This is one of those posts that is in no way meant to be
all-encompassing or “the best of the best.” But this is the best of the wine, cocktails
and cocktail places we found in our marvelous three days in Cinque Terre, a region on the
Ligurian coast of Italy that literally means “five towns.” But for the purposes
of sharing what we enjoyed we’re adding a sixth town that had a little more
nightlife.
Some general thoughts on Cinque Terre:
1.
Local wine is fantastic and very inexpensive – 2
or 3 euros for a glass or about 15 euros for a bottle
2.
If you get the chance, try the cones of fried
seafood. You’ll thank us.
3.
Even if you don’t hike between the towns, be
ready to walk everywhere
4.
The train is an easy way to get to all five towns
in a day
The five towns that make up Cinque Terre are each small and
charming in their own way, each has a main square and at least one main street
with shops and restaurants, and all but one has a harbor or dock with access to
the sea (and lots of fresh seafood!) We would highly recommend a sunset cruise
with a local captain – including local wine, of course. All the towns have
places to get great local wine! But not all of them have places you can get a
cocktail after dark.
That’s why we are including La Spezia. It’s a fairly
metropolitan city just outside the Cinque Terre with a respectable cocktail
scene! We’ll start there. La Spezia is a
port city with a central train station which makes it a great “home base” to
explore the area. It’s also home to one of the largest navy bases in Italy. So
there are plenty of places to get a drink (or three).
We first stopped at Doria
– a cool little wine bar with a small indoor seating area underground but
plenty of tables on the side street, including a window bar space where we
enjoyed a couple of very nice charcuterie boards and local wine as well as a
cocktail. This was popular with the locals, but less crowded than some of the
spots we saw. Definitely a #tipsypick.
Just down the street, J Gatsby is a very metropolitan
cocktail bar with an expansive patio area – perfect for enjoying a great
cocktail and wine. They even had several inventive bourbon cocktails on their
menu, which at the time was themed around Tarantino movies! That definitely
caught our attention given the fact that the director is from Knoxville.
You know we are fans of local
breweries, so we took a detour #offthetipsypath to find the La Spezia Brewing Company …
and we’re very glad we did! It’s a small operation with a lineup of tasty brews
that hit the spot for us! Check them out!
And we rounded out our night at Eclettica Cocktail Lab - a
cocktail bar that with a vibe that was trying to be a little bit of everything
– the drink menus were found inside plastic CD containers! It was definitely another locals hangout,
which makes it all the more appealing. The drinks were excellent. Another
#tipsypick if you are in La Spezia!
Bottom line, we definitely could have spent more than one
night exploring the scene here.
In Cinque Terre itself, of the five towns within the UNESCO
borders, we chose to stay in Riomaggiore. On our
first night, we had excellent food at Bar Centrale
in the heart of town and cocktails (and local wine) with a great patio view
overlooking the town at Old School! They
are on one of the streets above the town, so it’s a nice walk!
On our last day, we had one of the
best meals of our trip at Rio Bistrot!
This upscale spot overlooks the harbor. The food was excellent – mostly local
seafood paired with local wines, including some “Vin Santo” – a sweet dessert
wine served with sponge cake.
Elsewhere, we did some hiking and took the trains to see all
five towns. We had a nice lunch in the middle of Vernazza at Osteria il Baretto that included an
excellent Limoncello Spritz and a view of the tiny Chapel
of Santa Marta. In Corniglia, we enjoyed some local wines and bites with a
view of the sea at La
Scuna.
But the #tipsypick for the other towns would have to be
watching the sunset at Nessun
Dorma in Manarola. This outdoor patio establishment overlooks the town and
the harbor facing the west, making for a spectacular sunset experience every
evening. They do book up fairly quickly, so plan accordingly, but do plan for
it!
Cinque Terre was one of our bucket list destinations, so we
are happy to be able to share some of our #tipsypicks!
