Tucked away in a particularly mountainous kink at the eastern end of the Italian Riviera, the villages of the Cinque Terre (pronounced chin-kwe ter-re, with a rolled "r" sound)  were shaped by their profound isolation. Set amid some of the most dramatic coastal scenery on the planet, these beautiful, colorful towns can bolster the most jaded of spirits.

Sinuous paths traverse seemingly impregnable cliff sides, and a 19th-century railway line that's cut through a series of coastal tunnels moves people from village to village. Cars have been banned within the villages for more than a decade. The five villages are no longer the isolated hamlets they once were, but there’s still a feeling of authenticity here, with few roads, perfectly preserved architecture and a network of stunning coastal and mountain trails.