8 Night Disney Magic Mediterranean Cruise – Day 4 Cinque Terre and Palo Dinner
After an incredibly relaxing day at sea, we were ready for more adventures ashore! We made port in beautiful La Spezia, Italy on Day 4 of our cruise. We had some light breakfast at Cabanas before heading off the ship for the day.
We did not book an excursion for this port. I did look through the port adventures offered on the Disney website, but almost all involved very long drives to Florence or Pisa. We decided stay more local and to strike out on our own in La Spezia!
After researching a TON ahead of time, I came up with a rough itinerary for our port day. We were going to walk into town, to the train station, and then get a day pass for the regional train so we could explore the towns that make up Cinque Terre.
Cinque Terre is an area of Italian coastline just north of La Spezia made up of five charming, tiny towns. Since it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the five towns are not accessible by car therefore we planned to travel between the towns by train.
I knew what town I wanted to go to first and when the trains started running, so with that information we headed out of the cruise terminal to Stazione La Spezia Centrale!
Thankfully there was a free shuttle running from the ship’s docking point to outside the port, so that made one leg of our journey very speedy. After we got off the shuttle, we used our Pre-Downloaded Google Map of La Spezia to walk to the train station. It was about a 1.2 mile walk and some areas were inclined and included stairs. You could definitely taxi there, but we greatly enjoyed the walk through La Spezia in the early hours of the morning
Once we got to the station, we entered a small shop area to purchase day passes (13 euro per person) that allowed us to take the train between the towns of Cinque Terre as many times as we wanted during the day. The cashier also gave us a paper listing the timetable of the trains and we kept that handy as we went about our day.
Now was the time that we had a hiccup in our plans. We went to the correct platform and hopped on the first train (8:55 AM) destined for Monterosso al Mare, the northern-most town of Cinque Terre. Then the train proceeded to sit at the station for…1 hour. With no announcements regarding the delayed departure. We had been so excited to get to Monterosso early and beat the crowds, but due to the unpredictability of the train systems in Italy our plans were thwarted. The best advice I have (and what I repeated to myself as we sat in that stationary train for an hour) is “Don’t let a small setback in your plans ruin your vacation”.
Our train finally departed at 9:55 AM and we were off to explore! The travel time is very quick: about 30 minutes from La Spezia to Monterosso and then 5-10 minutes between each adjacent town. A nice perk of taking the train is that you can see glimpses of the cliffs and ocean through the train windows are you speed by.
Note: We decided to stop at every town except for Corniglia so we had enough time to get back to the ship (that’s why you won’t see it on our list below)
Without further ado, I’ll share what we did in each of the towns we visited in Cinque Terre!
Monterosso al Mare
We were greeted by a glorious expanse of beach when we got off the train in Monterosso.
The beach was pretty rocky, but we were still excited to get down to the water! There are many area of the beach that claim to require a fee to be there (as well as use the chairs and umbrellas). We didn’t plan to stay long, so we took the stairs down to the beach right outside the train station that did not require a fee. After a quick dip in the ocean, it was time to walk around town!
There were so many places to explore here! We walked to the northern end of town, and then back to the south (up the hill).
Walking around on some huge rocks after our swim!
Overall we loved visiting Monterosso al Mare and enjoyed just walking along the water and especially our morning swim! The water here was so gorgeous and clean.
Monterosso al Mare has the biggest area of beach out of all the towns in Cinque Terre, so make sure to bring your swimsuit when you visit!
Vernazza
Next we entered the stunningly beautiful town of Vernazza. Spoiler alert…I swam here too!
Vernazza had the most charming harbor of all the towns and just overall felt like the quintessential seaside town in Italy.
There were many locals here taking a dip and enjoying the beautiful weather, so I felt very comfortable also hopping into the water for a swim.
We loved this little beach underneath the clock tower.
Vernazza had an extremely relaxed vibe near the water, but further into town there were opportunities to shop and get souvenirs.
We grabbed some delicious gelato before we headed back to the train! It was at the gelato shop closest to the harbor, so it’s impossible to miss.
Manarola
Our next stop was Manarola! This town had a much more vivacious feeling to it than Vernazza, especially down by the water.
When we walked down to the water, people were actually jumping off that tall rock and into the water below! I was tempted to go in for a swim myself, but…
You can’t tell in the picture, but there was actually a lot of trash floating in the water in Manarola. It’s extremely sad that this beautiful place was polluted. It definitely reminded us that it’s important to dispose of trash properly so that it doesn’t end up in the ocean.
We wanted to get some limoncello before we traveled to our last stop, so we found a little souvenir shop and purchased one of those tiny limoncello bottles to share. It was definitely too hot outside to drink any more than a teensy amount of alcohol!
I loved the colorful boats set up next to the harbor. And with that, we went on to the southern-most town of Cinque Terre!
Riomaggiore
When we arrived in Riomaggiore, we actually had to walk through a stretch of tunnel to get to the town. But the views were absolutely worth the walk!
We were starving at this point in the day. Thankfully there was a deli in Riomaggiore that we were able to grab some fresh sandwiches from. We sat ourselves down on some steps to eat and people watch.
It was so relaxing to sit in the shade and relax amidst the bustle of the town. Before we knew it, it was time to get back on the train to La Spezia! Surprise, the train was 20 minutes late. Big lesson in Italy: the trains are never on time, so add some buffer time into any plans you make involving train travel!
All the sun and fun really did a number on us. We were ready to get back on the train and get back to the ship. We went back to our stateroom, showered, and actually fell asleep!
The short nap was exactly what we needed to feel refreshed before we got ready for dinner. We poured a glass of wine in our room and then went up on deck 11 to watch the ship sail away from La Spezia. This was actually one of our favorite things to do each evening; the sunset just makes it extraordinarily magical.
Before we knew it, it was time for our reservation at Palo! We purposefully booked our Palo dinner reservation to be on the Pirate Night of the cruise. The regular dinner menu on Pirate Night is not our favorite, so we did not feel too sad about missing it.
We were so excited when we sat down at Palo to see that we had the same server that we had at brunch the day before! She was truly amazing and so knowledgeable.
I really don’t think you could go wrong with anything on the menu, but here is what we ordered for dinner at Palo:
Palo’s Cold Antipasti Specialties (prosciutto, bresaola, parmesan reggiano, marinated olives, and sun-dried tomatoes served with special Palo dips and olive oil)
Lobster and Mascarpone Ravioli
Wild Mushroom Risotto
Rosemary Pappardelle con Aragosta
Steak? (Justin forgot what he ordered, lol)
Grilled Sea Scallops
Palo’s Homemade Tiramisu
Everything was delicious! I truly can’t recommend Palo enough. If you are deciding between doing Palo brunch or dinner, my opinion is that you should do brunch if you can only choose one. The dinner is wonderful BUT the buffet is only offered during brunch and that is absolutely the deciding factor for me.
Our night ended with the Pirate Night deck party and fireworks! A spectacular end to the Italy portion of our cruise. Make sure to check back for Day 5 of our Mediterranean cruise where we make port in Villefranche, France and head to Nice and Monaco!
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