Castello di Vernazza

This guide to the Castello di Vernazza in Cinque Terre opens with the flood that tore through the village below on October 25, 2011, burying homes and the train station while the fortress on its rock stood untouched. It traces back to the Genoese engineers who raised this stronghold in the twelve and thirteen hundreds, and to Belforte, the cylindrical watchtower built to scan the sea for raiding ships. Stand at the edge of the terrace, where the same sightline a Genoese guard once used now looks out over the rebuilt village below.