Where and what is Cinque Terre
‘Cinque Terre’ means the five villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso. These are situated in the Liguria region of Italy. All these villages except Corniglia hug the coastal line of Italian Riviera in La Spezia.
The coastal line( sea), hills and these five villages together constitute Cinque Terre national Park. It became a UNESCO world heritage site in 1997.
Can you do”Cinque Terre” trek with young kids?
Che bello! Bellissimo! Bravo!
Hikers and trekkers, whom we came across during our trek on Blue Trail in Cinque Terre, all greeted us with these words.
Some stopped to admire and encourage little feet on go and others just to adore his dimpled cheeks, dark clear eyes, wavy hairs and beatific smile. For us, there was heaven outside and inside as well.
Of all the walks and hikes that we did in years of my married life, the Cinque Terre trek in Liguria, Italy is closest to my heart and not without reasons.
We did this walk twice; once when my elder son was two years old and again when he was four-years old. And both the times he did the entire walk without any fuss.
What is in store in “Cinque Terre trek with kids”
The entire stretch is some eleven km in length and good deal of it requires going up and down and therefore it was by no means a small feat for two small feet.
Put on your hiking shoes and indulge in the vivid contrast of blue of sea, pastel colors of village houses and lovely greens of terraced mountains, vineyards.
The Blue path- Trail No. 2 with kids
There are many walking trails in Cinque Terre. Trail No 2, or ‘The Blue path is the most famous among family travelers.
It comprises of four individual paths connecting one village to other, running along the coast.
The beauty of the trail is that you get to see the various blue hues of sea with changing gradients and you pass through heavily terraced mountainside, vineyards, olive trees and five pretty colourful and lively villages.
The somewhat difficult part of this trail for a kid is from Vernazza to Monterosso or vice versa and the easiest is from Riomaggiore to Manarola.
Cinque Terre walk with a two yr old Kid
Trains connect all the five villages. Whenever you feel tired, you can get down to the train station. Next village is just a five to ten minutes run in train. It makes walking this trail quite comfortable with kids.
We were relaxed that if he did not walk, we would just do the first section from Riomaggiore to Manarola and then do the rest by hoping on and off the trains which run very frequently between these villages.
Tips for doing Cinque Terre Trail with kids
Both the times we started our walk from Riomaggiore, going to Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza. We could cover only four villages in a day both the time as my son was very young.
The walk was done with a small kid’s pace, detours, distractions, gelato and Focaccia breaks, tunnel watching breaks, chuk chuk( train) watching breaks, pebble throwing breaks.
Riomaggiore to Manarola: One hour
The train from Genoa brought us to the small station of Riomaggiore. The platform was half outside and half inside the tunnel itself, which amused all of us.
A climb of stairs brought us into Riomaggiore. With the necessities of buying tickets completed, all the tourists proceeded towards the first part of the trail, popularly called Via Dell’Amore, that is, the Lovers path.
This section runs along coast on a path cut in the cliffs. It is a paved path with very little gradient. Many elderly people also walk on this section of trail because it is easy and it gives long vistas of blue sea.
All the Ahas and Wows for the views of Dell’amore fell silent the moment we got the first glimpse of the village of Manarola.
Manarola was impossibly vertical. It had pastel colored houses stacked above each other, ready to tumble over in the blue sea. The village was compact yet beautiful.
Manarola to Corgnilia: One and half hour
This section(three km) was also easy for walk though not as wide as the first one. However instead of reaching to the village, we reached at the Corniglia train station.
The village could be reached only by climbing the Lardarina; a flight of some 360+ stairs to reach this village of around three hundred inhabitants. We considered taking a train to Vernazza, the next village.
First there were these 300+ stairs and then the trail to Vernazza was rocky and uneven, some four km and we knew that it passed through some really difficult spots.
However, both the times, we decided to continue to trek and headed towards Ladarina. Youngest of us kept running up and down and we had a tough time to direct his feet in climbing ‘up’, not ‘down’ mode. It was fun for him and we were a bit tired!
Taking a detour for “miele de Corniglia”
Energy levels dipped low at this height, however the pride level got a new high. We wandered down a narrow alley to taste the famous ice cream of Corniglia’ miele de Corniglia,” gelato, made from local honey.
This detour was taken for the honey obsessed Manish. I do not like honey much but loved his honey-loved expression. He said – “From now on wards the famous Hindi quote’ sone pe Suhaga'( meaning best topped with most best) should be called as “Italian gelato and that too with honey!”
Tagliatelle with pesto was a perfect lunch. I forgot to note down the name where we had it, but I remember the unique taste of pesto and the views of coast and Manarola from there.
Corniglia to Vernazza
This part of the trail was of medium difficulty with some really difficult stretches. It was not a paved path. Sometimes the passage was too narrow and ran along just at the cliff without any boundary wall or railings. Also, and there was lot of hiking on loose stones.
I still remember climbing loose stones on a so narrow path that only one could walk at a time. The steps( or stones) were too big for the small feet that even his full stride could not take him to the next stone.
We positioned ourselves on a stone up and below and lifted him up, one step at a time. We had climbed only a quarter of that stretch and heard a loud clap from hikers coming from other side.
They went out of way to give us way and cheered for us till we crossed that stretch. It took us to the highest point of Blue Trail and then dropped down dangerously.
We could see almost entire coastline of Cinque terre from this section. This part was also the greenest of all.
Vernazza surprised us by its unique location. It looked as if the mountain has humbled down and gone out of its way to provide a strip of ledge to be called home for people of Vernazza.
It was evening and many boys/men were busy massaging their female companion’s legs. Manish and I looked at each other and smiled. We were too happy to feel even some tiredness let alone ache.
Most of the tourists were staying there and relaxing. We too wanted to have some coffee and snacks for the kid before returning. By the time coffee arrived, my son fell asleep on Manish’s shoulders. But next time when we did this same stretch, my young one was four and he too sipped hot chocolate while we had coffee!
Vernazza to Monterosso
It is the most difficult part of this trail. There are steep hikes and descents and both the times we could not do this part as it took almost seven hours to do the above three sections with a little kid having gelato breaks, chocolate breaks and lunch breaks .
We took a train from Vernazza to Monterosso. Monterosso is the largest of the five villages and the only one to have a sandy beach. Therefore many tourists choose to stay here and its new part is all hotels and restaurants.
There were many lemon trees throughout Monterosso and many more in surrounding areas. People here celebrate ” Sagra dei Limoni “(The Lemon Festival), when people decorate the village with lemons and one can taste many products made with lemons.
Although there was much more to do in Cinque terre, both the time we kept ourselves on the Blue Trail only.
Why I remember it the most is because it was my first day-long trek with my kid and for a mother it was a proud moment. I did not know then if he would continue walking like that or not. I did not know whether he would like traveling or not. But I had an inkling in my heart that we could remain on road with kids as well.
And it has been so!
Read another adventurous hike from Camogli to San Fruttuoso in Liguria here.
We remember different things from our travels. In the first trip, I remember reaching at Ladarina, Rachit was on my back and I was wondering, I have to take him up all the way up.
He had already traveled a lot for the small kid,so there was no reason to ask him to walk on his own. Suddenly looking at the fun of walking on the mountain. Rachit forced himself down and started going up on the stairs. A big sigh of relief. I was too tired and was finding it difficult to trek for me as well, but Rachit was enjoying it.
This defines Rachit, our elder kid, he never enjoys walking on plain tar roads, give him a challenge to trek on, like mountains and his feet spring forth.
The Title is absolutely correct. I Liked all pictures but the most I liked the picture at the 5th bottom. I liked The BLUE TRAIL.
Thanks Dipansh. Wish you travel all around the world.