It’s like something out of a movie, only it’s real and you get to experience it! Writer Betsa Marsh takes us along, virtually, to experience cities on the Italian Riviera, including the Cinque Terre, for some food and drink the way the locals do it.

Save this article to Pinterest to help you plan your trip to The Italian Riviera. Photo of Cinque Terre courtesy Canva.com.

Let’s blame it on directors who’ve made generations of us drool over the teal seas and cotton-candy colors of the Italian Riviera. From ’50s glamour in “The Barefoot Contessa,” with Ava Gardner sashaying on that yacht, to today’s “Hotel Portofino,” a frothy PBS drama, it’s all about scuffing up sand and splashing in waves against those wild cliffs.

Just set foot on this ancient, rocky terrain and suddenly the siren call has me tying on a scarf to whip in the wind, stepping aboard a wooden “gozzo” powerboat in Portofino, and zipping along that fabled coastline.

We’re posing all the way, ready for our close-ups in the stern of the gozzo. There are yachts to ogle and sail boats to race in the dark waves of the Ligurian Sea. Any moment the paparazzi will descend.

Portofino is a fine starting point for a wooden “gozzo” boat ride along the Italian Riviera.

Hungry for more? Read about the wooden gulet boats in Turkey.

We duck into tiny sea towns like Camogli, which holds on to a bit of the old fishing-village feel, its pastel houses backdrop to a pebbly beach. We wander along Via Garibaldi, the seaside promenade, popping into a shop here, snapping a photo there, breathing in ocean air and coastal chill.

But we cannot live on daydreams alone, so we putt-putt into the palm-fringed harbor of Santa Margherita Ligure and wander along her sandy strand. The sea has made us hungry for frutti di mare, and we choose a little check-covered table on the sidewalk outside Trattoria Baicin. Soon we’re facing a soaring Monte Bianco of mussels, steamed in a simple, pale broth of salt water, oil and parsley. Just add bread and wine for a total Riviera moment.

A bowl of mussels nearly overflows at Trattorio Baicin in Santa Margherita Ligure.

The west coast stretches down the boot of Italy, of course, for cinematic mile after mile. It seems that everyone’s heading to the five famous fishing villages of the Cinque Terre, with their tall facades of sherbet colors clinging to improbable cliffs. The quintet that Lord Byron called “paradise on earth.”

Whether they hike in or catch the train, travelers eventually fuel up at trattorias carved into the rock. Our first stop is La Cantina Dello Zio Bramante in vertiginous Manarola, a town stairstepping up the cliffs. Yes, let’s have some of that local vino, grazie, maybe some tomato toast, and oh yes, anchovies.

Anchovy-phobes recoil, but the locals insist that this briny coastline is the place to try the little fish. Italians have been preserving and plating anchovies for millennia, so these Americans are ready to get schooled.

We grab a plank table and let the lesson begin. First up, anchovies layered in lemon and vinegar, light little bites on focaccia. Non-fish lovers are fine with these tart little fellas.

Salt-cured anchovies at Manarola’s La Cantina Dello Zio Bramante convert some anchovy-phobes for life.

Those craving a more fish-forward taste zero in on the salt-cured, anchovies layered in salted water for 40 days. “We store it in the cellar and the salt cooks it,” says guide Emilio Zolezzi. “They change the water every few days. Then, they add garlic and extra virgin olive oil, and we eat it with bread and butter.” Fish lovers rejoice.

But what are luscious little savories without wine? In Italy, absolutely nothing. So, we hop the train to our next little Cinque Terre stop, Monterossa al Marr, for a trio of regional wines at the Enoteca Internazionale. Cinque Terre Sassarini and A Scia, “Lady,” are whites that partner well with spreads of olive tapenade and pesto on granary bread. The charcuterie board is sparked with the tiny Taggiasca olives that rule this region.

Hungry for more? Get recipes for enjoying anchovies and sardines.

Then, roll the drums and part the curtain for the star of Monterossa, Sciacchetra dessert wine. Almost explosively fruity and sweet, this amber wine is made to set off cheese and dry biscuits at meal’s end.

Can a sweet wine be too sweet? You may very well wonder, but just don’t raise the question with the locals, for whom this wine is “so precious that they used it as a payment when they went to the doctor,” Zolezzi says. “They used it for trade, and for holidays and weddings. It’s the ‘wine of the Pope,’ because the Pope in about 1900 (Pope Leo XIII) used to send people to bring it back.”

The sweetness has been concentrated from Albarola, Bosco and Vermentino grapes, hung to dry for two months after their harvest in Corriglia. Getting sweeter by the moment.

Cinque Terre Sassarini and A Scia, “Lady,” are whites that partner well with spreads of olive tapenade and pesto on granary bread at Enoteca Internazionale in Monterossa al Marr. La Polenza’s Sciacchetra, right, is the region’s star dessert wine, amber from the sweetness of dried grapes.

And after all these nibbles, up and down the cliffs of the Riviera, could there possibly be room for a sweet finale? In Italy, there’s always room for gelato.

So, it’s back on the train, buzzing to Vernazza and the glorious scoops at the storefront shop of Gelati Vernazza. Here’s the place to dive into Crema Vernazza, a namesake blizzard of white chocolate, mascarpone cheese and berries. Or, to succumb to the siren call of the addictive local lemons—how can such tartness spin such richness?

Crema Vernazza is a homage to the Cinque Terre village of Vernazza. The gelato is a blizzard of white chocolate, mascarpone cheese and berries.

And sometimes, lemons become dessert, once I discover Niasca Portofino’s Limonata sparkling lemon beverage. Light years beyond syrupy lemonades born in a lab, this bottle holds the wake-up scent and surprise of fresh-cut lemons. With added elderflower essence and just enough bubbles, the soda feels like a party all by itself. As the label implores, “My love, taste this.” It’s the taste of the Riviera.

Portofino Limonata is a perfect sense memory of the Riviera. As the label implores, “My love, taste this.”

-Story and photos by Betsa Marsh

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Remember where to go for a taste of cities on the Italian Riviera by saving this article to Pinterest. Top photos courtesy Canva.com. Bottom photos by Betsa Marsh.