Vernazza

Founded around the year 1000 and shaped by Genoa from 1276, Vernazza grew around the only safe harbour on this coast. Its pastel houses press close around the water, watched over by the Doria castle and the Belforte tower.

High above the harbour stands Santa Margherita d'Antiochia, a Ligurian-Gothic church from 1318. Its octagonal bell tower rises forty metres — and the clock you see on our shore still keeps Vernazza's time, its bells marking every hour.

Vernazza is the one village built to be entered by sea — the only natural harbour of the Cinque Terre, guarded since 1080, when it began as a fortified base against Saracen raiders. From the water, the church of Santa Margherita seems to rise straight out of the rocks — and its bells still carry out to the boat, marking the hour as you pass.