🌎 👣 🍷 Cinque Terre – 5 Towns and So Many Choices 🌎 👣 🍷

 

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!