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I had instantly fallen in love with Vernazza on our second day in the Cinque Terre on the Ligurian coast of Northern Italy. This was the second of the five villages that we had visited, taking the ferry from Monterosso al Mare on that morning, and exploring this beautiful little village with it’s colourful buildings and picturesque setting. Now, we would use a different form of transportation to get to the next village – Our own feet.

There is actually a network of hiking trails that connect the five villages of the Cinque Terre, and they are close enough together that you really don’t have to walk all that far. The next village, Corniglia, was only about a 3km hike from Vernazza, but first we had to climb up the steep hill to the top of the town, where we had incredible views out over Vernazza and the surrounding coastline.

View of Vernazza from above in Cinque Terre, Italy

View of Vernazza on the trail to Corniglia

The trail continued to slowly climb, with the steep terrain dropping away to the ocean on our right. The coastline is absolutely spectacular, and as we got higher and higher, the views became even more breathtaking.

Hiking in Cinque Terre, Italy

The trail flattened out once we got to a certain height, but the rough terrain still kept the trail dropping and rising. The views were always so spectacular that I kept stopping to rest just for an excuse to take them in.

After a while, we began seeing views of Corniglia, perched high up on top of a rocky headland, and I couldn’t wait to get there to explore the village.

View towards Corniglia in Cinque Terre, Italy

View towards Corniglia

Corniglia in Cinque Terre, Italy

Corniglia

We took around an hour and a half to walk the three kilometres from Vernazza to Corniglia, but there were quite a few stops along the way. It’s just the kind of hike that you want to take a long time to do.

Although it wasn’t quite as spectacular as Vernazza, Corniglia was still an interesting little village to explore, and there were a lot less people there compared to Monterosso and Vernazza.

A piazza in Corniglia in Cinque Terre, Italy

A piazza in Corniglia

We rewarded ourselves with some well earned gelato after exploring the village, before walking down the many steps to the train station to head back to Monterosso al Mare, completing another wonderful day in the Cinque Terre.

Corniglia train station in Cinque Terre, Italy

Corniglia train station

Have you been to the Cinque Terre, Italy? Did you go hiking between the villages?