How Cinque Terre Region Was Built and Evolved Over Time

The houses are tall, narrow and built directly against each other, typically three or four storeys on a footprint of a few metres, because the only direction available was up. Stairs run between and through them, and many buildings are entered at different levels from different streets.

The terraces are the larger structure by far. They are built dry — no mortar — from stone cleared off the slope itself, which lets water drain through rather than building pressure behind the wall. Estimates put the total length in the thousands of kilometres, and maintaining them is continuous manual work.

The paths are infrastructure, not leisure routes. The Sentiero Azzurro linking the villages, and the mule tracks climbing to the ridge, were how people and goods moved before the railway. The Via dell’Amore, the short cliff walk between Riomaggiore and Manarola, is the most famous stretch and has been closed for long periods by rockfall.

The railway itself, cut through the headlands in the 1870s, is the most significant piece of engineering here and the reason the five villages function as one destination.