Cinque Terre Express

On a wild, near-vertical stretch of the Italian Riviera, five ancient fishing villages cling to the cliffs above the Ligurian Sea. They are the Cinque Terre — the "Five Lands" — and for most of their history the sea was the only easy way to reach them. Then came the railway, threaded through the headlands in a chain of tunnels, and with it the little train that has stitched the villages together ever since.

Today that train is the Cinque Terre Express, an ordinary Trenitalia regional service that happens to run one of the most delightful short journeys in Europe. It shuttles all day between La Spezia and Levanto, calling at Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare — five stops, barely five minutes apart, each one a burst of pastel houses, boats and blue water between long dark tunnels.

There is nothing grand about the rolling stock, and the whole line is under 19 kilometres long. Yet with a single card in your pocket you can hop on and off as the mood takes you, walk the cliff paths between villages, and treat this entire UNESCO-listed coast as one glorious open-air museum reached entirely by rail.

The line the Cinque Terre Express runs on is part of the coastal railway between Genoa and La Spezia, and it is a feat of stubborn Victorian engineering. When the last, hardest section opened on 24 July 1874, it finally ended the isolation of these villages: to lay track along 44 kilometres of near-sheer coast, the builders had to bore 51 tunnels — over 28 kilometres of them — and throw more than twenty bridges across the ravines. So much of the route is underground that the journey becomes a kind of flickering slideshow: darkness, then a sudden dazzling frame of sea and painted houses, then darkness again.

Ride it from La Spezia Centrale, the workaday city at the southern end, and the first stop is Riomaggiore, its tall houses stacked up a narrow ravine to the water. A minute or two of tunnel and you reach Manarola, perhaps the prettiest of all, tumbling down to a tiny rock harbour where swimmers leap from the quay. Next comes Corniglia, the odd one out — the only village with no harbour, perched high on a headland, its station connected to the town by a long stairway or a shuttle bus.

On again to Vernazza, with its natural harbour, medieval watchtower and ring of coloured houses — the postcard village — and finally Monterosso al Mare, the largest, and the only one with a proper sandy beach and a row of stripy umbrellas. Beyond it the train slips through one last headland to Levanto, a relaxed little resort that makes a fine, quieter base.

The beauty of it is that you need no itinerary at all. Trains come every quarter of an hour in season; you simply ride to the far end and work your way back, village by village, swimming, wandering the stepped lanes and eating as you go, while the little Express does all the climbing through the cliffs for you.

The Cinque Terre Express is a high-frequency regional service run by Trenitalia for the Cinque Terre National Park — a turn-up-and-go shuttle rather than a train you plan a day around.

How it runs (2026):

Good to know:

• You don't need a timetable, but check the board. In summer trains are so frequent you just show up; in the quieter months, glance at the departure screen so you're not left waiting an hour.
• It gets very busy. From late spring to early autumn — above all in July and August — the villages and the trains are packed. Early morning and early evening are calmer and cooler.
• The trains are short. Platforms and carriages are small; have your ticket ready and be prepared to stand on the busiest hops. It's only five minutes.
• Onward connections. At La Spezia and Levanto the line meets the main Genoa–Pisa railway, so the Cinque Terre slots easily into a bigger Italian rail trip.

Frequency as of the 2026 timetable; exact times change through the year. Confirm current schedules with the operator — see the Tickets section below.

There are two sensible ways to pay, depending on how much hopping you plan to do. The Cinque Terre Treno Card is what most visitors want: unlimited travel on the Cinque Terre Express between Levanto and La Spezia for one, two or three days, and access to the National Park's paid coastal footpaths. It is sold by the park at any village station or online, and it pays for itself quickly if you make more than a couple of hops or want to walk the ticketed trail sections.

If you are only making one or two hops, or carrying on along the Riviera, an ordinary Trenitalia regional single is simpler and cheaper — but it must be stamped in the platform machine before boarding. Buy ahead in peak season, because station queues run long on summer mornings.

The joy of the Cinque Terre is that the five villages themselves are the sights — but each has its own character, and the train puts them all within a few minutes of each other. Two of the places below are not villages at all: the coastal footpath that links them, and Portovenere at the far end of the same UNESCO listing.

Because the villages are so tiny and so popular, where you stay shapes your whole visit — and the train means you don't have to sleep in the busiest spot to enjoy it.

• In the five villages — staying inside the Cinque Terre, in Vernazza, Monterosso, Manarola, Riomaggiore or Corniglia, is magical once the day-trippers leave and the villages are quiet and lamp-lit. Rooms are small, characterful and book up months ahead; Monterosso has the most (and the beach), Corniglia the fewest and the calm.
• Levanto — just one stop beyond Monterosso, this easy-going resort has a proper beach, more choice, better value and its own charm. A favourite base for families and anyone wanting a little breathing space.
• La Spezia — the workaday city at the southern end has plenty of hotels and the cheapest rooms, plus fast trains into the villages every few minutes. Less pretty, very practical.
• Portovenere — a beautiful alternative just outside the park, reached by bus or boat from La Spezia, for those who want the Ligurian charm without the Cinque Terre crush.

Whenever you can, come in spring or autumn rather than high summer, and book well ahead — the Cinque Terre is one of Italy's most sought-after corners, and its handful of rooms fill fast.