Ruins of Doria Tower — Attraction in Vernazza

Tourist Trap with Rude Staff – Avoid at All Costs!

I have visited many historical sites, but never have I encountered such an unpleasant experience as at Castello Doria. After climbing an exhausting number of stairs under the sun, I reached the entrance, only to be yelled at by an incredibly rude staff member demanding that I buy a ticket—before even reaching the ticket booth! No signs, no prior indication, just an impolite man barking orders at visitors.

His attitude was so aggressive and disrespectful that I immediately turned around and left. I refuse to support a place that treats tourists like this. If they want people to pay, they should at least have the decency to inform them properly instead of setting up this ridiculous trap. Absolute disgrace. Avoid wasting your time...

I love Cinque terre. All 5 Villages are unique. There is an Information centre on each Village, plus in Levanto and in La Spezia. We went with a train from Levanto. All train drives to Villages, but they don't all stop in all of them. I advise you to take a plan in an Information centre to look. Almost all stop at all Villages, but we were 'lucky' to come to one that doesn't, so we start in the last Village riomaggiore. Then on the way back it was the same :), so we stoped at the first Village. But we manage to look all of them in about 6-7 hours. I also advise you to buy Cinque terre card, with wich you have free access to all trains, bus, toilets... For 24 or more hours. You buy it at Information centre...

Very bad experiencie, after climbing up the (very) steep stairs, we found out we had to pay 2€. Is a low price but we didn't want to pay it, so we decided to just see the views and not enter the castle. We arrived there and the ticket guy started slamming the table and shouting at us to pay or leave (before we had even reached the ticket booth), we excused ourselves and told him we only wanted to see the views, not the castle (and i can tell you, before entering the castle there are no incredible views). He didn't seem to care or even listen to us, and kept hitting the table and shouting for us to go away in a very rude way. Incredibly unpleasant experiencie, wouldn't...