Visit the Cinque Terre, Liguria, Italy

The Cinque Terre form one of the most unspoilt areas of the Mediterranean and one of the most extended areas in Liguria. They are a kingdom of nature and wild scents maintained as in the past.

To visit the Cinque Terre means to visit five villages suspended between sea and earth.

Here you can find the cleanest sea of Italy, perfect for diving and for a good swim.

Five miles of rocky coast in eastern Liguria, two promontories lie at each extremity, thousands of kilometres of dry walling, cultivated into vineyards (you must try this wine!), five southerly villages castled up on spurs of stone or disposed in clusters of very small inlets. These are the co-ordinates of the Cinque Terre (Five lands).

Who visits Cinque Terre can choose between a dive in the sea or a hike on the hills, between a walk in the narrow alleys called "carruggi" or a boat trip, a pilgrimage to a sanctuary or a seafood lunch.

Recognized finally as a National Park in 1999 and UNESCO protected territory since 1997 as a system of naturalistic environmental interest.

This zone is characterized by the presence of precipitous slopes which have been cultivated into vineyards by means of fatiguing system of terracing the only evidence of transformation operated by the laborious human activity on the territory.

The best way to visit these villages I think is by train: from La Spezia in summer you can find trains each 20-30 minutes and you can stop in each village, visit it and take the next train for the next village with the same ticket.

An other good way to visit it is with the ferry: from La Spezia, Lerici or Porto Venere (an other wonderful place, see my blog) you can find ferries to Cinque Terre and you can buy daily tickets to visit all the villages.

You can go there by car too, the street is really panoramic but remember: in summer it’s full of cars and there aren’t so many parking, you can’t go inside any village and you must leave the car far from the sea.

The first village is Riomaggiore, where you can find beach of stones and where starts the “via dell’amore”, a “walk of love” to Manarola, the second village.

You have to pay the national park entrance to walk for the “via dell’amore” (5 euros I think).

I went to Manarola by train and there I started my walk to Corniglia: during the walk I stopped to make a good swim in that incredible sea.

Corniglia is the highest village: from the train station or the peatonal street from Manarola the are a lot of steps before you can reach it…

The next village is Vernazza: a lot of people says it is the best one, there is a castle, a tower, a nice port near the rocks and, of course, a wonderful sea.

At least you can find Monterosso, maybe the biggest village, with a long beach (this is the only one with sand) till the Poseidon, from this statue starts a new coast of rock and the most protected area of the natural park.