Cinque Terre · Things to do

A seasonal passenger boat links four of the five — Corniglia has no harbour — and shows you the terraces from the water. Cancelled in swell.

The only village not on the sea, reached from its station by a long brick switchback staircase or a shuttle bus. Quieter than the other four for exactly that reason.

Each village has a sanctuary church on the ridge above it, linked by a high path with almost no traffic and better views than the coastal route.

Ligurian bread baked in oil, and a chickpea pancake cooked in a copper pan. Sold by weight at bakeries and gone by mid-afternoon.

Behind the tunnel from the beach: a medieval core with a striped church, a Capuchin convent on the headland and a giant carved into the cliff.