The tiny seafront villages of the Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre literally means "The five lands", and these five are the communities of Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore, and Vernazza along with their urban relative Monterosso.
The northernmost of these five is Monterosso and it is the tourist hub of the region, with traffic, crowds, and the only notable example of contemporary urban life here. The other four are inaccessible by road, and are pure rural villages in an agricultural belt lush with gardens and vineyards. All the five are situated among olive and chestnut groves on steep, rocky terrain overlooking the gulf of Genoa.

Find your accommodation in the Cinque Terre

These five tiny seafront villages are not easily accessible by car but very easy to get to by train. Our suggestion is not to do the full hike in one day. If you do, be prepared to take the train back to wherever you started from because your legs will be out by the time you finish. Here you will enjoy scenery unlike any other you have ever seen before.

This whole area is a gastronomist’s paradise. Its culinary delights are dishes based on the produce of from forest, field, and sea.
The land here yields an incredible variety of mushrooms; and oregano, borage, rosemary, and sage grow in abundance. The pine nuts necessary to pesto are easily gathered from the forests, as are chestnuts for making flour and olives for the oil that is the foundation of all dishes. Garlic and leeks form the essence of sauced dishes, and beets turn up without warning in ravioli and other dishes. Fishing boats add their rich catches of anchovies, mussels, squid, octopus, and shellfish.
To wash it all down, vineyards produce wonderful Sciacchetra, a sweet wine, rarer than many other Italian varieties.

Find your accommodation in the Cinque Terre