My Weekend in Cinque Terre, Italy

During the second weekend of my study abroad program, I visited Cinque Terre, Italy (pronounced CHEEN-kwa TERR-ah) with a few friends. Cinque Terre is a beautiful coastal area that is actually made up of five different villages. While similar to one another, each has its own unique personality. These villages are highly popular and are often featured all over social media, and for good reason! It’s a great place to visit whether you want to go hiking, take in the picture-perfect scenery, or simply relax and unwind.

We arrived during the evening at a nearby train station and then made our way to Riomaggiore, one of the smaller and quieter villages. The villages can all be visited from one another via train, making for inexpensive and quick travel. Since we arrived so late we didn’t have time to fully take in the amazing views. We were therefore very excited to explore the town the next morning.

We woke up early the next day and spent the morning exploring the busy main street and admiring the colorful buildings and gorgeous view of the sea. After walking up and down the hilly streets we had worked up an appetite and stopped for a delicious lunch consisting of fresh calamari and french fries. After a short break we were on to our next adventure – kayaking!

Colorful buildings in Riomaggiore  

We made our way down to a kayaking rental shop near the sea. Before long we had our kayaks and were ready to explore the waters! While this was a fun activity, I wouldn’t recommend it if you are accident-prone like me. The area where the kayaks are put into the water is extremely slippery due to the moss on the surface. Me and one of my friends fell several times just trying to get them in the water (and it was painful)! If you still insist on kayaking, it’s probably better to go in a different area or to find a company that helps you get the kayaks into the sea. Otherwise, you risk falling and being sore for a few days afterwards!

After that setback, the kayaking was really great. The sea was an incredible bright blue and was so clear that you could see several feet below. We enjoyed watching jellyfish and other sea creatures float below us (while hoping that we wouldn’t accidentally fall in)! Unfortunately for my other group members, I am terrible at kayaking and eventually just let everyone else go ahead of me so I could go at my own snail’s pace. Before long it was time to head back to shore. We made sure to be careful on the docks this time around.

Incredible blue waters

I was certainly hungry after my kayaking struggles and was looking forward to eating more fresh seafood. While most of the group wanted something light, one of my friends and I decided to splurge a little and have a nice dinner. I completely recommend spending a bit extra on this because my meal was amazing! Being from the Midwest I had never had much fresh seafood before. So, imagine my surprise when I had my first bite of seafood linguine with shrimp, calamari, scallops, clams, and mussels. This was much better than Red Lobster!

My delicious seafood pasta

After filling up on food and good Italian wine, we made our way back to the Airbnb, stopping at a few small shops along the way. Before long we were exhausted and eager for our next day of exploring.

Day 2 took us to Monterosso, the busiest of the five villages and the only one with a sandy beach. We walked along the coast, once again taking in the beautiful views and enjoying the great weather. We were all tired from kayaking, so we decided to simply relax on the beach and enjoy a slow-paced day. Once again the afternoon went by much too quickly. We were soon making our way back to the train station, stopping at some shops along the way. I couldn’t believe that our time in Cinque Terre was already close to an end.

Beach in Monterosso

Overall I had a great time exploring Cinque Terre. We only visited two of the five cities, so I hope to one day return and see the others. We also skipped the hiking due to being so tired from kayaking, but it is very common to hike between all of the villages – this can be done in one day if desired. I loved getting to see a different side of Italy than I had before and enjoyed a relaxing weekend here.