The Cinque Terre, five small hamlets clung onto the rocks, five incomparable villages where the indomitable inhabitants could overpower the arid soil, changing sheer cliffs in fertile fields for olive trees and grapevines. Bays, small beaches, caves, precipitous sea-cliffs, terraced ridges, corals, anchovies and even the whales in the Whale’s Sanctuary: these are some of the many reasons that make the Cinque Terre a territory to preserve. This unique environment, made of coasts overlooking the sea with bays and small beaches, thousands of Kilometres of dry walls built to create terraces for the cultivation of grapevines, typical buildings, medieval villages, sanctuaries, panoramic footpaths uphill, the Cinque Terre have been designated as “UNESCO World Heritage” since 1997, and now they are National Park and Protected Marine Area. The territory of Cinque Terre includes the coastal area that stretches from Punta Mesco, nearby Levanto, until Punta Montenero, nearby Portovenere, about ten kilometres east from La Spezia. A band of earth and stones 15 Kilometres long and 3 Kilometres wide getting through sea and hills. Clung onto the rocks, leant on rocky hills above sea level we find the villages of the Cinque Terre: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore, whose century-old isolation, due to difficulties of connection (the works for the railway line Genoa-La Spezia finished in 1874) concurred to maintain the beauty and the charm of an intact landscape. Portofino is included in the homonymous Protected Sea area instituted in 1999 by President Decree whose surface includes also the municipalities of Camogli and Santa Margherita Ligure. The foundation of this protected area was necessary to protect the typical flora and fauna from the menaces caused by mass tourism.
In addition to tourists that visit Portofino for its beauty there are also nature lovers that want to go deep into the unpolluted area of the Park of Portofino covering the surface of the homonymous point.
The territory of the park is characterized by the typical maquis and by autochthonous animals like foxes, beech martens and wild boars.

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