Cinque Terre Weekend Trip - Mallorie Garner - Center for International Business Studies Blog

One of the highlights of my study abroad experience was going to Cinque Terre. The best way to describe this place is that it’s a combination of Hawaii’s mountains and the historic colorful buildings in Italy. Cinque Terre consists of five different cities that have their own uniqueness about them. The three cities that I will be talking about are Riomaggiore, Manarola, and Monoterosso.

Riomaggiore is where we stayed and spent most of our time. This city was very quiet and didn’t have many tourists here. The first place we went to when we arrived was this little hole in the wall restaurant that was run by a family. Something that I love about Italian culture is how so many businesses are run by a whole family. I got to see this first hand many times while being abroad, but this restaurant specifically will always be a place I look back on and smile.

One of the nights we were there, we decided to take the train and go over to Manarola for dinner. This city might be my favorite out of the five because of the delicious food and beautiful views. Cinque Terre is one of the birthplaces for pesto, so I had to try a pesto pasta dish here. It was one of the greatest things I have ever eaten, and being in such a beautiful place made it even better.

The last city I visited was Monoterosso. Something that is a must do in Cinque Terre is to hike between the different cities. The hike between Vernazza and Monoterosso was one of the coolest experiences I have ever done. It was for sure a steep hike, but the views were unreal from that high up. Once we finished the hike, we went to the beach in Monoterosso and spent five hours chilling by the water. This weekend trip was so magical and has been one of my favorite places I have ever traveled to. I hope that I can come back one day and experience this beautiful place again!