Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre's five villages cling to cliffs along 18 kilometers of coastline, its 4,000 hectares of terraced vineyards producing a landscape more vertical and intensely cultivated than the rolling hills of Val d'Orcia. Each village—Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore—is connected by the Sentiero Azzurro trail, which draws over 500,000 hikers annually. The terraces, built over centuries, support sciacchetrà wine production and prevent landslides. Compared to the urban sprawl of Pompeii, Cinque Terre is a living landscape where traditional farming continues. Its combination of sea, stone, and agriculture earned UNESCO recognition as a cultural landscape, not a single monument.