July 8, 2018

On our first day in Florence, we were kindly greeted by our AirBnB host (as mentioned before). We had seen a small tour ad for Cinque Terre on one of the maps she was showing us of Florence. Hm, Cinque Terre? Caoliang had heard of the place and our hostess spoke really highly of it. Should we go there? With about three and a half days total in Florence, why not plan another day trip! Our hostess had said it is actually not that far and very manageable for a day trip.

So with the beautiful pictures we searched and our hostess’ advice, we looked into a day tour to go to Cinque Terre. Of course with tours you don’t really get a lot of your own time to fully enjoy the place, but with only a day to spare, we figured the most efficient way to see all of Cinque Terre was within a tour group.

After a little bit of research, we found Getyourguide.com that had a full day tour to Cinque Terre from Florence. Perfect! The tour would be about twelve hours and cost 90 euros a person. The tour was titled: Seaside Beauty and included seeing 4/5 of the villages that made up Cinque Terre. It also included some time to swim! We were sold!

This morning we woke up super early to make sure we were at the meeting point on time. When we arrived, we saw the tour group was rather large. In our group there had to of been at least 50 people! After all the guest were accounted for, we took a double decker bus two hours to Cinque Terre. Summer time is crazy for tourists and honestly I kind of hate being part of that big annoying group moving through a city but when time is short, it just made sense.

The first little village we arrived at was Manarola. It is a tiny little village with an amazing view. The houses lined the coast creating a very colorful backdrop with the ocean right next to it. The thirty minutes given here, we spent mostly taking photos. It was hard to venture off any further in fear we would get left behind from the tour group! We saw people were also swimming and sunbathing on the rocks. The water looked so enticing! But with little time there we had to keep moving.

Next was Vernazza, also a small village with similar coastal homes and view. Many swimmers and sunbathers here too. I really wanted to get in the water but we only had about 40 minutes here. You would think 40 minutes would be plenty, but once you get situated and in water, 40 minutes could already be nearly gone!  But i knew swimming was coming soon so i just stayed patient. The villages were rather similar, very small with old colorful houses. Looking around made me wonder who lives here and for how long have they lived here. 

After Vernazza, the whole group headed to Monterosso Al Mare by train. This is the largest village out of the Cinque Terre. We were allocated nearly three hours here to have lunch, shop, sight see or swim. Basically whatever you wanted as long as you were at the meeting point at said time. It was so crowded right where the station let out so we walked down the coast a bit to see if more space was available. We ate lunch at this small cafe with some outside tables. The food was fine but nothing special. They had a clean bathroom though with a toilet seat (in Italy, toilet seats are rare)! Then we walked to the beach and found a small spot to set up. We got to spend about twenty minutes in the water. The water was clear and cold but felt nice to be able to swim. Again, we didn’t have much time so soon had to grab our things and meet the group. Monterosso is beautiful though and it was nice to see such a different view then we’ve been seeing. After this we took a short boat ride to Riomaggiore.

In Riomaggiore, people were swimming too but it wasn’t like a beach set up. It was more like slabs of concrete and rocks that went straight into the ocean. There were a group of boys jumping off tall rocks here. They are brave. It made me nervous just watching them. We walked around the village just a bit to grab a coffee and use the bathroom then had to go meet the group again.

Lastly we ended up in La Spezia. This was just a meeting point to get to our bus to go back to Florence so we really didn’t see much here. Our tour guide said there wasn’t much to see anyways. I guess we will just have to believe him!

The tour was decently organized for the size group and wanting to fit so many things into one day.  The tour guides really just helped us get to one place to another but didn’t offer too much information about the actual villages or history of the place. That was ok though. It was nice to see the different views. Originally we didn’t even plan to go see Cinque Terre. But with so many beautiful pictures and a day tour that was 90 euros a person to see 4 out of 5 of the villages, we felt like we had to. We think it was a good deal even if the day felt rushed.

It’s hard to manage such a large group and do so much in a few hours so I think we got our money’s worth and had a nice day of it too. No complaints here but I can’t say that for other people in the group!! We heard a few complaints from other people on the tour group. Honestly though, if you’re paying 90 euro a person to see as much as we saw today, AND knowing you’re in a group of nearly 50 people, you can’t expect everything to go perfect to your liking. I think for the things we saw and for the price we paid, this was a pretty good tour.

Cinque Terre is a really beautiful place of Italy. I definitely would recommend setting aside more time for these villages so you can really enjoy the scenery and have enough time to soak up the sun and swim in the sea. I’m pretty pleased we got to fit it into our honeymoon though when we didn’t expect to be able to see it.

 

xx
t.