Enogastronomy and tastes of Tuscany : culinary vacation, cooking classes, wine & oil tours, special tastings

A Nature Sanctuary, Unesco World Environmental and Cultural Heritage

The Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera located in Liguria region, to the west of the city of La Spezia. "The Five Lands" comprises five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.

The Cinque Terre is noted for its beauty. Over centuries, people have carefully built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea. Part of its charm is the lack of visible "modern" development. Paths, trains and boats connect the villages, and cars cannot reach it from the outside. It is a very popular tourist destination.The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A walking trail connects the five villages. The trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola is called the Via Dell'Amore ("Lovers Walk") and varies in difficulty from an easy stroll to a rough and physically challenging hike. The stretch from Manarola to Corniglia is the easiest to hike, although the main trail into Corniglia finishes with a climb of 368 stairs. The trail from Corniglia to Vernazza is steep at certain places. The trail from Vernazza to Monterosso is by far the steepest. It winds through olive orchards and vineyards and is rough in places, but offers the best view of the bay and the spectacular approaches to both Monterosso and Vernazza.

There are fees to use the more popular walking trails, but the less frequently traveled (and most arduous) are free of charge. All of the trails are relatively narrow and are usually crowded in high tourist season. The Park has trails that can take hikers up into the steep hills.

Food and wine

Cinque Terre National Park has environmental and cultural features which are essential to safeguard: overhanging coasts over the sea with bays and small beaches, thousands of kilometers of dry-stone walls enclosing the terraces where vineyards are cultivated, the characteristic rustics, the medieval quarters, the panoramic paths over the sea and the slopes. If you consider the precious Ligurian wines, the fresh fish, the cuisine, and the traditional craftsmanship, you will appreciate the value of these places.

Given its location on the Mediterranean, seafood is plentiful in the local cuisine. Anchovies of Monterosso are a local specialty designated with a Protected Designation of Origin status from the European Union. The mountainsides of the Cinque Terre are heavily terraced and are used to cultivate grapes and . This area, and the region of Liguria, as a whole, is known for pesto - a sauce made from basil leaves, garlic, salt, olive oil, pine nuts and pecorino cheese. Focaccia is a particularly common locally baked bread product. Farinata is also a typical snack found in bakeries and pizzerias- essentially it is a savoury and crunchy pancake made from a base of chick-pea flour.

The grapes of the Cinque Terre are used to produce two locally made wines. The eponymous Cinque Terre and the Sciachetrà are both made using Bosco, Albarola, and Vermentino grapes. In addition to wines, other popular local drinks include , a brandy made with the pomace left from winemaking, and limoncello, a sweet liqueur flavored with lemons.

Limoncino is produced exclusively with lemon rinds from Cinque Terre, steeping in organic alcohol after a few hours from the harvesting. This simple and immediate processing method maintains the aromatic and digestive features of the lemon, so that the liquor acquires the fruit essence and active properties. It is a sweet liquor with a strong but agreeable taste.

Despite the great demand, Sciacchetrà - a legendary raisin wine and the symbol of Cinque Terre - is nowadays almost impossible to find. For this reason, it is important that such considerable cultural evidences continue to exist as authentic elements of a territory which risks to succumb under the commercial requests which have nothing to share with the original culture characterizing Cinque Terre during the centuries.Besides the historical cultivations (vineyard and olive grove), a careful management of other local resources is one of the Park aims: from the aromatic herbs to the chestnut processing in gastronomy and perfumes, with the possibility to create a number of micro-activities able to make the territory revive, promoting at the same time an interesting economic perspective which favors their active maintenance.
The Park aims at making these activities real with the creation of a workshop where it is possible to transform the herbs in essences and cosmetic products.Another important purpose lies in the progressive introduction of naturopathy techniques, as well as prevention and health education: the Park would like to become a reference point for a cultural tourism looking for psycho-physical health, which is linked to the essential need of respecting the environment, having a lifestyle in harmony with natural laws and leading to a better quality of life. The model of ecocompatible development provided by the Park does not only deal with the naturalistic and marine biology aspects, but also with the whole Cinque Terre ecosystem which shapes and preserves itself thanks to men who settle here with their culture; as a matter of fact, naturophaty includes all the branches of natural medicine, sometimes called complementary and other times alternative, which are based on the very ancient knowledge of nature by man, revised and corrected by modern science and modern technology.The most important aim is to give birth to a general process of sustainable development, improving the quality of life of the individuals and trying to demonstrate that economic competitiveness and environmental compatibility are not one against the other, but can find a process to blend with the right balance.