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320km
(200 miles) of rocky, wooded coastline
running from France to Tuscany, where
the Italian ‘boot’ begins. This is
the Italian Riviera, with ample
facilities for tourists even in the
smallest of ports. The coastal hills
are less developed.
Genoa
is the capital of Liguria, has long been
an important commercial and military
port. The medieval district of the city
holds many treasures, such as the Porta
Soprana (the old stone entrance
gate to the city), the Church of
Sant’Agostino (next to the Museo
dell’Architectura e Scultura Ligure),
the beautiful Church of San Donato,
the 12th-century Church of Santa
Maria di Castello and the Gothic Cattedrale
di San Lorenzo. Outside the
medieval district, Via Garibaldi,
where many of the city’s richest
inhabitants built their palaces, is a
beautiful walk, with Palazzo Podesta,
Palazzo Bianco (now an art gallery
with paintings by Van Dyck and Rubens)
and the magnificently decorated Palazzo
Rosso (adjacent to Palazzo Bianco
and housing paintings by Titian,
Caravaggio and Dürer). A tour (once
daily in the afternoon) around the
Genoa harbor is available, and the city
is also recommended for its excellent
shopping opportunities.
Ligurian resorts are very
popular with holidaymakers. Portofino
is one of the best known, with its
small picturesque harbor full of sleek
pleasure yachts, luxury clothes shops,
its romantic villas owned by the rich
and famous perched on the hillside and
the Castello di San Giorgio,
sitting high up on a promontory with
magnificent views of the Portofino harbor
and bay. The beach at Santa
Margherita Ligure, just 5km (3
miles) south of Portofino, is an
excellent place to swim, with an almost
fairytale swimmer’s-eye view of the
surrounding cliffs and villas from the
warm and crystal-clear aquamarine
water. Nearby Rapallo, 8km (5
miles) south of Portofino, is a less
fashionable but more reasonable town to
stay in and is recommended for those
seeking a more lively alternative to
the quieter and more exclusive resorts
of Portofino and Santa Margherita.
Other resorts in this region include
Ventimiglia, San Remo, Diano Marina,
Alassio, Pietra Ligure, Spotorno,
Sestri Levante, Lerici and the Cinque
Terre.
Cinque
Terre
Geologically,
the landscape was created by a series of
folds which were formed when the rocks
were pushed, raised and pressed together
in the Tertiary period. Millions of years
of erosion have slowly given shape to
countless small peninsulars and bays
between Punnet Corvo (Montenero) and
Punnet Mesco. Here, five villages Riomaggiore,
Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza
and Monterosso make up the Cinque
Terre. Over the years, the people have
succeeded in imposing their will on this
difficult landscape through terrace
cultivation consisting of narrow strips
of land on the hillside called "fasce".
Perhaps it is the air made salty by the
sea spray on stormy days, together with
the hard work that the farmers have been
carrying out for hundreds of years, that
have made the grapes so sweet and the
olives and lemons so tasty. We know, from
archeological findings, that man has
inhabited this stretch of coastline from
very early times. Jewellery and decorated
shells are some of the traces left behind
by prehistoric man. The ancient "Strada
Etrusca" was brought back into use
by the Romans, bringing both trade and
commerce to the Cinque Terre, but it was
abandoned again during the rule of the
"Repubblica di Genova". It is
probably because the road was abandoned
again that the area has preserved all its
natural and untouched beauty. Man has had
to build countless walls "muretti"
and steps to support the steep strips of
land, and from research carried out by
naturalists it seems that, over thousands
of years, the inhabitants of the Cinque
Terre have carried out an enormous task
in constructing and repairing these
famous "muretti". So much so
that the two-metre-high, eleven -
thousand kilomet er
- long network of walls is comparable
to the Great Wall of China. Even
nowadays, it is not easy to reach the
five villages, either by train or along
the winding roads. But, perhaps, this
is the surest guarantee for the
preservation of this unique landscape.
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