I’m up early in my favorite village on the Italian Riviera, as the morning sun touches the tip of Vernazza’s bell tower and greets a peaceful world. The air is damp, cool, and refreshing as I wander downhill, passing underneath the train tracks. I enjoy the fact that the town is essentially traffic-free, and realize that many of my favorite Italian towns—like Venice, Siena, Tuscany’s Volterra, and Lake Como’s Varenna—are all this way. Fiat-free Italy…just the way I like it.
Located in northern Italy between Pisa and Genoa, this stretch of five towns along the Italian Riviera is called the Cinque Terre…and it’s the lowbrow, underappreciated alternative to the French Riviera. There’s not a museum in sight, just sun, sea, sand (well, pebbles), wine, swimming, hiking, and pure, unadulterated Italy. Each town fills a ravine with a lazy hive of human activity—calloused locals and sunburned visitors. While the Cinque Terre is now well discovered, I’ve never seen happier, more relaxed travelers.
