Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto)

Five villages cling to a corrugated stretch of Ligurian cliff — Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore — their painted houses stacked above tiny harbours and their slopes ribbed with a thousand years of drystone vineyard terraces. The listing runs south to fortified Portovenere and out to the islets of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto. UNESCO recognised this hard-won cultural landscape in 1997, a World Heritage tribute to communities that farmed the vertical.