The hook
Five impossibly pretty fishing villages of stacked pastel houses clinging to the cliffs of the Ligurian coast, linked by a footpath along the sea and by trains that burrow through the headlands, above terraced vineyards dropping to the blue Mediterranean.
01Why it's worth it
The Cinque Terre ("Five Lands") are five centuries-old villages, Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore, strung along a rugged, roadless stretch of the Italian Riviera, each a tumble of colourful tall houses around a tiny harbour or perched on a cliff, backed by steep terraces of vines and olives carved into the near-vertical slopes over generations. The magic is walking between them on the coastal path (when open), with the sea glittering below and each village revealing itself around a headland, or hopping the frequent little trains that link them in minutes. You swim off rocks, eat Ligurian pesto and fresh anchovies, and drink the local white wine as the light turns golden on the pastel façades. The honest catch is fame: it is extremely popular, and midday in summer the villages and the main trail can be shoulder-to-shoulder with day-trippers. The fix is timing, early mornings, evenings, shoulder seasons, and overnighting so you get the villages once the crowds retreat to the trains.
02How to experience it
Base in one village overnight (Vernazza and Manarola are the lookers) to have them early and late, and walk at least one leg of the coastal path plus a higher, quieter trail for the terrace-and-sea views; the train covers the rest. Swim, eat the pesto and anchovies, and time it for spring or September to dodge the worst of the crowds.
From the locals
Walkers who've done the whole string weigh in with the connoisseur's ranking: "Vernazza ties Manarola as the prettiest of the towns," one wrote after hiking all five, adding that "Corniglia was cool too though because it isn't quite as touristy" — the clifftop village, reachable only by steps, that rewards those who go a little further.