The Cinque Terre National Park is a protected area inducted as Italy's first national park in 1999. Located in the province of La Spezia, Liguria northern Italy, it is the smallest national park in Italy at 4,300 acres, but also the densest with 5,000 permanent inhabitants among the five towns. The five medieval towns along the Ligurian Coast provide scenic views of rugged terrain reeled in with terraced stone walls, where the mountains of Appennino Ligure come straight to the sea.
Vernazza which means "local natives" has a long history as a fishing village. While there is a small beach, sightseeing is more common in this astoundingly beautiful cliffside town. Vernazza Cinque Terre on foot is about 1 hour and 30 minutes. The path leaves from the Old Town of Monterosso. The first part uphill is extremely steep and climbs along narrow stairways passing through gardens, orchards, vineyards and fields.Cinque Terre has five small villages that cling to the rocks, transforming steep slopes into fertile terraces for grapevines and olive trees. Bays, small beaches, grottos, cliffs overlooking the sea, terraced hills, corals, anchovies and even the whales of the Cetacean Sanctuary: these are some of the reasons making Cinque Terre a territory to visit and to preserve. Set to mountain crests degrading towards the sea, the five villages of Cinque Terre Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore have been standing for centuries in their isolation, which helped to maintain the beauty and the charm of a unique landscape.
Corniglia is the only one of Cinque Terre not directly by the sea: it is located at the top of a high cliff overlooking the beach. The village can be reached through the famous staircase “Lardarina”, composed by almost 400 steps, or using the buses of the National Park of Cinque Terre.
