RIOMAGGIORE, ITALY (Cinque Terre)

Riomaggiore is the most southern village of the five Cinque Terre.  The town of Riomaggiore presents typical features reflecting its history and traditions.  The town stretches along a vertical axes where steep staircases are the only means to move around the town and the typical houses have one or two-floor towers.

The first historical traces date back to 1239, when the inhabitants of the feudal district of Carpena entered in the Compagnia Genovese.

Only in 1343 Riomaggiore became independent as municipality and administration, and during Napoleon’s age it absorbed also the town of Manarola, whose historical roots are even older than Riomaggiore itself.

Here are a few of my pictures of the village of Riomaggiore.   If you missed my other post on Cinque Terre, you can check them out here: Vernazza, Manarola, and Monterosseo.

Cinque Terre is actually a national park, a protected waterway and a Unesco World Heritage site. Most vehicle traffic is restricted inside the villages. This explains why the area is preserved so well and has a way of transporting you to a simpler time…a time before neon McDonald’s signs and other eyesores of modern life.

This is the train that will take you from village to village.