25 AUG 2017: The heat is on and the five picture-postcard villages with their pastel houses and ancient cathedrals are packed with day-trippers. Every student within flying distance on a summer break seems to have descended here and the dress code is bare as you dare.
It’s the price of fame for the Cinque Terre, but it’s so much better than the alternatives for the “five lands” perched ever so scenically on this impossibly steep coast of the Mediterranean.
There’s a good reason why these tiny, picture book towns clinging to the cliffs are so remarkably intact. They were untouched by progress for decades because of their sheer isolation. To get to them by sea is tricky and by land they’re a trip down hairpin paths that even mules fear to tread.
Let’s explore why they’ve suddenly become the must-see destinations on the Italian Riviera: