The classic cinque terre tour

Five fishermen villages scattered along the coast: Cinque Terre are an instant favorite for every seascape photographer.

Three nights is the perfect amount of time to extensively cover all of the iconic viewpoints as well as some less known ones too.

3 nights/4 days

FROM €2190,00 P.P.

all skill levels

moderate walking involved

5 PERSONS MAX.

ALL YEAR ROUND

OVERVIEW

Cinque Terre are one of those places that will stick in your heart for a long time for a number of reasons: the walking up and down the hills, the number of steps to take, the trains passing through the towns right by the sea (and often packed with people).. But also the magical sunsets over the sea, the colorful villages, the narrow streets and delicious food.

Cinque Terre are an experience, with all their pros and cons – and experience that it’s definitely worth living and capturing with you camera.

Out of the five villages – three are the ones that stand out for their photographic beauty: Riomaggiore, Manarola and Vernazza. The best time of the day around here, by far, is sunset: having three sunset sessions at our disposal during this workshop – we will be able to dedicate a full session to each town and your instructor will have enough time to teach you all the tips and trick about seascape photography!

workshop itinerary

A small disclaimer before you start diving into the day-by-day itinerary: what you will read here is a “standardized” version of it. In other words a simplified, very rigid schedule created to give you a rough idea of what our days together will look like and a “taste” of some of the locations we will shoot.

If you’d like to get more infos about the locations – you can also visit our Cinque Terre Location Guide, that should give you an even clearer idea of the places – and if you’d like to know more about the best times to visit Cinque Terre, check this Cinque Terre Season Guide instead!

Truth is that we never run two identical workshops – due to the weather, due to the light, due to the length of the days at any given time of the year and a bazillion other variables that come into play when dealing with outdoor photography.

Take this general itinerary for what it is – and by any means don’t think that we’ll stick to it at all times!

DAY 1 - ARRIVAL & MANAROLA
Pick-up: 10/10:30AM

Time to start our workshop together! On our first day, we will pick you up at the Pisa (or Florence) airport around mid-morning, so that we can start our drive to Manarola (our final destination of the workshop, 1h15m drive from Pisa and 2h20m from Florence) straight away.

Lunch: 12:30PM

As soon as we arrive at the parking lot in Manarola – the culture shock of Cinque Terre will hit you: we won’t be able to drive all the way down to our hotel, since the town centre is closed to traffic. This means that we will park our car up there and then walk down with all our stuff! It’s going to be a short walk – no worries!

Whenever we reach the town centre, we’ll leave the luggages at the hotel and head straight for a delicious lunch where you will get to try the seafood or the pesto sauce (actually “invented” here!).

Hotel Check-in & Afternoon Break: approx. 2:30/4:30PM

After our tasty lunch together, we’ll return back to the hotel to check in and take a breath before hitting the road again.

Sunset Session: 5/8PM (depending on sunset time)

Finally you will get the chance to bring out the camera from the backpack! Time to take an incredibly short walk to the seaside and capture the beauty of Manarola itself, the place where we are staying and arguable the most beautiful out of all the villages of Cinque Terre! See the images down here for reference.

Dinner: 8:30PM

It’s been a long day: finally we will have the chance to sit down and have a warm meal with some wine to end it in the best way!

DAY 2 - MANAROLA, MONTEROSSO AL MARE & VERNAZZA
Sunrise Session: 5:00/8AM (depending on sunrise time)

Time for an early wake up call! We will do our first sunrise of the workshop in Manarola again – this time for a different and less known perspective though! We will hike up above the village (10 minutes walk) through some steps and get the twilight and sunrise from up there.

Breakfast & Morning Break: 8/10:30AM

By the time we’ll be back at the hotel, I’m sure that you will be very much looking forward to having a nice breakfast and a bit of a break to gain some energies back.

Visit and Lunch to Monterosso al Mare: 11:00AM/2:30PM

What you need to know about Cinque Terre is: not all of them are photographically interesting.

Monterosso al Mare, as pretty as it is, photography-wise doesn’t quite hit the spot as Manarola, Riomaggiore or Vernazza – and that’s why we will visit this town mid-day: it’s still worth seeing it, just not worth it to spend a golden hour session there. We will take a stroll through the city streets, along the seaside and have a tasty lunch around there.

We will reach the town by train: the train is what we will use to move between the villages for the whole workshop – as it’s 10x faster than using a car and all the stations are downtown (almost at the sea level), so that we won’t have to walk uphill everytime.

Afternoon Break/Editing: 2:30/5:00PM

Depending on how tired we are, we might either take another break or do some post-production on the shots taken in the past couple sessions. Or maybe a mix of both!

Sunset Session: 5:30/8PM (depending on sunset time)

Time to hit Vernazza – another gorgeous town of Cinque Terre! This location is also the one that probably offers more viewpoints: your instructor, depending on the time of the year and the weather conditions will decide which one will be the best on that day.

Dinner: 8:30/9PM

After twilight is gone, we will take the train back to Manarola and get our well deserved dinner there!

DAY 3 - VERNAZZA, CORNIGLIA & RIOMAGGIORE
Sunrise Session: 5:00/8AM (depending on sunrise time)

Second sunrise of the workshop: at this time we will probably take an early train once again and return to Vernazza to shoot it from one of the perspectives that we missed the night before. As we mentioned earlier, there’s no shortage of compositions there!

Breakfast & Morning Break: 8/10:30AM

By the time we’ll be back at the hotel, I’m sure that you will be very much looking forward to having a nice breakfast and a bit of a break to gain some energies back.

Visit and Lunch to Corniglia: 11:00AM/2:30PM

Same thing we did on the previous day – we will visit one of the less interesting (photographically speaking) towns, this time one named Corniglia. We will reach it by train in just 3 minutes, as it’s right next to Manarola: expect a looong staircase to reach the town centre from the main station, but with some beautiful views all over the coast!

Afternoon Break/Editing: 2:30/5:00PM

Depending on how tired we are, we might either take another break or do some post-production on the shots taken in the past couple sessions. Or maybe a mix of both!

Sunset Session: 5:30/8PM (depending on sunset time)

Last sunset of the workshop: tonight we will cover the last village we haven’t seen yet: Riomaggiore. Seeing the sun setting over the sea while the light hits the colorful houses of the village is just one of the most romantic experiences you can capture in Italy!

Dinner: 8:30/9PM

After twilight is gone, we will take the train back to Manarola and get our well deserved dinner there!

DAY 4 - DEPARTURE
Sunrise Session: 5:30/8AM (depending on sunrise time)

We are mentioning one last sunrise in the itinerary, even in our very last day: since you’ll probably have to pack things up and get ready for your trip back home, you are 100% free to decide whether you’d like to go for it or maybe just sleep in and get ready a bit later. Our recommendation is to see how the weather looks like, depending also on what conditions we got the previous day and then decide.

Breakfast & Check-out: 8:00/9:30AM

Time to pack everything up, get some “juice” for the trip back home and start our drive back towards the airport!

Drop-off: 11:00AM/12:00PM

After a 1h30m drive back to Pisa (or 2h30m to Florence), it’s unfortunately time to say goodbye: your instructor will help you take the luggages into the building and wish you a safe flight back home!

You have two different ways to secure your spot on any available workshop date:

– Scroll down, select the package that more fits your needs, fill in your details and follow the process to the check-out. You will be able to leave a refundable deposit (500€ x person most of the times) via credit/debit card, bank transfer or even Paypal.

– Scroll down to the very end of the page to find the contact form or visit the “Contact Us” page to, well.. Contact us! We will be more than happy to help you with any request you have and set up the ideal workshop you have in your mind – and ultimately give you all the details to complete the deposit and secure your spot on the tour.

Down here above the price you’ll find a list of the most important things included in each package, but for an in-depth answer check our FAQs page!
All our quotes are always based on a double room occupancy: that means that if you are traveling here by yourself, we will automatically add the so-called “single supplement” to your price.

Why? So that you to get your own room for yourself without having to share it with anyone else. The single supplement is something we add at cost price (if not less), and as annoying as it might be, that’s something that unfortunately we can’t avoid.

That’s also how we manage to guarantee every workshop departure, even if you are the only participant for that date.

Of course you can opt for the single supplement even if you are traveling with friends and you like to have your own personal space.

– Digital Camera (preferably a DSLR or mirrorless camera, APS-C, micro 4/3 and FF will be more than fine);
– An ultrawide lens (e.g. Nikon 14-24mm, Canon 16-35mm, Tamron 15-30mm, Tokina 16-28mm etc); we recommend a lens with a wide maximum aperture (like f/2.8) in case we might do some night photography.

– A standard zoom lens (e.g. Nikon/Canon/Sigma 24-70mm or 24-105mm);

– A telephoto zoom lens (e.g. various Nikon/Canon/Tamron/Sigma 70-200mm);

– A super telephoto zoom lens (e.g. Sigma/Tamron 150-600mm); this lens is not necessary but we recommend it anyway since it allows to capture the far away details of the landscapes;

– A sturdy tripod that permits to do some long exposure photos, specially at twilight;

– A set of ND filters; these are the only filters we feel to recommend, since they become useful when you need to stretch the exposure time a little bit during some difficult light conditions;

– A camera remote to avoid blurry shots.

A few weeks before your departure, we will contact you suggesting the best clothes to bring with you based on the weather forecasts and the current temperatures, so that you will be perfectly equipped by the time of your arrival!

CHOOSE YOUR PACKAGE:

SMART PACKAGE

From 2190,00€ per person
  • accommodations (3* or better) (double occupancy)
  • breakfasts
  • Car transports
  • gas, tolls, road taxes, etc
  • pick up/drop off at pisa airport
  • editing sessions
  • assistance and guidance by a professional local photographer 24/7
BEST PRICE

COMFORT PACKAGE

From 2890,00€ per person
  • accommodations (3*/4*or better) (double occupancy)
  • three meals per day (breakfast, lunch, dinner)
  • car transports
  • public transports tickets (if needed)
  • attractions tickets (monuments, towers, etc)
  • gas, tolls, road taxes, etc
  • pick up/drop off at pisa/florence airport
  • assistance and guidance by a professional local photographer 24/7
  • chance to make it a private workshop at no added cost

NOT INCLUDED IN BOTH PACKAGES

  • AIRFARE TO/FROM ITALY
  • SINGLE SUPPLEMENT (700€ FOR THE SMART PACKAGE, 1000€ FOR THE COMFORT PACKAGE)
  • VISA (IF NECESSARY)
  • TRAVEL INSURANCE
  • EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT MENTIONED IN THE "WHAT'S INCLUDED" LIST

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customers reviews

what people say

Kelly redacted
Kelly redacted
2023-06-04
Cinque Terre is a MUST see location in Italy! Our experience there was incredible for many reasons, and Leonardo with Tuscany Photographic Tours played a huge part in making this the experience of a lifetime.Leo speaks perfect English and he's very easy to understand. He likes to keep groups small so he can spend more individual time with everyone. Our group included my husband, myself, and a good friend. With our group size of three, each of us having different levels of photographic experiences, as well as some mobility issues (Leo has unending patience!), Leo helped us find the best compositions in each Cinque Terre village that we visited! He also recognized that we are tourists and gave us plenty of opportunities to explore or shop (although we preferred to take more photos!).Leo is very knowledgeable about photography, and has experience using various types of cameras which really helped when we needed to change camera settings. He coached us on how and why to change our camera's settings for different shots. I love that he taught us a new skill or two at each village. For example, Leo taught us to quickly adjust to rapidly changing light conditions during sunset. We learned why and how to merge photos to get crisp focus on subjects separated by distance, and how to use ND filters and bracketing! All in just one day!Leo is very friendly and open, has a great personality, and is a very good teacher. It's quite easy to become fast friends with him! He is able to effectively coach people of all ages and photography skill sets. He loves what he does, and it really shows. After the workshop was over, Leo welcomed us to contact him if we have any questions or need any help while processing our photos!We learned more about photography in one day with Leo than we've learned from any other workshops, books, or online videos! We are already planning to return next year to accompany Leo on a photography expedition in beautiful Tuscany!
David Havlik
David Havlik
2023-05-30
Three of us spent a day with Leo who provided a crash course in Cinque Terre photography. It was an interesting dichotomy of sorts being that the three of us has just completed a different week-long photography workshop covering other parts of Italy. Based on shared feedback among our small group, we feel the instruction we received from Leo over a single day was far superior to that we experienced over the previous week. Leo was very attentive to our needs and tailored his teaching to our level of photography expertise. He was very patient and did not mind repeating concepts to be sure we had a good understanding. He was determined to make sure we made the most of the time we had with him, but he in no way pushed us to the point of exhaustion. Two specific photography techniques I learned from Leo that day were bracketing and the use of filters. I highly recommend Tuscany Photography Tours to photographers of any skill level. You will learn something new from Leo!
Sue Barrell
Sue Barrell
2023-05-24
My husband and I cannot speak highly enough of the wonderful experience we had, both photographically and personally, with Leonardo in Venice on his Classic Venice Tour. His extensive familiarity with Venice meant that not only did he take us to parts of the city that we would never have discovered otherwise (and where few other tourists lurked), but we were there at the right the right times of day to capture the ambience and atmosphere of this amazing city. We also benefitted from his deep photographic knowledge and generous advice on technique - he taught us things about our own cameras that we didn't know! On top of this, he was a personable and entertaining host and guide, adding to our overall experience. Leonardo dedicated all his time with us to ensuring our images were the best we could capture on the day.
Samuel Kwok
Samuel Kwok
2023-05-07
I was so happy to be with Leo of Tuscany Photography in Tuscany. He led our group to visit all the beautiful places Shot in good timing and shared his professional experiences. Trust I will follow him in the next trip in Italy soon.
Vicki Anton Athens
Vicki Anton Athens
2023-05-06
I spent a week with Leo and 3 wonderful photographers. I’ve been on many photo tours. Leo is a consummate excellent tour leader and photographer. He spent a considerable time, one on one in the field and on post processing in Photoshop. He knows his stuff, easy to follow and kind. He knows where to go according to the weather so that you get phenomenal images. Looking forward to more tours with him!
Ronnie James
Ronnie James
2023-05-05
Leonardo’s Classic Tuscany tour was simply amazing! As promised, we visited all the best locations in the area, at the right times and in the best lighting conditions. We did city walks as well, to include the very scenic towns of Pienza and Montepulciano.Leo is an extremely accomplished award winner photographer. Landscape photography is a new genre for me and I gained so much from his instructional teaching style that I saw my compositions and the overall quality of my images improve dramatically in just the first two days. Take his constructive criticisms and recommendations to heart and you’ll come away with images you will be proud to post, print, enter into contests and even sell.Obviously, the food in Tuscany is amazing and Leo took us to all the best local restaurants. The food, the desserts, the wine…all outstanding.Leonardo is friendly and easy going, but at the end of the day the group I was in booked with him to come away with great images. I know those are the types of images everyone on this tour produced. I wouldn’t hesitate going out into the field again with Leo. I highly recommend joining one of his tours.
anand Nirgude
anand Nirgude
2023-05-04
Leonardo is amazingly punctual and knowledgeable guide for this trip. I am going with him to Iceland
Kathy Phipps
Kathy Phipps
2023-05-01
We are two wildlife photographers that, while in Italy, decided to give landscape photography a try. Luckily we found Tuscany Photography Tours and were able to spend 3 great days with Leonardo. We learned so much, captured some wonderful scenes, and had great conversations about photography, food, wine, and life in Italy and beyond. If you are interested in landscape photography, I would recommend a trip with Leonardo!
John Crifasi
John Crifasi
2023-03-26
Leonardo far exceeded my expectations of a photography tour through Tuscany! I only had a limited time frame, as I was on the back end of my stay in Italy; however, Leonardo crafted the perfect itinerary for my available time. From meeting me at the train station in Firenze, to our final shooting and outing through the Tuscan countryside, it was a dream come true experience! Wanted to take advantage of the full essence of Tuscany, I opted for the upgraded level, which included all meals. Pro tip: opt for the upgrade! Breaking bread, while immersed in the Tuscan life, was almost as enjoyable as photographing the winding cypress trees and hills and valleys of Val d’Orcia! Wholeheartedly endorse using Leonardo and Tuscany Photography Tours for your expedition through Italy!! John F Crifasi
Ena Singh
Ena Singh
2023-03-11
I had the pleasure of visiting the Dolomites last fall, and I can confidently say that it was an unforgettable experience. Leo is not only an incredibly talented photographer but also an amazingly knowledgeable guide. He took me to some of the most picturesque locations in the region, allowing me to witness stunning sunrises and sunsets while capturing breathtaking shots of the landscapes.Leo's expertise didn't stop there; he provided me with valuable tips and tricks to improve my photography skills and shared his extensive knowledge of the region's history and culture, adding an extra layer of depth to the tour.Right from the start, Leo's communication was exceptional, making sure everything was taken care of, and he continued to be incredibly patient and accommodating throughout the tour. He went above and beyond to ensure that I had the opportunity to capture the shots I wanted and was attentive to my needs.Overall, I highly recommend Leo and Tuscany Photography Tours to anyone who loves photography and wants to explore the beauty of Italy while learning from a skilled and passionate guide. Thanks to Leo, I came away from the tour with some incredible photos and unforgettable memories, and I can't wait to go back!
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