Albergo Barbara

Fabulous view

I found this hotel in CondeNast magazine. We stayed in Rooms 8 and 9 in October, 2010. Unfortunately, we did not find the owners particularly friendly or helpful and we are both couples in our 60's. I speak Italian, so I wasn't concerned about the language, but for others it would be good to know that they do speak English. Walking to the main square from the train station isn't difficult since it's all downhill. Walking back to the station is more difficult because it's all uphill. My advice would be to take as little luggage to the Cinque Terre as possible because there is a lot of walking. Vernazza is easy to navigate because, except for the steps at the train station, there are actually not a huge amount of stairs to climb. The room itself is at the top of 64 steps and we weren't offered any help with luggage. As a matter of fact, all guests are asked to lift luggage up/down the steps, instead of dragging it. This is understandable because the palazzo is very old. It was very exhausting for us to carry our luggage up and down those steps. As a matter of fact, we decided that we were going to climb up once a day and down once a day.

Unique Quality: The hotel is right on the main piazza in Vernazza. We had a spectacular view from our windows and the hotel is in a perfect location. There is no breakfast offered, but it was easy to find a place to eat. We had a small, but modern room that was clean with a private bath.