Porto Venere (Portovenere) a small town in Liguria, is one of the most beautiful places on the west coast of Italy.
In 1997 Porto Venere and the villages of Cinque Terre were designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
The area that is the subject of this nomination covers some 15km along the extreme eastern end of the Ligmian coast, between Levanto and La Spezia. It is a very jagged, steep coastline, which the work of human beings over millennia has transformed into an intensively terraced landscape so as to be able to wrest from nature a few hectares of land suitable for agriculture, such as growing vines and olive trees.
The human communities have adapted themselves to this seemingly rough and inhospitable nature by building compact settlements directly on the rock, with winding streets. The general use of natural stone for rooting gives these settlements a characteristic appearance. They are generally grouped round religious buildings or medieval castles. Their small harbours provide shelter for the boats used for the other traditional activity, fishing.
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