Manarola is the most photogenic of the five Cinque Terre villages — the one you have seen on every postcard, with stacked pastel houses tumbling down a steep ravine to a tiny harbour. It sits between Riomaggiore and Corniglia on the Ligurian coast, connected to both by train and by the coastal hiking path.
The village is small enough to explore in an hour, but the pleasure is in lingering. Swim off the rocks at the harbour, walk up through the terraced vineyards to the church of San Lorenzo, or just sit with a glass of Sciacchetrà — the sweet local wine made from grapes dried on these same terraces. In the evenings, when the day-trippers have gone, the village quiets down and the light on the cliffs is extraordinary.