Key facts

• The dry-stone terrace walls: the most extensive dry-stone agricultural terracing in Europe — the approximately 3,000 km of dry-stone retaining walls (ciàn in the local Ligurian dialect; a word that describes both the terrace wall and the terrace itself) were built progressively from the 11th to the 19th centuries; the walls hold the thin soil on the near-vertical cliff faces (gradients up to 70°) against erosion by gravity and by the intense rainfall events that characterise the Ligurian climate; the total area of terraced land is approximately 5 km² (approximately 1,500 football pitches); the individual terraces are small — a typical terrace is 2–4 metres wide and 5–15 metres long; planting and harvesting must be done by hand (no machine access); the weight of grapes from a single terrace has to be carried to the winery on the farmer’s back or by the characteristic Cinque Terre monorail (a small single-rail trolley, suspended from cables, that carries loads up the cliff face at approximately 45°); the maintenance of the walls is a constant work against gravity and weather — each heavy rain washes small amounts of soil from the terraces, each severe storm may displace stones; the 2011 flash flood in Vernazza and Monterosso (4 October 2011; the worst flooding in Liguria in 60 years; a wall of mud up to 4 metres deep flowed through Vernazza’s main street; 9 people died in the area; damage was estimated at EUR 200 million) was partially caused by the abandonment of terrace maintenance by younger generations who moved to the cities
• Sciacchetrà: the rarest wine in Italy and the defining product of the Cinque Terre — Sciacchetrà (DOC; a sweet passito wine made only in the Cinque Terre; produced from the Bosco, Albarola, and Vermentino grape varieties; the grapes are harvested late (late September–October) from the terraced vineyards and dried on wooden racks in the producers’ homes for 2–3 months (the drying process is called appassimento; it concentrates the sugars and flavours by water evaporation); the dried grapes are then pressed and fermented; the resulting wine is amber, sweet but not cloying, with aromas of dried apricot, honey, and almond; production is tiny — approximately 3,000–5,000 bottles per year in the best vintages — because the terraced vineyards are small and much of the production has been abandoned as the labour-intensive terrace farming is given up; bottles retail for EUR 20–60; available at the Cantina Cinque Terre co-operative in Riomaggiore and from individual producers)
• Vernazza harbour: the most beautiful natural harbour on the Ligurian Riviera — Vernazza (the name derives from the Latin word for wine; a prosperous fishing and trading village from the 11th to the 18th centuries; now entirely tourism-based) is built into a narrow rocky inlet at the base of a hill; the breakwater (built in the 19th century) creates a small harbour where colourful fishing boats are moored; the Doria Castle (a round tower on the promontory above the harbour; 12th century; the best view of Vernazza is from the castle terrace) and the Gothic Church of Santa Margherita d’Antiochia (14th century; the bell tower is the dominant vertical element of the Vernazza silhouette) frame the harbour; the main piazza (Piazza Marconi; a few tables of restaurants spilling onto the stone pavement; the sound of the sea from three sides; a gathering place in the evening) is the most lived-in public space in the Cinque Terre
• Heritage: UNESCO World Heritage Site (Cinque Terre, Portovenere and the Islands), inscribed 1997
• GPS: 44.1244° N, 9.7041° E