What Makes the Cinque Terre So Unique Today?
A variety of coastal mountain regions in the Mediterranean basin are similar to the Cinque Terre. The area from Nice to Monte Carlo and Menton on the French Riviera, Cap Corse in Corsica, the Amalfi Coast in Italy and many of the Greek Islands are very similar to the Cinque Terre. They all have villages surrounded by olive trees and vineyards on laboriously built terraces. And the villages were all once connected by footpaths and donkey paths. But all of these places have succumbed to the automobile with the construction of roads during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Only the Cinque Terre retains the charm of an automobile-free environment . . . for the most part! (Beware the automobile as it slowly encroaches on the Cinque Terre!) Where else in Europe can you find five villages with a total population close to 6,000 people better connected by trail and train than by roads? While not completely free of automobiles (all the villages have roads TO them although they are not well conne
