The famous low coastal path (the Via dell'Amore stretch) is easy but often partly closed by landslides; the higher trails are steeper, far less crowded, and give you the terraced vineyards, the sea below, and the silence. Always check which sections are open before you set out, buy the Cinque Terre Card if you're walking and training, and carry water — there's shade, but there are also a lot of steps.

When the trails are closed

When a path is shut — and one usually is — the train is your friend: it runs every few minutes and links all five villages in five-minute hops. The ferries are the lovely alternative in good weather, giving you the villages from the water (Corniglia excepted, as it has no harbour). Don't let a closed trail ruin the day; just change gears.

The food

This is Liguria, the birthplace of pesto, and you should eat it here at its source — on trofie or trenette, bright green and fragrant. Add the fried anchovies of Monterosso, focaccia warm from the oven, and a cold glass of the local white wine grown on those impossible terraces. Eat where the locals do, away from the harbour-front menus in five languages.

How to do it slowly

Stay two or three nights in one village, walk the open trails in the cool of the morning, swim, take the train or ferry between the rest, and be in your village for the evening when the crowds have gone and the light goes gold. Come in May, June, or September — the villages are tiny, and July and August fill them past comfort.

Still deciding where in the Mediterranean you belong? Take the quiz. For more of Italy slowly, see Positano on the Amalfi Coast and wild Sardinia.