The tranquil sea below us merges with an azure sky: the colour scheme is broken only by pastel homes, randomly piled on a steep cliff jutting out of the sea. A reluctant trekker, I have just made one of my most excruciating climbs to the top of a vineyard in Manarola, a tiny fishing village perched on a cliff in Cinque Terre on the northwestern Italian coast. The sight is worth it — the sips that follow more so. 

Just two hours from Pisa, Cinque Terre is a community of five fishing villages located on cliffs rising out of the Ligurian sea. It used to be one of Italy’s poorest parts until American cruise ships chanced upon this coast in the mid-1980s, and began to drop anchor at the nearby port of La Spezia. Since then tourism has boomed, villagers have got richer and prices of secluded holiday homes have shot up.