Riomaggiore, a beautiful village in the Cinque Terre

Riomaggiore is one of the five famous villages of the Cinque Terre in the south of Liguria (Italy). With about 1,400 inhabitants, it is one of the larger of the five villages, along with Monterosso.

Orientation Riomaggiore

Coming from the city of La Spezia, it is the first of the five towns of the Cinque Terre. The journey time from Spezia by train is only about 6 minutes. The train runs at least every 30 minutes in both directions. To the next village, Manarola, the train takes only 2 minutes.

You walk out of the station and turn right. As in some other villages, Riomaggiore has a tunnel between the station and the village for pedestrians. The tunnel in Riomaggiore is the longest in the Cinque Terre, with an estimated 200 metres.

At the end of the tunnel, go left up the main street of the village or go straight down the steps towards the harbour.

Our tip: Day trips Cinque Terre

There are bus excursions to Cinque Terre from many towns in the surrounding area. Here are a few good offers that have been praised and rated highly by our clients:

>>> Very good tour by bus from Florence to Cinque Terre: Click Here

>>> Very good daily tour by bus from Pisa to Cinque Terre: Click Here

>>> Great bus tour from the city of Milan to Cinque Terre: Click Here

>>> Very good tour by bus from nearby La Spazia to Cinque Terre: Click Here

The village of Riomaggiore

If you go to the harbour, you will see only a few boats in the water. As far as we know, there is a real harbour in the Cinque Terre only in Vernazza. The other harbours are not sufficiently protected in bad weather. That’s why the locals always take the boats out of the water, even in Riomaggiore. You can look at the small boats. They are in the alley leading to the harbour. Outside the village is a small beach.

The centre of Riomaggiore is rather above the railway tunnel in the big alley. Here are some shops, also smaller supermarkets like COOP. You can buy the most important things in Riomaggiore, the prices are of course a bit higher than in the big supermarkets in the nearby city of La Spezia.

In addition, the central alley in Riomaggiore also has some good restaurants and cafés. In our impression, Riomaggiore is not quite as commercialised as other villages in the Cinque Terre. Prices are somewhat lower.

It is narrow in Riomaggiore, due to the steep cliffs there is a lack of space. Some houses therefore almost look like towers. Every square metre is used, typical of the Cinque Terre.

Riomaggiore is a municipality in its own right, the neighbouring Cinque Terre village of Manarola belongs to the municipality of Riomaggiore.

We saw a few cars in the village. Delivery traffic, luggage transporters for tourists, rubbish collection and the like. Tourists cannot drive to Riomaggiore by car. We recommend travelling by train. Passenger boats also connect the individual villages in the season.

The walk between Riomaggiore and Manarola, the so-called Path of Love (Italian: Via dell’Amore), is well-known. Unfortunately, the path has been closed for several years now (2022) due to renovation. More about the hiking trail in the article about Manarola.