Cinque Terre | A Spectacular Retirement Trip to Italy

Last Updated: September 30, 2024

We will show you how to visit the Cinque Terre towns for a wonderful retirement trip. Our Italy vlog starts in Santa Margherita Ligure as we hike to the train station and catch the train to our destination. Once in Monterosso al Mare, we purchased the Cinque Terre train card, which gives us access to unlimited train travel between the five cities and access to the trails between cities.

Cinque Terre Towns | Hiking, food, views and more

The hike between Monterosso and Vernazza is spectacular, with views of the beautiful turquoise waters of the Ligurian Sea below. Unfortunately, it took about 2 hours for that leg of the hike, and we forgot to bring water. Ouch! The hiking is steep in many places, so wear the proper shoes and take plenty of water. We enjoyed a good meal in Vernazza and took the Express train to Corniglia, where we ate gelato and John had his “incident” with a local bird. Corniglia was our favorite town in Cinque Terre. It was beautiful and was perched high above the Ligurian Sea. We finished our day by visiting Manarola and Riomaggiore and then returned by train to Santa Margherita. The day trip to the Cinque Terre towns was a highlight of our visit to the Ligurian coast in Italy. We enjoyed Cinque Terre much more than Portofino, Italy.

Check out another nearby Retirement Travelers video when we visit some expats in Umbria.