Cinque Terre, Rio Maggiore, Italy

             

• RiomaggioreIt is quite sure that the origins of Riomaggiore date back to the 8th Century, when the inhabitants of the Vara valley, searching a milder climate to raise grapevines and olive-trees without the fear of pirate raids, moved towards the coast. The town climbs up along the ridges overlooking the sea and it is characterized from the typical stone houses with coloured façades and slate-roofs.
• HistoryThe town of Riomaggiore presents typical features reflecting its history and traditions.
  The town stretches along a vertical axe where steep staircases are the only means to move around the town.
  The typical houses have one or two-floor towers in order to use at best the place at disposal.
  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.
  Guardiola Tower, now a natural park, once it was one of the most equipped fortresses in the area.
  The church of san Giovanni Battista dates back to 1341, and its façade was rebuilt in neogothic style in 1820. Also the parish church of san Lorenzo dating back to 1338 has a gothic façade.
  The castle of Riomaggiore (15th-16th Century) rises on a rocky crag dividing the most ancient part of the town from the one standing nearby the railway station. Among the personalities who were born in Riomaggiore there is the painter Telemaco Signorini.
  
  Not far from a group of houses, on the hill of Cerricò, you can find the castle, a fortification dating back to the 13th Century e from where you can enjoy a wonderful sight over the sea.
  
  In the highest part of the town there is the parish church of san Giovanni Battista built in 1340 by the bishop of Luni, Antonio Fieschi. Going down along the road of the Sanctuary you can reach the oratory “dei Disciplinati” (16th Century), very interesting for the paintings in its interior. About 350 metres from the sea, along the coast road connecting the Cinque Terre with La Spezia, you can find the sanctuary of Madonna di Montenero.
  
  About Guardiola Tower, reachable through a footpath leaving from town, we can tell that is the best beauty spot overlooking the coast and the town. Very interesting is the Environmental Education Centre of Torre Guardiola, whose aim is organizing several events for nature lovers of all ages. Among them there is the “Writing Trail”, which, through some laps indicated by panels, invites the tourists to express their creativity by writing poems about the beauty of the landscape.
  
  Castle of Riomaggiore: you can reach the fortification from the town, climbing the steep road from the railway station. It began to be built in 1260 by the Marquis Turcotti, lord of Ripalta and feudal vassal of this part of the coast, who gave up all these properties to Nicolò Fieschi who, after some years, transferred them to the Republic of Genoa, which completed the defensive system of Riomaggiore. The castle has a square base with the longest sides overlooking the sea. The boundary wall has two circular towers. The entrance is located between the towers, and a narrow external stair leads to the tower controlling the town, where a big clock is built. Not far from it there is the oratory of San Rocco, built in remembrance of a plague which stroke the community in 1480. During the times the castle suffered not only the usual wear of atmospherical agents but also a modification which changed the original setting up. In fact, until few years ago, the internal part of the fortress housed the town cemetery.