Our stay in Cinque Terre spanned a four night stay. With many visitors coming and going from this area, we aimed to stay in a premium accommodation hotel. As a town absent of any major franchise chains (and their corresponding point redemption opportunities) we ended up locating the La Toretta Lodge; an upscale boutique hotel located in charming Manarola, Italy. We would end up making La Toretta Lodge our home base for our stay thoughout Cinque Terre, and came away fully satisfied with this experience.

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This post is one chapter on a trip to the South of France and Cinque Terre, Italy. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. For information on how this trip was booked, please see our introduction. For parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: La Toretta Lodge, Manarola -Cinque Terre, Italy

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“A upscale small format lodge that served up among the best breakfasts, in addition to being conveniently located for exploring Cinque Terre villages and it’s surrounding trails “

Booking La Toretta:

When it came to identifying a place to stay in Cinque Terre, Italy, we had a few options on property and location. Cinque Terre is spread across five villages, with some more charming than others. Up for decision on “where to stay” was the option of staying in one of these villages, or staying offsite in a larger town and travelling into Cinque Terre on a daily basis.

We could have stayed out of town in La Spezia, Italy and taken the train in (20 minutes ride) every day to explore cities of Cinque Terre. Instead, we opted to stay in a Cinque Terre city itself, so we could experience the area after most of the tourists went away after a day’s sightseeing activities.

There weren’t any franchise options or reward point opportunities in Cinque Terre. As a result, after looking at all the options, we ended up at the charming independent La Toretta Lodge located in the small town of Manarola, Italy. Manarola is one of the smaller Cinque Terre cities and a more peaceful and quiet one.

We ended up booking directly through the La Toretta website. The property is also available for booking on select on line travel agencies such as http://www.booking.com.

The La Toretta Lodge is a small format property. There are only fourteen rooms at the La Toretta Lodge property varying from configurations from Classic Room (starting at 400€) all the way up to a Two Bedroom Tower Suite (starting at 3,000€). If you are set on a particular price point, I recommend that you book very early. In our case, we ended up booking a Classic Room about four months in advance with limited availability of this room category remaining in the fall. Per the Terms and Conditions of this property, all bookings are non refundable 30 days before arrival.

I would also like to offer an extended thank you to the property. We had initially booked La Toretta Lodge for a stay planned for May 2020. As the world shut down as a result of the pandemic, our international flights from North America to Europe were completely cancelled. Accordingly, we had to cancel our stay and lost our first night’s deposit. The hotel worked with us for a future credit and stay at the property. I was really happy to have the hotel honour this first night’s credit on our return stay year’s later. It was a true gesture of hospitality that ended up having us stay at the property for longer than we anticipated.

Getting to La Toretta Lodge:

We arrived into Manarola on a TrenItalia Train from Ventimiliga. The hotel is located at the top of Manarola. As a result, we had to roll our suitcases up the hill in order to get to the hotel.

It was a huff and puff in order get up the hill. I was fairly sweaty by the time we rolled into the lobby of La Toretta. While I wouldn’t look forward to doing this ascent again, there really weren’t many other options. The hotel used to provide a car service from the train station. However, this was unfortunately discontinued due to local ordinance.

The hotel is well located in Manarola a short walk up the hill.

La Toretta Lodge is located in a quieter region of Manarola. The hotel entrance is located just off the square; on the beaten path but sufficiently away from most of the tourists.

It is worth mentioning that the hotel is located immediately next to the Chiesa de San Lorenzo Church Clock Tower. The realities of sleeping next to a beautiful clock tower means that you’ll have roman catholic chimes coming through your stay starting at about seven in the morning. While this may be a deal breaker for some, I found that it added to the charm of the stay.

Checking into La Toretta Lodge:

On arrival at La Toretta Lodge, we were offered a seat on the terrace. There was an offer of sparkling prosecco and a small plate of antipasti, which was a terrific way of arriving to a property after the hill climb.

We were also treated to Manarola hillside views as the sun dipped down

During the check in process, our passports were validated by the front desk. We were required to complete payment for our stay. A bit surprisingly, the hotel didn’t accept an American Express card for our stay. I ended up having to pay with a Mastercard. This was despite using American Express to secure the first night’s reservation. I found this to be a bit strange for a hotel operating selling 3,000€ rooms in this price point at such a global travel destination. However, this would end up being a minor inconvenience, aside from missing out on American Express Membership Rewards points earning opportunity.

We were offered luggage assistance up to the hotel room. La Toretta Lodge is pretty much cut into the side of a slope. The property has several levels and a good number of compact and steep stairs.

The Room: A Classic Room – Sea View

After we had enjoyed our prosecco, we were led up to our Classic Room. Our Room #8 was was located one level up from the breakfast terrace.

The Classic Room was a compact space for two travellers. The initial impressions were great as the room was nicely maintained with contemporary colours in a compact foot print. The Classic Room offered a Double Bed, which was quite firm by our standards.

The room offered a compact bathroom, along with a closet which doubled for some storage space for the luggage.

The room offered a small flat screen television offering limited channels. Aside from the news, we didn’t get many english channels. We didn’t end up spending much time watching television. The room temperature was controlled through in room air – conditioning, which was easy and intuitive to use.

The room offered a mini bar and fridge that offered complimentary mini bar soft drinks, replenished daily. We were also offered a welcome bottle of wine, which was a nice touch to mark the arrival of our stay.

The bathroom was a compact but functional space. The bathroom offered a rain shower, along with a heated towel rank. The bathroom offered a single vanity. With the small bathroom, it was a single person experience during our stay.

Despite the Classic Room being the base level room, we had a world class view from the bedroom. We were able to capture this sunset on the day of our arrival, which was a pretty neat view over the top of Manarola, the town and it’s hiking trails cut into the nearby hillsides.

In terms of sleep quality, I found the beds at La Toretta Lodge to be on the firmer side. While I normally like a firmer bed, these were a bit on the “too firm” side in my humble opinion. MrsWT73 prefers a plusher sleep and found these beds much too firm for her liking. Fortunately, with all the walking and climbing on the Cinque Terre trails, we would typically find ourselves returning to the room quite tired and we fell asleep quite easily.

It’s generally quite peaceful around Manarola and La Toretta Lodge. As mentioned earlier, it is worth pointing out that the hotel is next to the clock tower of the Chisea di San Lorenzo church. The bell on the clocktower starts ringing at 7 AM and ends at 9 PM. If you’re hoping for a long sleep in that is completely undisturbed, this probably isn’t the property for you. Despite this, I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the clock tower and the sounds that you might expect from small town Italy. I found this added to the overall experience, instead of detracting from it.

Around the Hotel Property:

La Toretta Lodge did not feature a full resort experience. Instead, consistent with a boutique hotel, it offered a few amenties that would make the stay a little more comfortable.

Outdoor Hot Tub:

Tucked away on the lower floor was the property out door hot tub. The property offered the possibility of enjoying a hot tub with views of the seas.

Outdoor Terrace:

The property also offered a great outdoor terrace. The outdoor terrace also offered a comfortable outdoor space for relaxing after hours. It would also feature the location as to where breakfast was served.

Food and Beverage:

La Toretta offered the opportunity to purchase a breakfast plan with our stay. During our stay, the breakfast plan was 35€ per person or 70€ per night. For convenience, we ended up with enjoying the breakfast option.

Breakfast is typically seated outside on the terrace. The outdoor terrace is a compact european styled terrace, with tables seated close together.

For those who prefer indoor seating, La Toretta had a small indoor seating space. In traditional European style, the indoor rooms were quite small and quaint. We didn’t end up using the indoor space at all during our visit given that the weather was excellent.

Needless to say, the breakfast menu at La Toretta was exceptional. While I wouldn’t describe the breakfast plan as terrific value, it was a feature that we looked forward to every day of our stay.

There was excellent variety and selection on the menu. The relaxing breakfast option was more than enough food to enjoy as a lunch. If the included breakfast was not enough, there were also many additions that could be added for a small additional charge.

It’s worth mentioning that MrsWT73 was able to enjoy prosecco on request with breakfast, which really made her day. This was provided within the meal plan.

The breakfast typically started with an etagière of freshly cut fruit, fresh pastries and a variety of breads. The fruit and pastries often rotated through the days of our stay, making the breakfast appealing and non repetitive.

The breakfast was accompanied by a main course that was prepared “a – la – carte”. I took this opportunity to try something new every day. I enjoyed Eggs Sunny Side Up with Mushrooms…

I enjoyed Omelette with Ham and Cheese with a fresh salad…

I also tried Scrambled Eggs with Crisy Bacon… All the dishes were exceptionally well prepared and very good to excellent on the breakfast chart.

Breakfast was often a leisurely affair. We’d often be so full at breakfast that we wouldn’t need a lunch afterwards.

Activities near La Toretta Lodge:

During our trip through Cinque Terre, we were able to take in Day Trekking from Monterosso – Vernazza, Day Trekking from Manarola to Cornigila, and a day trip from Manarola to Pisa. The La Toretta Lodge made for a great base for all the sightseeing in this region.

Ultimately, staying in Manarola at La Toretta Lodge allowed us to take in wonderful views. It’s time where you can spend watching the sun go down, taking in views like this that make staying in Cinque Terre all that much more worthwhile.

Staying in a Cinque Terre city isn’t something that I would easily or quickly give up, given how special it was.

Bottom Line: La Toretta Lodge

While it wasn’t the most economical option, the La Toretta Lodge fully met and surpassed our needs for an independent luxury hotel stay in Manarola – Cinque Terre, Italy. I really appreciated the hotel working with us to honour our pre-covid reservation.

While the rooms were small (as would be expected for a stay in old world Italy), staying in Manarola couldn’t be more convenient for exploring Cinque Terre’s restaurants, trails and other cities of Cinque Terre.

I would easily return to this property and highly recommend it for travelers looking for an upscale option in Cinque Terre, Italy.

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If you have stayed in Manarola – Cinque Terre, did you have a preferred hotel option ?

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