Italy - Riomaggiore

The Cinque Terre is a string of five old fishing villages perched high on the rugged coastline of the east end of the Italian Riviera in Liguria. Until recently they were linked only by mule tracks and accessible only by rail or water. Nowadays Cinque Terre is a UNESCO Heritage Site. It's also one of the most sought-after travel destinations in all of Italy. The five villages are no longer the isolated hamlets they once were, but there’s still a feeling of authenticity, with few roads and perfectly preserved architecture.

Riomaggiore - the most eastern village of Cinque Terre is the largest of the five and acts more or less as its unofficial ‘headquarters’. The charming village is perched on a terraced hillside and its pastel coloured tower-houses march down to a tiny harbour.

The village was originally founded in the 8th century by Greek refugees anxious to take advantage of the naturally rich soil and plentiful sea life surrounding it. Nowadays Riomaggiore however, actually dates back to the 13th century and was named for the stream, Rivus Major, that flows underneath today’s main road “Via Cristoforo Colombo. Only in the nineteenth century the village was reached by the railway, which first connected it to the other villages of the Cinque Terre and then to the rest of Italy.

We visited the villages of Cinque Terre from our 'base' Levanto with the "Carta 5 Terre Treno". This card allows unlimited travel by train for one day in the Cinque Terre region.