Cinque Terre Photography + Visiting Responsibly

You’ve probably seen the colourful villages of the Cinque Terre National Park in National Geographic and Conde Nast. Impossible houses layered on impossibly steep cliffs, and hilltop views, along the Italian Riviera in Liguria. Here are the top spots for Cinque Terre photography, and tips on finding the most beautiful locations in the five villages.

This post also comes with a plea: Please choose to visit the Cinque Terre by land and stay a few days. Spend money in the local hotels, restaurants, and buy the local wine!

Visiting the Cinque Terre Responsibly

Arriving on a cruise, jumping on a massive bus and town hopping isn’t helpful to the locals who live in the Cinque Terre. Like Venice, the Cinque Terre suffers from over-tourism – or rather mindless-tourism. People arrive, take photos, and then leave – this adds no value to the local economy, and just causes overcrowding and nuisance for those who actually live there.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t visit, in fact, I encourage you to see and photograph the Cinque Terre. But I also implore you to stay for a few days, do some wandering, hike above the villages to the grapevines, and spend some money at local establishments. It is a friendly and warm place – stay awhile!

Photography tips for the Cinque Terre

Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore is the southern most of the five villages on the Cinque Terre. The view in the photo below is from the Vista Panoramica di Rio Maggiore, which can be reached via an underpass at the bottom of Via Colombo. The quaint little wrap-around harbour is a picture postcard; although the look-out gets really busy.

The easy way to avoid the biggest crowds is to visit in the off-season (we visited in November), and to stay in the villages overnight. And by doing so, you get to see the village before and after the bulk of the tourists descend.

In Riomaggiore, I recommend wandering UP the hill – the Sentiero Azzurro is a formidable climb up into the Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre, with incredible views.

Manarola

The far more grandiose harbour at Manarola is a photographer’s paradise. The wide harbour and beautiful turquoise water wraps you in a magnificent photogenic hug, and it’s hard to look away. Rush hour is the 30-60 minutes leading up to sunset – with the hoards lining up along the promontory that leads up to the Manarola Scenic Lookout.

Stay a while, have a drink at one of the bars – there’s nothing better than a glass of local wine while enjoying the view. There are many hotels and apartments for rent on the Cinque Terre – so stay a while and enjoy the view for yourself. I was particularly fond of the sunsets!

Corniglia

Corniglia serves as a wonderful spot for photographing the other villages, due to its hilltop location. Some of the best views of Corniglia are actually when you are hiking the trails from Manarola or Vernazza.

Eric, over at Travel Babbo, talks about a great hike he did up to the Three Crosses at Monte le Croci

Vernazza

Vernazza has an incredibly welcoming and lovely vibe – I can’t really explain it. It is just as photogenic as the other villages, but in a different way. You have to hunt out the angles and utilise the different vantage points available. I recommend using the staircase and pathway behind Santa Margherita di Antiochia Church to get a good aerial view of the harbour and the vibrant buildings surrounding it.

Archways are everywhere in Vernazza and make for great framing agents too. Think about the street scenes as paintings and find the architecture that can frame it.

Please don’t go beyond the fences on the outside of the harbour wall in Vernazza. We saw 3 people nearly get washed away, just for the sake of a selfie. Be safe, don’t do it!

Monterosso al Mare

Where the rest of the Cinque Terre celebrates the verticality of hillside living, Monterosso celebrates the horizontal lines and beach-front bliss. This low-lying village makes for a wonderful panorama from the Cinque Terre ferry, or postcard photo from the many waterfront cafés.

Looking for somewhere to stay during your visit? Check out my Cinque Terre Accommodation guide!

Cinque Terre Photography

Photography is a great expression of how you see the world, but it’s also a great way to help memorialise your travels. And while the Cinque Terre provides a beautiful backdrop for your instagram shots, it is so much more than that.

We stayed at La Francesca self catering apartments and cabins just north of the 5 villages, and it was a wonderful area to stop and enjoy for a few days!

I hope that you have been inspired by my Cinque Terre photography, and that you can visit this magical Italian coastline soon.

Love photography? Why not peruse my street photography from Amsterdam, or my photo essay from Ireland!

All photos & content © Hannah Henderson and may not be used without permission (sharing this blog post is fine, though!). Images shot with a Canon DSLR T3i Rebel + Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM; and an iPhoneX.