Five villages cling to the cliffs of the Ligurian coast, Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore, and a little further south the old harbour of Portovenere guards the entrance to the Gulf of La Spezia, often called the Gulf of Poets because Byron and Shelley both lived around it. The whole coast is a World Heritage Site, and what UNESCO honours is the work of generations of farmers who built stone terraces on slopes so steep that they are almost vertical, with thousands of kilometres of dry-stone walls holding vines and olives. The sweet Sciacchetrà wine from these terraces is rare and expensive.
The villages were isolated for centuries, reachable only by mule track or by sea, and each has its own harbour, tall pastel houses and a church on a rock. Portovenere has a striking black-and-white church of San Pietro on a headland, built on the ruins of a temple to Venus, and a sea cave known as Byron's Grotto, from which the poet is said to have swum across the gulf to visit Shelley. Along the coast, the Via dell'Amore, the path of love, is a famous walkway that has been closed in part for repairs, so check the status.
For a motorcyclist, this is a place to be careful. The villages themselves are closed or restricted to cars, and the roads that lead to them are narrow, steep and winding, with hairpins, blind bends and car parks perched high above the sea. The high road, the SP370, along the ridge above the coast gives stunning views, but the surface is patchy and the traffic can be heavy in summer, with buses and campers. Some stretches are subject to landslides after heavy rain. Park at the top and take the train, which runs between the villages in a few minutes, or walk the footpaths.
La Spezia, eight kilometres away, has about eighty-eight thousand people and is the sensible base for fuel, repairs and a bed, while the villages themselves have almost none of these. Eat anchovies, either salted or fried, focaccia from a bakery and trofie with pesto, which was born in nearby Genoa. Visit in April, May, late September or October, avoiding the high summer when the paths are crammed. The rewards are the colour of the houses against the blue sea and the smell of rosemary on the cliffs.