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The Cinque Terre
is the coastal area that runs from Punta Mesco, the promontory to
the west of Monterosso, to Portovenere. A strip of land 15 kilometers
long nestled between the sea and the rocky cliffs. Flanking it is
the Vara Valley and, at the end, the Gulf of La Spezia.
Its terrain is rugged and steep
and alternates areas with a sheer drop to the sea with others
with dry wall terraced vineyards, outcrops of rock and uncultivated
land covered in heather, broom and pines. While only three or
four kilometers wide, its rocky cliffs can reach heights of 700
or 800 meters.
It is within this rocky terrain
that slopes down to the water at the extreme edge of the Ligurian
Sea, within its natural buttresses, that the Cinque Terre (Five
Towns) have settled over time: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia,
Vernazza and Monterosso. It is on this strip of earth and rock
with its wonderful yet barren and forbidding surroundings that,
for millennia, man has made his home, becoming accustomed to its
difficulties and strain and locked in a constant love-hate relationship
with his environment.
The Cinque Terre National Park,
located to the east of Portovenere, offers an extraordinary setting,
its two small islands with their wild, uncontaminated nature anchored
to the mainland like boats.
Further east is that strip of
coastline that stretches from Lerici to Bocca di Magra, places
beloved of 19th century English poets and Italian writers of the
20th century.
For those with more worldly interests,
there is the area from Moneglia to Levanto, next to the Gulf of
Tigullio, that includes the famous town of Portofino, known throughout
the world for its town square and port.
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