Last minute package: vacation travel in Europe
A unique itinerary in Italy along the coast of the Ligurian Levant Riviera, through villages clinged on the sea, pastel coloured houses and terraced vines.
A realm of nature and wild scents, that has not changed for a long time preserving its ancient forms and atmospheres. Five villages suspended between the earth and the sea. Literally clinged on vertical cliffs. Five evocative places preserving unique characteristics: their houses in pastel colours, their vines on terraces that give a dry white wine, the scent of olive trees mixed with the salty scent of sea and fishes. The Eastern Riviera di Levante is a land of old flavors in an enchanting natural frame where the sea and the mountains live in tight contact, in a vertiginous clash between the forces of nature.
Here lay the Cinque Terre (Five lands), five little villages on a strip of rocky coast between Punta Mesco and Punta Cavo, about ten kilometers East from La Spezia. They grew on a slight coast, suspended on the sea and almost defying gravity forces. They are from Eaast to West: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. It is hard saying which is the nicer, each of them must be seen and enjoyed.
Monterosso al Mare lays in a sheltered bay over Punta del Mesco and can be reached either by train, by car or walking on the "Sentiero Azzurro" (Blue Lane). It was founded in 643, when the populations of the hills settled on the sea to escape the Rotari Barbarian invasions. It has a wider coastal amplitude and a higher hotel disposal than the other four villages.
Corniglia is a small hamlet of Vernazza. While the other Cinque Terre are sailing villages Corniglia rural: it lays on a rocky promontory 196 meters above sea level and is entoured by vines on terraces. The only way to the sea used to be the long stairway with 370 steps called la Lardarina. It leads to the most interesting Ligurian-Gothic monument the church of San Pietro (1334): the sober facade is embellished by a rosette in white Carrara marble nicely engraved by the Pistoia masters Matteo and Pietro da Campiglia. Under the church-square there is a black stone building with Gothic arches that has been identified as the ancient halting place of the Fieschi family.
Then we reach Manarola. Its lively coloured houses, clinged on a huge black rock over the port, are among the most beautiful of Cinque Terre. It has Medieval origins and is one of the oldiest villages of this area and from its main street, obtained by covering a torrent, start extremely narrow alleys paved with stone.
From Manarola you can reach Rio Maggiore, last village of Cinque Terre, through the popular Via dell'Amore (Love Route) winding along the coast vertically on the sea for a 30 minutes walking. It has a curious history: in 1920 the technicians that should enlarge the railway gallery of Manarola decided to store explosives faraway from the village. They built a small powder keg in the precipices East of the village and created a tiny lane through the rocks to reach it. After 8 years they had to face the same problem in Riomaggiore. At this point it has been enough to connect the two lanes. Then some anonymous romantic has written "Via dell'Amore" (Love Route) on the rocks and since that day the lane has been a scenary for long promenades in a unique scenary.
Cinque Terre (Five lands) in Italy: from Monterosso to Riomaggiore