Riomaggiore, the southernmost village of Italy's Cinque Terre, is characterized by its vertiginous and extremely steep terrain. The village is built into a narrow, precipitous ravine, meaning almost every street is either a sharp incline or a series of stone staircases. For travelers in 2026, navigating the town on foot requires a good level of physical fitness, as moving from the seaside harbor up to the higher residential areas or the Church of San Giovanni Battista involves significant vertical gain. The famous Via Beccara, the ancient trail connecting Riomaggiore to Manarola, is notoriously steep, featuring over 600 near-vertical stone steps that climb 150 meters in a very short distance. Even the main street, Via Colombo, has a noticeable gradient. While the "Via dell'Amore" provides a flatter coastal walk when open, the heart of Riomaggiore remains a vertical labyrinth where "flat ground" is a rarity found only at the very bottom of the harbor or the train station platform.