This place is literally an oasis!!
When visiting Cinque Terre, you have the option of taking a train across all five of the villages. Each village is about 5 minutes apart, which makes for a fun day village hopping! However, there's one commute that I recommend you skip the train and take a hike ;)
This is the hike from Corniglia (3rd village) to Vernazza (4th village). You can start from either village, but the pathway is more scenic from Corniglia to Vernazza. Now, why am I saying all this? I say this because Il Gabbiano is located at the middle point between the hike! The hike itself is not that challenging, but depending on the temperature, you will break a sweat! We went in early September and it was still hot! (80F). There's also a very chill cat that lives by the store - he/she might be the owner, so be sure to give the cat a pet as a sign of respect and gratitude. The store has a variety of different fruit, all freshly squeezed! I got the watermelon juice - it was a bit expensive tho, but I guess when you're the only store on a hike, you could charge whatever you want! It's worth it. They have a beautiful outdoor sitting area on top of the hill. Enjoy your drinks while basking in the views.
Bonus: along the hike, you'll run into countless olive trees, lime trees, and even wild fig trees! I grabbed one fig off the tree and it was so sweet! read more