The plan for our third day in Italy was to visit the next village from Cinque Terre, Corniglia. A bit tired after all the hiking we had done a day before, we woke up early and took the foot trail between Vernazza and Corniglia. It turned out to be an easier trail than the one between Vernazza and Manarola, but the view was as beautiful as the day before.

We were lucky that the sun finally decided to come out, so this was a sunny and warm day, with few clouds and no rain. The path from Vernazza to Corniglia took us about an hour and most of the time was a straight path, with some stairs to climb from place to place.

Corniglia turned out to be as beautiful and stylish as the other two villages we had already visited. Narrow streets, a beautiful Belvedere point to enjoy the view, small restaurants serving delicious food and the best ice cream.

Piazza Taragio

the way to the Belvedere point

view form the Belvedere point over Vernazza and Monterrosso

Different to the other four villages, Corniglia is not directly adjacent to the sea, it has no harbor, but instead it’s on top of a promontory about 100 meters high.

Corniglia is actually one of the smallest villages of Cinque Terre so it only took us about an hour to visit most of it. After Corniglia, the plan was to go hiking to the next village, Manarola. Unfortunately, due to the floodings from 2011, the foot path between Corniglia and Manarola is closed and under reconstruction now. It should be opened by August this year.

There is another foot path between these two villages, but it takes you about two hours to finish it and it’s quite difficult, so we decided to skip this option.

Instead we took a train from Corniglia to Riomaggiore and decided to have a boat trip to Monterosso.  The boat trip takes about 40 minutes and it stops in four of the five villages, except Corniglia which has no harbor.

Short trip but it offers you the chance to have another perspective on the Cinque Terre. One trip costs about 10 EUR and there are boats leaving from Rimaggiore going to Monterosso every hour from morning until sun set.

After the boat trip, we had the afternoon to just relax on the beach of Vernazza, have a swim in the sea and enjoy the good weather.

The evening ended as it did in the first 2 days, with dinner at La Torre Bar and Restaurant. This was the last night we spent in lovely Vernazza.

sunset view from La Torre Bar & Restaurant

In the morning we will go to see the last two villages of Cinque Terre.