Things to see and do CINQUE TERRE

Manarola, one of the five picturesque towns in Italy's Cinque Terre region, has a tourist information office located at the railway station. The office is the administrative and technical headquarters of the region. Visitors can obtain information on available accommodation, the main itineraries to explore and the Cinque Terre map. The telephone numbers for contacting the office are: 0039 0187 762600, 0039 0187 762640 and 0039 0187 760511. In addition to the Manarola office, there are other tourist information offices in various localities in the region, run by the local authorities and the Cinque Terre National Park. These offices offer assistance to visitors to make their stay a pleasant one and enable them to discover all the wonders of the Ligurian coast.

To the south-east of the village, a 124-step staircase leads up to the Château de Vernazza. Today, the castle ruins are the only vestige of the enclosure that once surrounded the entire village. A high circular tower, built in the ^13th century, dominates land and sea atop a 70-metre-high rocky spur. From here, there's a breathtaking view of the horizon, the blue expanse of the sea, Monterosso al Mare in the distance, and the village of Corniglia to the left.

Built in the 17th^century thanks to donations from the people of Monterosso, this beautifully crafted oratory is a true memento mori: the inscription engraved on its façade mortis et orationis (death and prayer) recalls that the brotherhood that ran the oratory was dedicated to helping the needy who could not afford funeral orations. This duty of the brothers is evoked in the building's interior decor, with skulls, stucco and wooden allegories of death...