Cinque Terre, Italy in December: sunny without the crowds

Last december me and my girlfriend hiked from Monterosso al Mare to Riomaggiore, completing the famously crowded cinque terre trail. Delicious food, sunny weather, no crowds, pleasant walking temperatures,… we were initially hesitant since we’re more the “multi-day hike and camp trek in mountaineous terrain”-type but ended up loving it! We were only in Italy for 2.5 days (since my girlfriend had only three days left on her Schengen visa) but managed to make the most out of it. Our plan was as follows: arrived in Genoa in the afternoon, explored the city and had dinner, took a late evening train to Manarola (one of the Cinque terre villages) where we spent the night, took a 3 minute trainride to Monterosso al Mare (the starting village of the hike) where we had breakfast, hiked from village to village while taking in the scenic views, took the morning train to Pisa the next day and explored its ancient city walls etc, took a train to Lucca at noon and headed back to Pisa to take our evening flight. Hectic and rushed but so worth it!