A Haven for Backpackers, Extremely Disappointed | Reader Feedback

My husband and I recently visited the Cinque Terre. We only had one day though and had to get from Portofino to Riomaggiore and back to Portofino within 8 hours – almost impossible on a week day due to the train schedules — lack of trains. We had two choices on the train – catch a train from Riomaggiore at 5:30 p.m. (too late for us as we had plans that evening), so our only other choice was to catch the earlier train at 2:30 p.m. — way too early to do much exploring at all.

The exploring we did was completely uninteresting. It was a cold, rainy day (early May) yet still quite crowded. In fact it seemed to be a haven for backpackers. Also, lots of Anglo kids sitting on the sidewalk – kind of depressing. I didn’t go all the way to Italy to see these disrespectful kids.

Anyway, I was extremely disappointed by Cinque Terre. We were able to see Riomaggiore and Manarola only (walking the Via De L’amore which by the way was dirty and full of graffiti). The towns were uninteresting and the walk was down right ugly. I think we should have stayed in Portofino for the day.

Holly
California, USA

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3 Comments

  1. I am surprised that you had a bad experience, most people seem to like Cinque Terre. The bad weather and you tight schedule did not help, I guess. The disrespectful backpackers are a problem.

    Better luck next time.

  2. Thanks for the email and thanks for posting my comments. It looks like I’m odd man out – everyone seems to have had a wonderful time in Cinque Terre. I agree with you the weather and tight schedule must be to blame. We will give Cinque Terre another chance.

  3. Thanks, Lloyd! I believe Nathan may have been the first one to mtienon Cinque Terre to me prior to our trip. It was his enthusiastic report that tipped me off to what a special place it is!

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