"Very pretty place, Vernazza........" a Vernazza Travel Page by leics

...but I have to admit that my first feeling, on leaving the station and entering the main street, was 'O god.........touristy'.

And it was. Those of you who think the Cinque Terre is 'undiscovered' in any way must, I'm afraid, think again. I believe the American travel writer/TV person Rick Steves recommends the Cinque Terre: in consequence, there were a huge number of American visitors when I went (at the end of October, so hardly high season). A lot of Germans too, but I only noticed one English couple (the Cinque Terre is hardly known here).

However.

Having explored the main street a little more, and wandered down to the harbour, I can definitely see the attraction. Pastel-coloured houses crowding into the valleys, clinging to the rocks and to each other, narrow stepped alleyways leadig steeply to upper terrces....turquoise sea, terraced hillsides, ragged rocks and beautiful views.......

So I ignored the tourist-aimed shops and cafes (I have no objection whatsoever to people making money out of tourists: it's a darn sight better life than trying to make a living out of fishing) and tried to imagine what these villages were like before they were 'discovered' and the Cinque Terre became a national park.

The little church on the harbour is worth visiting. It makes one realise that this is, and has been, a living community for centuries: imagine what it once was like trying to grow enough food on those steep hillsides. Unil around a hundred years ago, when the railway arrived, the Cinque Terre villages were more or less cut off from the outside world entirely. How important faith, and the church, must have been.

Santa Margherita di Antiochia ia an ancient church set right by the sea. It dates from 1318, but there was a building (probably an earlier church) on the spot beforehand. The bell-tower is octagonal. According to legend, a wooden box containing the fingerbones of S.Margharita was found along the coast and the church was built to venerate this (it was later washed away in a storm, but reappeared in the same place). It has a good atmosphere: I enjoyed its calm.

So. Vernazza is indeed very pretty, but don't expect to enjoy it without the company of other visitors, because the chances are pretty slim unless you visit well out of season.