After storms devastated Italy’s Cinque Terre three years ago the paths joining the area’s picturesque towns are open again. Our writer swoons over these amazing coastal hikes
Vernazza, one of the five stunning coastal towns in the Cinque Terre national park, Luguria, north-east Italy.
In the late afternoon, the small, medieval town of Vernazza, on the Italian Riviera, is as perfect as Italy gets. With the daytrippers gone, the scene is impeccable, a Hollywood filmset, rolling every gorgeous, romantic Italian cliche into one. Up in the hills, winegrowers tend to their vines. In the piazza, flat-capped farmers, swept into corners by the last rays of sun, gather to talk and smoke. Pizza cooks over a wood fire in a restaurant. The town florist bursts into spontaneous operatic song. A couple kiss on a street corner. It’s so romantic, so iconically Italian, that it’s surreal.