Cinque Terre

Pink and yellow houses crowd a valley by the sea, the hills around them cut into terraces.

From high above, the town follows the road down to a breakwater curling into the sea. In another photo a whole village sits on top of a cliff, a pointed tower among its roofs and the water straight below. Add headlands fading into the distance, small villages on a grey day, and waves breaking white over boulders, and the five photos follow this coast from hilltop to waterline.

Cinque Terre is in Liguria, Italy: coast, countryside and history in one stretch. Spring and summer are when to come. It is busy with tourists, and a day here fills up fast.