Page 21 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italian Riviera

INTRODUCING THE IT ALIAN RIVIER A  19

A PORTRAIT OF THE

ITALIAN RIVIERA

The blue water of one of the loveliest stretches of sea in Italy laps the coast,
with its rocks, maquis and pastel-coloured villages proud of their maritime
tradition. Just behind, hills that are often silver with olive trees rise steeply to
the Apennines, which separate Liguria from the other regions of northern Italy.

Bound to the north by alpine Piedmont, the Apennines begins, running first east
to the south by rol ling Tuscany and to the and then southwards. To the south of
east by the plains of the Po Valley, Liguria these mountains is the narrow strip of
is a world apart: no other Italian region has land where, over the course of millennia,
such a generous climate or mountainous the Ligurian civilization developed: the
landscape, nor one where the sea and the people were naturally more inclined to
mountains are in such close proximity – in turn to the sea and to the large islands
Liguria you are never more than 35 km of the Mediterranean than towards the
(22 miles) from the Mediterranean. This is peaks behind.
a region that was always more easily It would be wrong, however, to assume,
reached by sea than by land. when pausing to admire the waters of
The characteristics of Liguria derive Portofino, Genoa or Camogli, that a Liguria
from the geology that has shaped it. The of the hinterland does not exist. Reached
margins of the region are clear: the mass along steep roads, en route to the
of the Alps, partly handed over to France mountain passes that were once crucial
after World War II, lead as far as the staging posts on any journey northwards,
threshold of the Colle di Cadibona, which are fascinating places such as Dolceacqua,
marks the point where the long chain of beloved of Monet; Triora, known as the

The spectacular rocky coast of the Cinque Terre, plunging into the sea
The church of San Pietro in Portovenere, perched on a natural promontory overlooking the sea

018-021_EW_Italian_Riviera.indd 19 09/09/16 10:43 am