Crowd-Free Activities Rick Steves Recommends In Italy's Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre or "Five Lands" is a string of fishing villages — Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manorola, and Riomaggiore — built into the hills and valleys of the Italian Riviera. Rick Steves visited the area several decades ago and found a quiet, authentic corner of Italy with dramatic coastal views and a slow pace of life, an ambience that's harder to find today. The local community is still small at just 4,000 residents, but Cinque Terre now attracts at least 2.5 million tourists a year.

This is great for the local economy but international tourism risks overwhelming the area. In 2016, authorities announced a plan to issue a ticketing system that would require visitors to buy tickets to visit the Cinque Terre villages. Sensors on the main roadways would have counted the ticketed tourists entering Cinque Terre and barred further entry once the villages had reached capacity.

These plans were not implemented, however, and the crowds have continued unabated. We visited Cinque Terre in 2022 and got caught in numerous tourist cattle drives, especially around Riomaggiore. They were annoying on occasion, but it was clear to see why this beautiful region is so popular. Rick Steves still admires the Cinque Terre — one of Italy's best places for a honeymoon — and he knows how to enjoy it away from the crowds. Wrote Steves, "This is the place to take a sightseeing breather, and inhale slower-paced Italian culture in perhaps its purest form."

When visiting Cinque Terre, you need to be organized to beat the crowds, and that begins with picking the right time of year. According to Rick Steves, the crowds are thickest in May, June, September, and October, and the sun hits hardest in July and August. That leaves just a handful of months, with April the only one offering springtime weather. Be mindful of Easter and Italian Liberation Day on April 25, though, as the crowds do arrive around this time, too. Steves was in Vernazza once — a dazzling jewel of Cinque Terre — when 95,000 descended on the village.

If you've marked April in your calendar, it's best to book within the Cinque Terre rather than the neighboring towns of La Spezia and Levanto, an underrated getaway beach town. Well connected though they may be, commuting in and out of the villages will waste the tranquil morning and evening hours.

Steves advises getting out of town by 10 a.m. to avoid the day-tripping crowds, and to spend the next seven hours or so away at the beach or perhaps hiking a less-traveled trail. He also suggests alternative, crowd-free activities "off the the beaten path" in Cinque Terre, writing, "[P]ick a scenic spot for a wine tasting (the Cinque Terre is known for its white wine made from bosco grapes) or sign up for a pesto-making class (the tasty basil-and-nut sauce originated here)." Another way to escape the Cinque Terre crowds? Hiring a boat and touring the shore, which Steves says can cost anywhere from $35 to $60.