It was our second day in Cinque Terre; we continued northwestbound on a regular ferry service that runs between La Spezia and Levanto. After Riomaggiore, the boat made a scheduled stop at Manarola (click to see earlier posts), but we remained on board. As we passed Corniglia, we could see it from a distance, sitting high above the cliffs.
Vernazza was the second village we were going to visit in the Cinque Terre on that day. On approaching Vernazza, the terraces for growing grapes are visible behind the houses of the village, but not all of them were being maintained.
Upon disembarking, the village appears more open and welcoming with its natural harbor and a small piazza (Piazza Marconi). The piazza is fringed by pastel color buildings on three sides, the fourth side being the beach. We had seen the mention more than once that Vernazza is the loveliest village among the Cinque Terre. Let’s see.
A recent Disney-Pixar’s animation movie (released in 2021, now viewable on Disney+ channel) is set in Portorosso, a fictional town in the Italian Riviera. Portorosso was created using “the best parts of every one of the five real towns” in Cinque Terre showcasing the colors, food and architecture of Liguria. Click here to read an interview with the movie’s production designer. Having only seen a few still images of the movie online, we think Portorosso inherited the waterfront piazza of Vernazza.
Beneath the main street runs a stream that drains into the harbor. Before the stream was covered up, there were a series of bridges traversing it, resembling Venice (Venezia in Italian). That is the story of how the village comes to bear the name Vernazza.
Prominent on the beach front is the church of Santa Margherita with an octagonal campanile. There is a summer opera series on every Wednesday from May to October for about an hour at the old oratory chapel. Voices from the performance can be heard on the water. In 2023, it will be the 6th series. We read that, later in the evening, the beach becomes a soccer field for the staff from the bars and restaurants after work.
Through a natural hole in the rocks, one can get through to another beach on the other side of the village.
It was lunch time; we found a table in a forest of umbrellas, facing the piazza and beach. With refreshing cool drinks, we ate seafood and pasta under technicolor shades. It was an enjoyable and memorable meal.
On October 25, 2011, a severe rainstorm (with rainfall equivalent to a third of the annual average) in the area triggered mudslides and flash floods which washed down the main street of Vernazza. The sudden barrage killed several people and buried Vernazza in 10 feet of mud. We were not aware of the disaster and only discovered online videos of the terrifying event afterwards. Restaurants and businesses at street level were gutted and Vernazza along with Monterosso, another devastated Cinque Terre village took more than 6 months to clean up to meet the following summer’s tourists. Read more about this disaster in Rick Steve’s article on HuffPost.
Image of Vernazza generated using Google Earth.
