After Genoa, I continued my travel along the beautiful Italian Riviera to Cinque Terre or Five Lands, the area of breathtaking landscape of five villages of Monterossa, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore which dramatically built on the rugged and steep coastline. The beauty of Cinque Terre was truly deserved its well reputation, all five villages were extremely pretty with small colorful houses with lovely vineyard and green mountain as their background while facing the greenish blue sea, maybe one of the most beautiful places in Italy in my opinion.

I used train for transportation in this area as it seemed to be the most convenient and cheapest with special one day pass. Travel by train was a very nice experience to see Cinque Terre as most of the rail line built along the beautiful coastline and it’s really unique that most of the villages could only be reached via pedestrian tunnels from the tiny train stations. The tunnel of Riomaggiore made me feel like walking in the aquarium. Each village has its own characteristic, but for me Manarola is the prettiest and very photogenic especially when you walk from Corniglia and see Manarola for the first time.

Cinque Terre was also famous for seafood and wine, and I had to admit that I really enjoyed its wine more than the gorgeous landscape! Another highlight of Cinque Terre is to walk on the famous “Via dell Amore” or the way of love, a lovely coastal part between Manarola and Riomaggiore, the part was full of flower and cactus and one statue of kissing couple, lovely but not so romantic than I expected and actually quite dirty with hundreds of graffiti of love, also be noted that the whole Cinque Terre was a national park, so 5 EUR fee for enter.

All in all, I really enjoyed my visit to Cinque Terre; this area had everything you expected from famous tourist attraction, great landscape, good food, perfect transportation and sense of discovery and adventure. I don’t know that Cinque Terre was unique or not as many people compared it with another famous coastline of Amalfi, but in my opinion, Cinque Terre is deservedly to be inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and should be seen if you are travelling in this area.