Cinque Terre
- The Cinque Terre is some of Italy’s most extraordinary countryside
and it is a Unesco World Heritage site and on the World Monument Fund
list. The Cinque Terre’s saving grace is its lack of motorised
traffic. Monterosso al Mare with huge statues embedded into the rocks
overlook one of the few Cinque Terre beaches. Vernazza is possibly
the most fetching village and it makes the most of the sea with a
piazza on the water and the remains of an 11th century castle. Corniglia
is a postcard of four-storey houses, narrow lanes and stairways woven
into a hill by La Torre, a medieval lookout. Belvedere Santa Maria
is another lookout with a coastal panorama. More grapes are grown
around Manarola than any other Cinque Terre village. Riomaggiore is
the main village in the Cinque Terre. There is the Via dell’Amore
a well-paved coastal path linking Manarola with Riomaggiore (1km).
The Via dell’Amore is part of the 12km-long sentiero azzurro
that runs the length of the coast between Monterosso and Riomaggiore.