Cinque Terra

[lilk8]

We will be on a cruise in July with a stop in Livorno. Has anyone done Cinque Terra on their own from this port? What is the fastest  way to get there, get around and get back?

[mapleleaves]

If  you enter "cinque" in the SEARCH tool above, you'll find many past answers to this question, such as this recent response:

Help with best way to get to and see Cinque Terre - Italy Ports - Cruise Critic Community

 

[Hlitner]

7 hours ago, lilk8 said:

We will be on a cruise in July with a stop in Livorno. Has anyone done Cinque Terra on their own from this port? What is the fastest  way to get there, get around and get back?

The test way to get there (from Livorno) is by private vehicle (rental car or private tour).  The nearest Cinque Terre village is Riomaggiore and it iis about a 1 1/2 hour drive from the port.  You can get to the other villages by train, ferry boats (if you find one), hiking (if you have a lot of time) or private vehicle.  Regarding the hiking, the current train between Riomaggiore and Manarola (the so-called Lovers Walk) remains closed due to the rock slide from several years ago.  It might be reopened in July 2024, but we would not hold our breath that this will happen).

 

On a port day it is pretty common to only see 2 or 3 of the villages because of time limitations.  Much of the charm of Cinque Terre has been left behind due to overcrowding by tourists.  The last time we were in Riomaggiore it was difficult to move on the crowded street and the queues for the train was awful.  Italy keeps talking about taking steps to limit the number of tourists, but it has yet to happen.

 

Hank

[euro cruiser]

It's really not reasonable to go to Cinque Terre from Livorno by public transportation (trains), you waste too much of your day getting there and getting back, leaving little time actually there.  

 

As to the crowding, it's much like Venice but crammed into a smaller area with fewer options.  They do need to do something but no one can agree on what that something should be, so the place is being destroyed while they discuss it.  

[Hlitner]

On 1/30/2023 at 7:28 AM, euro cruiser said:

It's really not reasonable to go to Cinque Terre from Livorno by public transportation (trains), you waste too much of your day getting there and getting back, leaving little time actually there.  

 

As to the crowding, it's much like Venice but crammed into a smaller area with fewer options.  They do need to do something but no one can agree on what that something should be, so the place is being destroyed while they discuss it.  

The last time we drove to the Cinque Terre area, we noticed that the government has installed some permanent movable gates along the access road to Riomaggiore.  We talked to a restaurant owner in Riomaggiore who said that the government has plans to close the access roads on days when it is too crowded in the villages.  Or course that is not going to stop folks from arriving on the trains so we do question the sanity of the plan.  Like many plans in Italy, those gates may remain unused for years while various officials debate the issue.

 

My own plan would be to simply ban cruise ships from nearby La Spezia.  Cinque Terre has a crowd problem and when you port a 4000+ passenger ship a few miles distant it is not helpful.  As much as we love to cruise, we also appreciate the charm of Cinque Terre and hate to see the atmosphere being completely destroyed by over tourism.  When you actually stay in one of the villages, the charm does return in late afternoon as the day trippers leave the area.  But during the day it can be truly awful.

 

Hank

[douggw]

As MapleLeaves said, very easy.  We went there last October, first time, and had no issues.  Do your homework ahead of time though if you are DIY.  I did a lot of research about each "town", which hikes to do (we did one of the two that cost, but well worth it!) - Corniglia to Vernazza, know about the "secret" bus to take you to the top of Corniglia so you don't have to walk up the hundreds of steep stairs, GO EARLY, GO EARLY!  We hit all 5 "towns" and it was amazing, but we did not do them in order, because we wanted to do the hike early before it got hot and crowded.  I have pics on my blog of each one as well a lot of pics from the hike - http://gwilliamhouse.blogspot.com/2022/11/european-cruise.html   Cinque Terra starts about 1/4 of the way down the blog.