Protect the Cinque Terre Program

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About the Protect the Cinque Terre Program

Protect the Cinque Terre was started by a resident of Vernazza whose family has lived on these beautiful slopes for six generations. Accepting that tourism was here to stay, but realizing that it was placing serious strains on the environment, he gathered friends and colleagues and created this important program.

Help protect a piece of paradise

Whether you're a first-time visitor or a returning devotee, here's a vacation to the Italian Riviera that you won't find in the guidebooks. This is the opportunity to see and learn more about the region by experiencing daily life like a local resident does.

Protect the Cinque Terre immerses you in the enchanting beauty and hospitality innate to this charming village while exposing the stresses that tourism places on a sensitive landscape like Cinque Terre's.

You'll spend three mornings working with local citizens in some aspect of landscape preservation: rebuilding the stone walls that support terraced agriculture, cleaning trails used by thousand of tourists every month, and harvesting some of the agricultural bounty grown on the hillsides around the town.

Along the way, the program's hosts will share their knowledge of the area's history, its life today, and the cuisine for which the region Liguria is known. Organized afternoon and evening programs are designed to broaden your understanding of the local landscape, the people who inhabit it, and the culture that has grown up within it. Come join us and

contribute to the preservation of a unique environment
make great friends
enjoy exquisite meals prepared by local chefs
take custom-made guided tours
feel at home in the Cinque Terre

Be a local on this trip, not a tourist!

Why this program?

Most visitors to Cinque Terre seem to land in Vernazza. Whether they sail in by boat for the day, hike in from Monterosso to the north or Corniglia to the south, spill out of the train, or park their cars on the edge of the national park boundary and walk in, visitors flock to this small town in numbers that double the population on a busy summer day.

While these tourists arrive with the best of intentions, they often leave behind damage that is beginning to take its toll on the area. Erosion from the well-loved trails is shrinking the mountainsides and endangering agriculture, solid waste disposal is an increasingly expensive proposition, and injured tourists must be rescued by local volunteers with a stretcher. Tourism does not support itself financially in a small community like Vernazza.

The Protect Cinque Terre program is designed to expose the sensitivities of the coastal landscape and to enlist the help of visitors in preserving it for future generations of Vernazzesi and visitors alike. By working alongside local citizens, participants gain a deeper understanding of environmental and tourism issues, and hopefully will return to Cinque Terre treading more lightly.

The program leader is a sixth-generation Vernazzeso who is very enthusiastic about his town and revels in sharing its beauty, cuisine, and people with participants in the program. The program is an upbeat, energetic introduction to the culture of Cinque Terre and its crown jewel, Vernazza.