How to reach Volastra

By flight:
Airports: Genoa and Pisa 100 Km.

By car:
Motorway A12 or A15. Exit. S. Stefano Magra – La Spezia Ring- road along La Spezia promenade (direction: Riomaggiore), then along the military ship- yard walls, thereafter the road goes up the city and – thorugh a tunnel – goes straight on the Cinqueterre. Gone beyond the Riomaggiore diversion, just before reaching Manarola, a junction will show you, on the right, signs for Levanto and the other Cinqueterre (Vernazza, Corniglia, etc.) among which there is Volastra, the second one (Groppo being the first) up in the hills. By bus: from La Spezia, a bus comes three times a day to Volastra, on the same route as above mentioned.

By train:
from the railway station at Manarola, it is possible to reach Volastra (the straight distance between the two villages is less than 1 kilometre) in 10 minutes less, thorugh small buses in charge of a local coop whose members deal also with the luggage transport (telephone n° 0187-920714). In the next future the two villages should be linked by a permanent transport system, via monorail.

Hospitality and services

With less than 200 permanent residents, Volastra has been organizing a receptive capacity of sixty bed places, to which fifteen houses of part-time residents must be added. In the village there are: the foresters’ house, a little shop selling food and current items, a restaurant and a surgery and first aid station. It is possible to stay, either renting flats and rooms or in bed and breakfast accomodations.

Infos re the village

Volastra village is located up in the hills (330 metres on the sea level), straightly less than 1 km from Manarola to which it gave birth. It dominates the five maritime "cribs" that give their name to the Cinqueterre territory (Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, Monterosso). It has notably contributed, thanks to its people’s work, in building up a unique landscape in the world, at the heart of the fabolous Cinqueterre scenary. It is a village with strong roots in peasantry, in vineyards, in wine production, but it is also a village that is quickly changing into a tourist place. Through the creation of reception/hospitality structures, of travelling services, it gives the tourists the opportunity of enjoying many various walks, either up in the hills or down along the seaside and eventually diving into the sea. Characters of the buildings in the village: the original circular structure makes to think of a possible Etrurian origin; the most ancient side cannot be seen from the sea. The parish church, that is also a sanctuary devoted to Our Lady of the Safety (honoured on August, 5th), is located just apart from the village. It is a XII century building (possibly on a previous one) and it has been recently restored thanks to the invaluable help of local volunteers.

As a typical structure of the place, narrow alleys (carugi, in dialect) and interesting stone doorways with engraved dates witness the ancient origins. From the seven hundred metres, and more, of the highest mountain, it is a sheerdrop from the cliff to the sea. Along the ridges, there are terraces built by men, stone by stone, dry walls along the sea side – average height: two metres – with a planted space inside with vines made by carried soil, or better, chips of stone. A huge work, that today appears mostly covered by Mediterranean vegetation, but that still shows, in long strips of land, the man’s fight against nature, a titanic battle made with eight million square metres of walls. Until today it has permitted the preservation of a prodigious hydrogeologic balance up to 450 metres on the sea level. From the vineyards it is obtained the famous sciacchetrà,an almost undiscoverable "passito" (raisin wine); it is also obtained a white wine, known already under the Roman Empire. It is reported that amphorae full of wine were found in the excavations of Pompei, possibly coming from Cornelius’ property, the present Corniglia. Just arrived at Volastra, a secular olive-tree welcome you, while others are close to the houses. They prove the mildness of the climate as well as their willingness to crown the village; they are wild olive-trees, with small-size fruits producing a precious oil. Today the walls that have made the history of Cinqueterre experiment their hardest time, due to the uncultivated land as a result of objective difficulties in cultivation as well as of an increasing demigraphic diminution. .