Manarola

Punta Bonfiglio is the headland on the north side of the harbour. A seafront walkway, opened in 1968, starts from the little square above the boats and curves around the rock. After a few minutes, turn around: that is the postcard view, with the coloured houses piled on the cliff, the harbour below and the open sea. Almost every picture of Manarola you have seen was taken from here.

Sunset is the best time, when low light warms the façades and then the village lights come on. At the top of the headland there is a rest area with benches and a children’s playground, and higher up the village cemetery looking out to sea. On summer evenings it gets busy: come half an hour early if you want a spot on the wall.

Manarola’s harbour is a cove between the rocks, with no piers or quays. Fishing boats are hauled up the slipway and into the small square at the bottom of the main street, which turns into a car park for colourful wooden boats. This is the heart of the village: everyone ends up here, sits on the rocks to watch the sea, and sets off for Punta Bonfiglio.

In summer the rocks around the harbour become the village lido: people sunbathe on the flat rocks and jump in. More on that in the swimming section below.

The village grew along a single street, Via Discovolo, which follows the Groppo stream, now covered over. The lower part is lined with cafés and shops; higher up it gets quieter. Steps and covered passages branch off towards the higher houses, and it is worth getting a little lost among the arches and stone walls, especially on the Riomaggiore side.

At the top of the main street is the square with the parish church, officially dedicated to the Nativity of Mary but known to everyone as San Lorenzo, after the patron saint. A plaque on the façade gives the date of construction: 1338. It is a fine example of Ligurian Gothic: a sandstone façade, a pointed doorway with the martyrdom of St Lawrence in the lunette, and a white marble rose window from 1375, with twelve small columns and a ring of human and lion heads.

The three-aisled interior was remodelled in Baroque style and partly brought back to its Gothic look by a late 20th-century restoration. Look for the two triptychs attributed to the “Master of the Cinque Terre”: one on the high altar, the other, on a gold background, brought from the sanctuary at Volastra. The feast of San Lorenzo is on 10 August.

The bell tower stands on its own in the same square, separate from the church. It started life as a watchtower and was raised and topped with a spire in the 14th century. Opposite is the 15th-century Oratory of the Disciplinati of the Santissima Annunziata, known as the “Azzurri”. On the corner with the main street you can still make out the old San Rocco hospital. The square gives a good view down over the village and, in December, across to the nativity scene.

In 1961 Mario Andreoli, a railway worker from Manarola, first put lights on the Tre Croci hill facing the village. Over the years the display grew to hundreds of figures made from recycled materials: the Holy Family and the Magi, but also fishermen and farmers. Andreoli died in 2022 aged 94; today the nativity is looked after by a village association together with the Italian Alpine Club (CAI) of La Spezia.

It is switched on in early December, usually around the 8th (Immaculate Conception), with a torchlight procession and a small celebration, and stays lit every evening until January. The exact 2026 dates have not been published yet, so check in November. The church square is a good viewpoint; the widest view is from the Via Beccara, the unlit footpath towards Riomaggiore (bring a torch). Dates, times and how to get there are in our guide to the Manarola nativity scene.

The cliff path between Riomaggiore and Manarola has reopened after twelve years of closure due to a landslide. Today you need a ticket with a pre-booked time slot, and you can only walk it one way: in at Riomaggiore, out at Manarola. Rules, 2026 opening times and tips are in our guide to the Via dell’Amore.

Above Manarola, among vineyards and olive groves, sits the hamlet of Volastra, whose name probably comes from the Latin “vicus oleaster”, the village of olive trees. Get there on foot on trail 506 or on the Park bus, which takes about ten minutes via Groppo. The sanctuary of Nostra Signora della Salute is a single-nave Romanesque church with a pointed doorway and a Gothic mullioned window; its feast day is 8 September. The view over the terraces and the sea from Volastra is one of the widest in the Cinque Terre.