I loved writing about my trip to Italy so much, that I wanted to do it again! Especially as the only thing I’ve been cooking for the past week has been soup. My partner and I have put ourselves on a relatively lax version of the soup diet, which basically means we are just eating soup during the week, along with something carb free for breakfast, and then being a bit more relaxed on the weekends. I can tell you now, these soups are so bland and unexciting, I would never dream of sharing them with you. But we needed something drastic after all the pasta and gelato we ate in Italy, so desperate times call for desperate measures!

So as I sit wallowing in my soup diet, I feel like reminiscing on some of the awesome food I ate in Italy. Although it’s going to make me feel really hungry, it feels nice to remember the good times and the good food we consumed. Hopefully it will inspire you for a trip to Italy, or give you some ideas if you’re already going!

Our first stop on our trip was Cinque Terra. I have to say; this area of Italy is actually beyond incredible. The towns are gorgeous with their colourful houses and steep harbours, the views are stunning, and the food is out of control good! This area is a must see, especially if you love hiking. I think the highlight for me was tackling the Cinque Terra trails between the towns. Although it was a bit too hot in Summer for some of the walks, it was well worth the sweat for the views you got atop the hills covered in grape vines. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful and I don’t think there is anything like it anywhere else in the world. If you have a chance, go see it and experience it for yourself!

We stayed in Vernazza in a little hotel on the cliff top. The advantage was the views, especially from breakfast, but the disadvantage was the stairs that we had to carry our 20kg luggage up! But it was well worth it to be in the heart of Cinque Terra, and Vernazza I think was my favourite village out of the 5. It was so close to everything and great as the trails were open between Monterosso and Corniglia, unlike Manarola and Riomaggiore which were cut off (unless you wanted to do a longer hike, which was worth the extra effort I promise).

There was so much amazing food in Cinque Terra, it’s hard to know where to begin! Pretty much every meal we had was a winner, so it’s hard to come up with highlights. But I’ve tried to get it down to five amazing dining experiences that we had, that I think you need to if you get to Cinque Terra yourself!

Ristorante Belforte -Vernazza

This restaurant was pretty much our first real meal in Italy (the night before in Milan we were so tired after our flight that we didn’t end up eating). I had read all about this restaurant online and so I was a bit worried about getting in. But we went there so early that we managed to get a spot at a table reserved for a later party, which was absolutely perfect!

This restaurant has the most amazing view of the ocean. It is set on top of the cliff in Vernazza, and the tables outside are pretty much built into the rock and overlook the cliffs and ocean beneath. If you are after great food and a great photo to match, you have come to the right place! It is worth booking if you want to guarantee getting in though, these views are well known so they are often booked out.

It had a really great atmosphere, and the waiter was great! He loved how tall my partner was and wanted to take a picture with him, but overall he just made us feel very welcome. He sang and laughed along with us, making jokes all the time, it was a great first experience for Italy!

The wine list was great, not cheap, but full of Cinque Terra wines which are great to try while you are there because they have quite a small wine industry with some pretty great wines! We had a prosecco which was incredible!

The food was also awesome. One thing you have to try in Cinque Terra is the pesto pasta, as this region is known for its pesto. I had the pesto pasta in a few places, but this was by far my favourite! I don’t know what they do to it to make it so creamy without using cream, but it was so good! The pasta was also fresh and delicious, which is what really makes pasta in Italy so incredible! My partner had a seafood pasta (the region is also known for seafood) and it was the best he’d ever had! The food wasn’t cheap here, but it was well worth the price, and the portions were great.

If you have the time and don’t mind spending a little extra, make sure you check out Ristorante Belforte. You won’t be disappointed!

Cantina di Miky – Monterosso

We went to this awesome restaurant on our last night in Cinque Terra, and we weren’t disappointed. I had read about this place on a few travel blogs, along with Miki which is the more upmarket restaurant. We opted for the Cantina di Miky as you can get a table right on the boardwalk and have an amazing view of the bay while you eat.

Cantina di Miky is located right on the beach at Monterosso, pretty close to the train station. We didn’t book but we went quite early and still had to wait for a table out the front. Luckily it was only about a 10 minute wait and we ended up with a table right on the boardwalk which was perfect for watching the sunset. It was the perfect setting for our last meal in Cinque Terra looking out over the ocean and the beach and watching the sky turn purple.

Ok enough about the setting. Firstly, I had the most amazing cocktail here! It was the Cantina di Miky spritz and it was unlike any spritz I had the whole trip! It came out so beautifully presented too, and it wasn’t even that expensive! It was probably one of the best cocktails I had of the trip (which isn’t hard because I mainly just drunk aperol spritz which isn’t really a cocktail in my books). The wine list here is also really comprehensive and not too badly priced – you can get some great local wines.

The food here is absolutely awesome! We started with an antipasti board and it had a delicious selection of meats and cheeses that you sampled, it was hard picking a favourite I can tell you that! I then had the pesto pasta again, because I can’t help myself, and it definitely gave the pasta at Ristorante Belforte a run for its money, it was absolutely delicious. My partner had a seafood basket, and was a little skeptical when it came out as it was full of anchovies (the big kind you find in this area). We don’t really eat anchovies, but these were absolutely delicious! They may have changed our mind about these little fish (If you do love anchovies, this restaurant actually offers a degustation made purely of anchovy dishes).

The dessert was a perfect way to end the meal. I had the best lemon tart here that I’ve ever had in my life, and that is a big call for me to make. It was so tasty, and full of lemon flavor. It was definitely the best dessert that I had in Cinque Terra. They often serve a lemon cake which we found a little dry (although they gave this to us at breakfast and it was delicious when you smothered it in lemon jam).

In short, if you are in Monterosso, this is a perfect little spot for dinner and make sure you leave room for dessert!

Gelateria Corniglia – Corniglia

Speaking of dessert, I need to talk about our favourite gelato place. Now don’t take this recommendation lightly, because my partner literally compared every other gelato we had on the trip to the gelato we had here. That’s a big call to make, because we ate a hell of a lot of gelato!

We visited Gelateria Coniglia after completing the walk from Vernazza, so granted we were quite hot and bothered and in need of a gelato. I had read about this place online and so when I saw it managed to steer my partner away from the other gelato shops in close proximity to give it a try.

This place is a little hole in the wall gelateria, you can almost miss it when you’re walking by. It is a little dark inside too, and crammed at the back is the cabinet piled high with amazing gelato flavours. There were so many to choose from, including the crema 5 terra (white wine cream flavoured, so good), and your classics of course. But the best flavor by far, and one we found nowhere else, was the lemon and basil sorbet. I can’t even describe to you how amazing this flavor was, it was so good that my partner only tried a bit of mine and still raved about it all throughout Italy. It was the perfect combination, and so refreshing!

If you are in Corniglia, do yourself a favour and check this place out. All the flavours we had were awesome, but make sure you try the lemon and basil – you won’t be disappointed!

Vineria Santa Marta – Vernazza

Our first night in Vernazza, we had gone to a wine experience on our hotel’s balcony (side note, this is a bit of a tourist trap. The views are nice, but for the price you pay and the amount of wine you get, you’d be better off buying a few bottles yourself and trying them), so we didn’t feel like sitting down to a really formal meal. We wandered up towards the train station and saw what looked to be a wine shop, but then realized they had a small menu on butchers paper out the front. We wandered up and realized it was a restaurant, so decided it would be a perfect place to try.

This little wine bar is full of amazing Cinque Terra wines. It isn’t the cheapest, but none of the Cinque Terra wine is, and they had the best selection we saw. They let you buy bottles to take away if you would rather take it back to your hotel, otherwise you can have a glass there, or the whole bottle. They also do wine flight tastings, which we opted for and can I say it was way better value for money than the wine experience, and also far more enjoyable. We were talked through the wines thoroughly and even given little bits of food and cookies to try with the wines to make the perfect pairings. It was so enjoyable we ended up ordering more wine! We also got to try the dessert wine from the region, which was absolutely delicious!

The menu here is small, but the food was just delicious. It wasn’t trying to be anything that it wasn’t, or too stuffy and overly fancy. It was just honest good Italian food. We had an awesome pesto lasagna, which is something I’ve never tried before but was absolutely delicious! Think lasagna but instead of the tomato ragu it’s full of pesto. Super delicious in the land of pesto.

What I loved about this wine bar was that it seemed to be only Italians eating there, so it didn’t feel like a tourist trap. Because it was a bit tucked away, I think it was easy to miss. So if you feel like a more authentic experience, make sure you check it out!

La Scuna – Corniglia

We found this place after our monster walk between Manarola and Corniglia on our last day. Seriously, the normal track is closed, which meant you had to go the long way which took about 3 hours. I have to say though, this was absolutely breathtaking, and probably the best walk we did. But you can imagine that by the end of it, we were absolutely starving! So hungry in fact, that we abandoned plans to head back to Manarola for lunch on the train and headed right into Corniglia to find a place to eat pronto!

La Scuna is split into two parts with the main part on the other side of the street, but they have this beautiful terrace area where you can sit in the sun and enjoy a meal. The menu is pretty limited, but the food on it was really affordable and all sounded absolutely delicious. Maybe it was the walking talking, but we would have eaten pretty much anything!

La Scuna is a perfect place for lunch if you aren’t looking to have the full stuffy restaurant experience. It is casual dining out in the sun with a beautiful view of the ocean (ok so you did have to stand up for the view, but it felt so relaxed being tucked away from the main street of Corniglia). It was the perfect spot to unwind after a long hike.

The food was awesome here. If you are a fan of paninis, they have so many delicious flavours to choose from. I ended up going with a bresaola salad which was absolutely amazing. If you’d ordered the same thing in Australia, you would have gotten a few pieces of bresaola, but this was covered in it, and had the perfect combination of rocket, parmesan and lemon! They also had great local wines to wash it down, along with an extensive beer list if you are a beer drinker.

If you’re looking for a casual lunch and a chance to unwind, check this place out!

So there you have my top 5. There were so many other places we tried, but these are probably the ones that stand out the most. I wish we’d had more time to try some more of the restaurants, but I guess we’ll just have to go back!

Cinque Terra is an awesome foodie destination which offers so much more than just the hikes and amazing views. There are so many great restaurants to try for everyone’s taste, and delicious wines to wash them all down with. Hopefully this list might help you a bit with planning your trip!

Until next time, happy eating!

Ella xx