Handpicked experience · Florence
Florence, Italy
Three villages in a van of eight: the one that sits a hundred metres above the sea with 382 steps to it, why the boat may become a train, and the mud of 2011.
A small group, capped at eight, so the day stays manageable
An air-conditioned minivan with a driver-escort throughout
Three villages: Manarola, Vernazza and Corniglia
A shared coastal sailing when the sea allows, and the coastal railway when it does not
A seasonal refreshment, ice cream in the warm months or a winter aperitif
A ten-hour day from Florence to three of the Cinque Terre villages, in a van capped at eight people. Around five of those hours are spent travelling, which is the trade for reaching a stretch of coast with no motorway near it. Semi-private here means a small group rather than a group of your own, and the practical difference is that the day still runs to a fixed shape.
This catches people out every week. Corniglia sits on top of a headland roughly a hundred metres above the water, the only one of the five with no harbour and no direct access to it. From the station you either take the shuttle bus or climb the brick staircase, which runs to thirty-three flights and three hundred and eighty-two steps. In August, in the middle of the day, that climb is a serious undertaking. Decide in advance which of you is doing it.
The coastal boat is written into the arrangement with the train as its alternative, and that is not a hedge — it is the honest description of a service that cannot run in swell. When it does run it is much the better way to see the villages, because they were built to be approached from the water and only make sense from that angle. Note also that no boat can call at the clifftop village, which has nowhere to land.
The person with you drives, organises the timings and knows where things are. Treat them as a fixer rather than a lecturer, and ask direct questions rather than waiting for commentary that is not coming.
On an October afternoon in that year a wall of mud and debris came down the valley behind the village and filled the main street to a depth of four metres. Three people died. The place you walk through was dug out and rebuilt within about a year, largely by people who lived there, and you can still find markers on walls showing the height the mud reached. It is worth knowing before you photograph the harbour.
Manarola has no beach and barely a harbour, so the fishing boats are winched up a ramp and parked among the houses when the weather turns. Swimming is off the rocks, into deep water, with no shelving and no sand anywhere.
Above that village, one man began assembling a Christmas display out of scrap and old bulbs in the early 1960s and kept adding to it for decades. It now covers an entire terraced slope with thousands of lights and is claimed as the largest of its kind anywhere. It is lit from early December to late January.
Not from Tuscany, where you started. The basil is a protected regional crop grown in glasshouses along the Ligurian shore, picked young so the leaves stay small and the flavour does not turn towards mint. Order it here rather than saving it for Florence.
Wear shoes you can climb steps in and carry water. Meals are your own beyond the refreshment provided. There is no collection from accommodation, and cancellation is free up to a day ahead.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
Around five, split between the outward and return legs. There is no motorway close to this coast, which is exactly why it stayed as it is.
Corniglia, perched about a hundred metres up on a headland. From the station it is a shuttle bus or a brick staircase of thirty-three flights and three hundred and eighty-two steps.
It depends on the swell, decided on the day. The boat is much the better experience when it sails, since these villages were built to be seen from the water, but it cannot operate in rough conditions.
No. The clifftop one has no landing place at all, so it is always reached by rail or road however calm the sea is.
They drive, handle the timings and know the ground. Ask them direct questions rather than expecting a running commentary, and you will get a great deal out of them.
A debris flow came down the valley behind it one October afternoon and filled the main street four metres deep, killing three people. It was dug out and rebuilt within roughly a year, largely by residents.
Off the rocks rather than off sand. Manarola in particular has no beach, and its fishing boats are winched up a ramp and parked among the houses when the weather turns.