A Slow Weekend in the Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre — five impossibly pretty fishing villages stitched into the cliffs of the Ligurian coast — is one of the most photographed places in Italy, and one of the most rushed. The standard visit is a frantic single day, 'doing all five' in a blur of trains and crowds and selfie sticks, leaving most people having seen everything and felt nothing. There is a much better way, and it begins with doing less.

Don't do all five

The great mistake is treating the five villages as a checklist to be completed. Resist it. Base yourself in one — Vernazza and Manarola are the loveliest; Monterosso has the only real beach — and let it become your home for the weekend. You'll wake in a sleeping village, watch it stir, and be there in the golden evenings after the day-trippers have gone, which is when the Cinque Terre is at its most magical. The neighbouring villages will keep; you can dip into them at your own pace.

This is the whole philosophy of slow travel in miniature: depth over distance, the case we make in How Many Days Do You Really Need?.

A slow weekend, hour by hour

Let the days unfold gently:

• Walk early. The famous coastal trails between the villages are stunning and, by midday, packed. Set out at eight, when the light is low and the paths are nearly empty, and you'll have one of Italy's great walks almost to yourself.
• Swim and linger. Find a rocky cove or the Monterosso sand, swim in the clear Ligurian water, and let the middle of the day go slow.
• Eat where the locals eat. Fresh anchovies, trofie with pesto (this is the birthplace of pesto), a glass of cold local white. Choose the simple places with handwritten menus.
• Do the passeggiata. In the evening, join the unhurried stroll as the village comes back to itself and the sea turns to gold.

Getting around

Forget driving — the Cinque Terre is best by train. The local line links all five villages in a few minutes each, dipping in and out of tunnels to reveal one clifftop town after another; a single card lets you hop on and off all day. It's one of the most beautiful and effortless rail journeys in Europe, part of the collection we gather in The Mediterranean's Most Beautiful Train Journeys. The boats between villages are lovely too, and give you the coast from the sea.

When to go

Timing is everything here. Avoid July and August, when the villages are at their hottest and most crowded. Come in the shoulder season — May, June, September, or early October — for warm swimming water, long light, and a fraction of the people, exactly as we argue in The Case for Shoulder Season. The Cinque Terre in a quiet September is a different, far lovelier place than the Cinque Terre in a heaving August.

Give these villages two unhurried days instead of five frantic hours, and they'll give back what the day-trippers never get: not just the view, but the *feeling* of a slow weekend on one of the most beautiful coasts in the world.