Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre... five wonderful pearls set in the rugged and steep coast north of La Spezia.

Surrounded by the greenery of the rich vegetation that overlooks the cliffs, decorated by the work of man who has been taking care of nature for centuries by planting the slopes to cultivate the vine and the olive tree, illuminated by the reflections of the sea that reigns supreme, Cinque Terre are famous in all over the world.

Cinque Terre are five ancient villages that overlook the sea (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore) in one of the most beautiful natural Mediterranean areas of Liguria.

Despite the passage of time, they have maintained their urban structure unchanged over the centuries and constitute one of the most attractive tourist resorts of Liguria and Italy.

The hilly territory, naturally bumpy, is characterized by the construction of terraces that fall down to the sea with steep slopes.

The Cinque Terre area has been listed in 1997 by UNESCO in  "World Heritage List" and thus has been recognized as one of the most beautiful naturalistic sites in the world.

Monterosso

Monterosso is the westernmost and most populous of Cinque Terre. Monterosso is located in the middle of a small natural gulf, protected by a small cliff. To the west of the village, beyond the Cappuccini Hill, lies the village of Fegina, where the railway station is located and where there are thin pebble beaches. Compared to the other seaside villages that make up Cinque Terre, Monterosso has the most extensive beaches, due to the breadth of the gulf on which the village overlooks.

Vernazza

Vernazza, located near Monterosso, stands on a small promontory that fits into the sea. Probably, its name derives from the most famous local product: the wine called "Vernaccia". Its port guarantees a safe landing, since the time of the maritime republics, in a natural inlet that allows the mooring of boats and makes it even more characteristic and suggestive. It is considered one of the most beautiful villages in Italy.

Corniglia

Corniglia is centrally located in relation to the other villages of Cinque Terre, situated to the east of the municipal capital of Vernazza and Monterosso, and to the west of Manarola and Riomaggiore. It differs from the other countries of Cinque Terre as it is the only village that does not face directly on the sea, but is located on top of a promontory about a hundred meters high, surrounded by vineyards placed on characteristic terraces, except on the side that looks towards the sea. To reach Corniglia you have to climb a long staircase called Lardarina, consisting of 33 ramps with 382 steps, or take the road that connects you to the train station. Moreover, Corniglia is joined to Vernazza by a suggestive walk halfway between the summit and the Sea.

Manarola

Manarola was born from the displacement of populations that moved from the Val di Vara to the sea to exploit their resources. Its name derives, perhaps, from the Latin manium arula, which means "small temple dedicated to Mani". Placed on a promontory high above the sea, the village develops in the gorge that descends towards the sea, closed between two rocky spurs, hosting a small landing. Among the five villages it is the smallest after Corniglia. The village rises in the terminal section of the valley of the stream Groppo. The houses overlook one side to the other on the main street, which arose after the cover of the waterway and therefore called by the inhabitants U Canâ (the canal).

Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore  is the easternmost of Cinque Terre. The old town, whose original nucleus dates back to the thirteenth century, is located in the valley of the Rio Maggiore stream, the ancient Rivus Major from which the village takes its name. The village is composed of several parallel orders of Genoese tower houses that follow the steep course of the stream. The new district of the station, so called as it developed starting from the second half of the nineteenth century with the arrival of the railway, is located instead in the adjacent valley of the stream Rio Finale (Rufinàu), so named because it once marked the border between the lands of Riomaggiore and those of Manarola (manaèa).

GULF OF POETS

The Gulf of Poets goes from Porto Venere to Lerici, two splendid localities of the Riviera di Levante; In the centre there is La Spezia, the heart of the Gulf. In the landscape there are villages of the sea, medieval churches and castles on the sea, sandy beaches and pastel-coloured houses. A land loved and described by artists and poets.

The village of Lerici is located at the eastern end of the Gulf of Poets. Medieval port long disputed between Pisa and Genoa dominated by the imposing castle, Lerici was in the Middle Ages a strategic place for the military control on the coasts of the Ligurian Sea, commercial port of relief in all the Levant and stage of trips and pilgrimages Medieval two steps away from the main route of the Via Francigena.

The three great writers of Italian literature of the fourteenth century, Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio, cite Lerici in their works.

But the charm exercised by Lerici, San Terenzo and Tellaro (and not only) on literary man and artists reaches its peak between the nineteenth and twentieth century, when poets, novelists, painters, journalists from all over Europe choose these villages as a privileged place of stay and source of inspiration: the names that made the Gulf of Poets immortal are those of Percy B. Shelley with his wife Mary Shelley, George Byron, Sem Benelli, David H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Giosuè Carducci and Gabriele D’Annunzio, Filippo Tommaso Matinetti, Mario Soldati and Attilio Bertolucci, Indro Montanelli.

Precisely for this reason the deep gulf that unites Lerici and Portovenere is now called the worldwide Gulf of poets (the definition was coined by playwright Sem Benelli).

Portovenere

The village of Portovenere and the archipelago of Palmaria Island (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto) are recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage site and are protected by the regional Natural Park of Portovenere.

Places that have been a source of attraction for tourists and travelers for two centuries, but also for artists and literary men from all over the world who have narrated, depicted and immortated the extraordinary beauty and harmony of the Gulf of Poets.

The village of Portovenere, ancient maritime port linked since the XII century to the fortunes of Genoa, stretches out on the sea protected by the spectacular cliffs of Mount Muzzerone, the imposing Doria Castle with the fortifications connected to it, and the characteristic "Palazzata", an uninterrupted row of narrow houses coloured towers developed vertically and tightened one side to the other.

In the heart of the village there is the ancient church of San Lorenzo, treasure and traditions, while right on the extreme tip of the rocky promontory that concludes the village there is the St. Peter Church, with its unmistakable profile.

Right in front of Portovenere there is the Palmaria Island, a true naturalistic and hiking paradise, characterised by exceptional biodiversity and breathtaking views. On the island there are some natural caves (such as the Cave of the Pigeons and the Blue Cave) and a series of fortifications built between XIX and XX century to protect the great military Arsenal of La Spezia and today converted into tourist facilities.

Beyond the Palmaria the regional Natural Park and the marine protected area include two other small islands: the island of Tino anciently seat of a monastery and today military area visitable on exceptional occasions, and Tinetto, little more than a rock on which the monks had built small religious structures, now completely abandoned.

Lerici

The medieval village of Lerici is dominated by San Giorgio Castle, built in several moments between the XII and the XVI century, which still stands out between the sky and the sea with its unmistakable profile characterized by the mighty bastions and the high pentagonal tower; inside the castle of Lerici there is the splendid chapel of St. Anastasia in the Ligurian Gothic style.

In the central square of the village, Piazza Garibaldi, there is the small oratory of San Rocco, memory of ancient pilgrimages and pestilences, while at the opposite end of the village there is the main church of Lerici, St. Francis, Shrine of Our Lady of Maralunga.

The coast around Lerici is dotted with numerous suggestive villages, nestled between the reefs and the crystalline sea, such as Tellaro, San Terenzo and Fiascherino.

La Spezia

The city of La Spezia extends to the bottom of the wide Gulf of Poets, naturally protected between the sea and the slopes of the hills that frame them.  It is a city ancient and modern at the same time, historically marked by the seafaring vocation and radically transformed starting from the second nineteenth century by the presence of the maritime military Arsenal wanted by the Savoy.

City of "wide streets and tall and yellow houses" (as Ernest Hemingway wrote) showing evident the signs of its transformations between ' 800 and ' 900, when the ancient seaside village organized around the castle of San Giorgio and the Genoese fortifications extends to become a populous and modern center, in which the signs of the medieval past are intertwined with the modern elements between Liberty, Futurism and Contemporary Style.

A city that preserves places of extraordinary interest, starting from its museums: the famous Naval Technical Museum of the Navy, extraordinary collection of witnesses related to the history of navigation and the Italian Navy; the Fomentini archaeological museum inside the suggestive castle of San Giorgio that collects the civic collections acquired in the years by the City Hall (exceptional the collection of Statue Stele of Lunigiana and the archeological finds from the ancient Roman colony of Luni ); The Amedeo Lia Museum, one of the most extraordinary Italian private collections, now transformed into a civic museum; The Diocesan and Ethnographic museums at the former oratory of San Bernardino and the Museum of the Seal, unique in the world, housed in the building of the arts; The Camec, centre of modern and contemporary arts.

But the charm of La Spezia (often hidden from a superficial point of view) is not only within its museums. It can be discovered walking through its boulevards, stairways and its public gardens overlooking the promenade, among famous monuments (famous in Garibaldi and the Vittoria Alata), great palaces suspended between rationalism and futurism (the most famous is the post office, decorated by curious futuristic mosaics) and refined Liberty villas, or still walking along paths and ancient streets around the city centre, discovering parishes, sanctuaries and fortifications.