Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre means “five lands” and it is made up of the five cliff side villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare. They are connected by hiking paths of various difficulties. Unfortunately, there was very little information available on the Internet about the accessibility of the trails between these small towns with regard to children or people with disabilities. For example, we did not know if we could navigate these trails with our toddler. According to what I had read the answer was “not likely.” As such we had decided prior to leaving the US not to bring our toddler back pack along since we would not be doing these trails. Fortunately for us we decided in Florence that we would go to Cinque Terre and at best just hang out in the towns if the trails were not navigable.

The first town you come to if you are traveling south to north is Riomaggiore (via La Spezia by train). The trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola is all paved – it is even wheelchair accessible! Sadly none of the websites or books I read pointed out this great fact. There is an elevator at the bottom of the trail that takes those who need it to the top where they can access the entire cliff side view to the town of Manarola. Also, very toddler friendly – although I did keep a death-grip on my child. This trail is literally on the cliff side – jump over the rail and you will be in the ocean… after a shortfall and bouncing off some rocks perhaps. Once in Manarola we took the upper trail, a very narrow rocky dirt trail through the private vineyards, which was quite manageable for a toddler to walk. I am therefore unaware how accessible the Manarola-Corniglia cliff side trail is for those in wheelchairs. The walk to the second city, Manarola, was roughly 15 minutes for us and the leg to Corniglia maybe 45 minutes. As I mentioned we decided not to bring our toddler backpack so we ended up carrying our son most of the trail including the 360+ stairs to the town of Corniglia. We switched up between carrying him on our shoulders and on my hip with a makeshift sling I made out of my scarf (did I mention he is about 30 lbs?). I don’t think we ever complained about his weight or the inconvenience – it was too beautiful.

I cannot describe even now how glorious our time in the beautiful Cinque Terre was. We could have hiked the entire day just because we were “high” on the view. Alas, it was lunch time and our little angel was promised some beach time. After an amazing lunch of spaghetti and margarita pizza (my favorite) in Corniglia we took the train to Monterossa al Mare. It was more beautiful than the pictures described, and after being in Viareggio, it was like paradise. We spent the next two hours frolicking in the crystal clear blue waters (ice cold waters) of Monterosso before heading back to Riomaggiore.

During our time in Riomaggiore we learned the trail was closed from Vernazza to Monterosso due to landslides. For those who do not know this is considered the most difficult leg of the trail. Unfortunately we did not get to do the Corniglia-Vernazza leg, but had read it was similar to what we had already done. We hope to go to this region again someday and this time we will bring the baby backpack!

I almost forgot to mention are playgrounds in every one of these villages...however, they take somewhat of a backseat to the playground that is the region.