The Cinque Terre (5 Lands) , awarded by UNESCO the title of World Patrimony of Mankind, are a National Park and Protected Marine Environment. The Cinque Terre comprise the coastal area from Punta Mesco up to Portovenere. It is a strip of land and rocks about 15 km long and 3/4 km large rising steeply from the sea towards the mountains.

In the ridges of the mountains dropping down to the sea, the five small villages of the Cinque Terre have crouched among the several inlets of its spur and day after day Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso then grew. Thanks to an age-long isolation, deriving from the difficulty of communications, we today enjoy the preserved beauty and charme of a virgin landscape.

The typical orographic traits have survived intact over the centuries thanks to the well balanced and unchanged relationship between nature and man’s work.

Stimulated by the need of making these areas agriculturally exploitable, the inhabitants have created a system of low dry-walls (over 7000 km) allowing even today the vineyards cultivation. These terraces, called "i cian" give this area its very peculiar and original look. The harsh asperity of the territory blends harmoniously with the man made terraces characterising the coast.