* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Sunday, June 22, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Netflix unveils Dallas immersive venue for fans of hit shows like ‘Squid Game,’ ‘Stranger Things’ – Houston Chronicle

    Step Inside Netflix’s New Dallas Immersive Experience Featuring Hits Like ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Stranger Things

    ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’: Civic Players bring ‘Young Frankenstein’ to life – Yahoo

    Civic Players Deliver a Hilarious and Unforgettable Performance of ‘Young Frankenstein

    ‘Wheel of Fortune’: Amputee Wins $60,000 After Breaking Incredible ‘Curse’ – Hastings Tribune

    Wheel of Fortune’ Amputee Breaks Incredible ‘Curse’ to Win $60,000!

    North Star Sports & Entertainment Network: Coming soon – KTTC News

    North Star Sports & Entertainment Network: Coming soon – KTTC News

    Safety concerns in Deep Ellum create apprehension as the entertainment district gains visitors – CBS News

    Safety Concerns Surge Amid Deep Ellum’s Booming Popularity and Growing Crowds

    Elisabeth Moss’ ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Emmy chances, by the numbers – Yahoo

    Elisabeth Moss’ ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Emmy chances, by the numbers – Yahoo

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Technology Convergence Report 2025 – The World Economic Forum

    Technology Convergence Report 2025 – The World Economic Forum

    How AI can help make cities work better for residents – MIT Technology Review

    How AI can help make cities work better for residents – MIT Technology Review

    Tech Champions with Leo Bletnitsky of Healthy Technology Solutions – Buzz Media Group

    Meet Tech Champion Leo Bletnitsky of Healthy Technology Solutions

    Crypto’s true revolution is about humanity, not technology – Cointelegraph

    Crypto’s Real Revolution: Transforming Humanity Beyond Technology

    $1 Billion Problem: New Technology Could Save Your Daily Cup of Coffee – SciTechDaily

    The $1 Billion Challenge: How New Technology Could Rescue Your Daily Cup of Coffee

    Canada’s construction industry gets serious about investing in technology as pressure mounts to do more with less – Yahoo Finance

    Canada’s Construction Industry Accelerates Tech Investments to Overcome Growing Challenges and Boost Efficiency

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Netflix unveils Dallas immersive venue for fans of hit shows like ‘Squid Game,’ ‘Stranger Things’ – Houston Chronicle

    Step Inside Netflix’s New Dallas Immersive Experience Featuring Hits Like ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Stranger Things

    ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’: Civic Players bring ‘Young Frankenstein’ to life – Yahoo

    Civic Players Deliver a Hilarious and Unforgettable Performance of ‘Young Frankenstein

    ‘Wheel of Fortune’: Amputee Wins $60,000 After Breaking Incredible ‘Curse’ – Hastings Tribune

    Wheel of Fortune’ Amputee Breaks Incredible ‘Curse’ to Win $60,000!

    North Star Sports & Entertainment Network: Coming soon – KTTC News

    North Star Sports & Entertainment Network: Coming soon – KTTC News

    Safety concerns in Deep Ellum create apprehension as the entertainment district gains visitors – CBS News

    Safety Concerns Surge Amid Deep Ellum’s Booming Popularity and Growing Crowds

    Elisabeth Moss’ ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Emmy chances, by the numbers – Yahoo

    Elisabeth Moss’ ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Emmy chances, by the numbers – Yahoo

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Technology Convergence Report 2025 – The World Economic Forum

    Technology Convergence Report 2025 – The World Economic Forum

    How AI can help make cities work better for residents – MIT Technology Review

    How AI can help make cities work better for residents – MIT Technology Review

    Tech Champions with Leo Bletnitsky of Healthy Technology Solutions – Buzz Media Group

    Meet Tech Champion Leo Bletnitsky of Healthy Technology Solutions

    Crypto’s true revolution is about humanity, not technology – Cointelegraph

    Crypto’s Real Revolution: Transforming Humanity Beyond Technology

    $1 Billion Problem: New Technology Could Save Your Daily Cup of Coffee – SciTechDaily

    The $1 Billion Challenge: How New Technology Could Rescue Your Daily Cup of Coffee

    Canada’s construction industry gets serious about investing in technology as pressure mounts to do more with less – Yahoo Finance

    Canada’s Construction Industry Accelerates Tech Investments to Overcome Growing Challenges and Boost Efficiency

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

Slow down in the Cinque Terre—and enjoy a glass of wine

September 14, 2023
in Science
Slow down in the Cinque Terre—and enjoy a glass of wine
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

ByCeil Miller Bouchet

Photographs ByChiara Goia

Published September 13, 2023

• 13 min read

The millions of tourists who annually visit the Cinque Terre in Italy seldom realize that, in addition to the region’s candy-colored villages and sea views, this is a storied wine region with some of the world’s steepest vineyards. Its grapevines climb mountains that soar as high as 1,300 feet. 

“Wine came first and the villages came next, so the history of the Cinque Terre is the history of wine,” says local sommelier Yvonne Riccobaldi. Her hometown of Manarola is one of the five villages that lends this northwestern Italian region its name. The towns—Manarola, Riomaggiore, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare—comprise Cinque Terre National Park, which spans nearly ten miles of rocky coastline between the seafaring cities of Genoa and La Spezia.

An extensive network of scenic former mule trails links villages with vineyards enclosed by hand-hewn stone walls built as early as the 11th century. But crumbling terraces and a dwindling population mean that this fragile ecosystem is endangered. 

Local winemakers and other businesses are focusing on sustainable and heritage tourism to bolster the economy and environment of the Cinque Terre. Here’s how to drink it in.

Wines that tell a story 

“We have about 30 small producers in the Cinque Terre, producing white wines made from Bosco, Albarolo, and Vermintino grapes,” Riccobaldi tells me as we sip and swirl at A Pié di Campu, her Manarola restaurant and tasting room. The yields are small, too: the average vineyard puts out just 5,000 bottles a year. 

(The Cinque Terre’s ‘path of love’ is back. Don’t love it to death.)

These whites are made to drink young. But the region’s most emblematic wine is the rare and expensive sciacchetrà (shaak-eh-tra). The complex, aged dessert wine—redolent of apricots, almonds, and candied orange peel—is rooted in ancient times, when the Greeks colonized the Mediterranean basin. Today, Riccobaldi says, families enjoy sciacchetrà at weddings and other celebrations.

During the Renaissance, Pope Paul III served it at his banquets in Rome. Then, locals used a native grape varietal, called Ruzzese that, after being lost for centuries, is now being revived by a local vintner. It’s just a small taste of how businesses and entrepreneurs are leaning into the area’s heritage.

“Thanks to grassroots efforts,” says Riccobaldi, “almost all of the Cinque Terre restaurants now support local vineyards.” These include creative, contemporary spots such as Rio Bistrot in Riomaggiore and tiny, family-owned Cappun Magru, on Manarola’s church square. At the latter, the owner’s son tells me that the minerality of the region’s wines goes well with local dishes, from his mama’s seafood lasagna to spaghetti with local anchovies served at nearby Ristorante Miky.

Another standout? Tiny Osteria de Mananan in Corniglia, where the owner’s ravioli in walnut pesto—paired with a glass of dry white wine from CheO vineyard—is worth the nearly 400-stair climb from the train station to the village.

To really earn my supper, I hike an hour up from Manarola to the tiny village of Volastra. There, Locanda Tiabuscion serves me a tagliolini pasta with anchovies, pine nuts, and capers paired with Cantina Bordone’s Auré white wine. (For the less active or the over-served, there are also minibus connections among the towns.)

(Learn why this little known Italian region has some of the country’s best wine.)

Vineyard tours or wine tasting rooms like Riccobaldi’s or Ghemé in Riomaggiore also reveal local life and wine culture. Book in advance, though, because all are small and family owned. Take Cian du Giorgi, a restored vineyard in the medieval village of San Bernardino, where a French-Italian couple produces wines aged mainly in Ligurian amphorae.

Although some Cinque Terre cantinas, like Vétua, in Monterosso, host tastings in the villages, others, like Azienda Lìtan, entail a trek up from the port to their vineyard. This gives visitors a feel for the hard labor required to make wine in a region where rugged terrain prevents machine harvesting and, in most places, access by road.

Challenges to the vines and the culture

Winemakers face steep challenges in the Cinque Terre. “It takes about 2,000 hours a year to cultivate one hectare of grapes here,” says Giancarlo Gariglio of nonprofit Slow Wine Italia. “In Napa Valley, it takes about 250 hours.”

“Ninety-five percent of our terraces have been abandoned over the past century,” he says. This is because the Cinque Terre lost about half of its population in the last decade. Grape growers and farmers abandoned their rugged land and villages for easier, better paying work in tourism or the nearby shipyards of La Spezia and Genoa.

Depopulation threatens the whole region, Gariglio explained, because “winemakers are custodians of the muretti [dry sandstone walls] that support farming terraces.” He worries that “if we don’t find a way to restore them, the land will likely fall into the sea again, like it did 10 years ago.” (In October 25, 2011, torrential rains triggered landslides that killed 13 people and severely damaged two villages.)

Unfortunately, population decline combined with staggering growth in day-trippers—mainly from large cruise ships—threatens to erase traditional culture and transform the Cinque Terre into another Venice.

“Even though most of us now live from tourism, we are overwhelmed,” says Christine Godfrey, an American who, with her husband, Nicola, owns Cinque Terre Trekking. In their spare time the couple work with village elders to uncover and restore portions of the stone trails once used by Nicola’s ancestors. Their goal is simple, Nicole says: “to encourage visitors to explore beyond the main streets and understand the impact of our handmade walls.”

Growing slow tourism

One way to achieve this goal, many believe, is to funnel more tourist revenue from the national park entrance fees back to the land via wine tourism. “When you sell a bottle of wine, you are selling the territory behind that bottle, the culture of that territory, and the history of the landscapes,” says Massimo Garavaglia, Italy’s minister of tourism. “Wine-related tourism has a component in environmental sustainability.”

Thankfully, a new approach to tourism is taking root. Christine Godfrey is raising awareness of the Cinque Terre backcountry and its wine terraces by organizing an annual ultra-marathon event, SciaccheTrail, followed by a wine tasting. But any visitor with stamina and sturdy shoes can hike her favorite path from Manarola to Corniglia on the stone staircases and paths vintners have used for centuries.

In Riomaggiore, Heydi Bonanini has been rebuilding the stone walls on his family’s land, Possa Farms, since 2004. Today, he shares stories of regional winemaking with local schoolchildren and visitors alike.

(See how to explore the wilder, quieter side of Venice with its fishermen.)

Davide Zoppi organizes informative ambles followed by guided tastings and bucolic picnics in his family vineyard, Cà du Ferrà, just outside of the Cinque Terre park. Since he traded his career as a lawyer for his native village in 2017, Zoppi and his husband have expanded their white wine production.

Their dream, he tells me, was to replant the original grape, Ruzzese, used to make sciacchetrà—the sweet wine the popes adored. The couple accomplished their goal, and I close out my trip with a honeyed glass of their liquid history. 

“As winemakers, we are the sentinels of the territory,” Zoppi says. “It’s our responsibility to rebuild, maintain, and transmit this heritage.” 

Ceil Miller Bouchet is an Iowa- and France-based writer who specializes in wine and food coverage. Follow her on Instagram.

Chiara Goia is an Italian photographer and a National Geographic Explorer. Follow her on Instagram.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : National Geographic – https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/cinque-terre-vineyards-ecotourism-overtourism

Tags: CinquescienceTerre—and
Previous Post

Multiple COVID infections can lead to chronic health issues. Here’s what to know.

Next Post

Photo story: horseback adventures on the gaucho trail through southern Patagonia

Technology Convergence Report 2025 – The World Economic Forum

Technology Convergence Report 2025 – The World Economic Forum

June 22, 2025
Kingsley Coman reveals desire to stay at Bayern Munich – Yahoo Sports

Kingsley Coman reveals desire to stay at Bayern Munich – Yahoo Sports

June 22, 2025
What role will Pope Leo XIV play in the future of Laudato Si’ ecological action? – National Catholic Reporter

What role will Pope Leo XIV play in the future of Laudato Si’ ecological action? – National Catholic Reporter

June 22, 2025
Opinion: What if MAGA Has a Point About Science? – Undark Magazine

What If MAGA Is Right About Science?

June 22, 2025
Are We Ready To Redefine the Second? Scientists Just Took a Major Step – SciTechDaily

Are We Ready to Redefine the Second? Scientists Achieve a Groundbreaking Breakthrough

June 22, 2025
What’s your ‘biological age’? And here’s how to lower it… – BreakingNews.ie

What’s your ‘biological age’? And here’s how to lower it… – BreakingNews.ie

June 22, 2025
Club World Cup trophy won’t make up for last season – Guardiola – BBC

Guardiola: Club World Cup Trophy Can’t Erase Last Season’s Disappointment

June 22, 2025
Russia’s Economy Minister Warns of Looming Recession – The Moscow Times

Russia’s Economy Minister Warns of an Imminent Recession

June 22, 2025
Governor Ferguson appoints a new director for the Health Care Authority – KIMA

Governor Ferguson Appoints Dynamic New Leader to Head Health Care Authority

June 22, 2025
‘Sleeping giant’: Jewish Voters Unite pushes NY Jews to flex political power – JNS.org

Sleeping Giant Awakens: How Jewish Voters Are Uniting to Flex Political Power in New York

June 22, 2025

Categories

Archives

June 2025
MTWTFSS
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30 
« May    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (697)
  • Economy (711)
  • Entertainment (21,611)
  • General (15,511)
  • Health (9,752)
  • Lifestyle (716)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (714)
  • Politics (718)
  • Science (15,930)
  • Sports (21,208)
  • Technology (15,697)
  • World (691)

Recent News

Technology Convergence Report 2025 – The World Economic Forum

Technology Convergence Report 2025 – The World Economic Forum

June 22, 2025
Kingsley Coman reveals desire to stay at Bayern Munich – Yahoo Sports

Kingsley Coman reveals desire to stay at Bayern Munich – Yahoo Sports

June 22, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version