Luca’s Cinque Terre

Let’s plunge into the Cinque Terre, on the food path of a cartoon movie, which was inspired by those tine villages: ‘Luca’. Let’s discover the connections with the LGBTQ+ community.

Five small villages overlooking the Ligurian Sea, in Northern Italy, have been the inspirational setting of a delicate and touching cartoon movie, ‘Luca’, which showcases the best of the ‘Cinque Terre’.

The setting is a fantasy hamlet, called ‘Portorosso’ which obviously recalls the name of one of the five colorful villages, Monterosso. Actually, this fantasy place is a melting pot of several views of Monterosso, Vernazza, Manarola, Riomaggiore and Corniglia: the Cinque Terre (Five Villages)

Its director, the Italian Enrico Casarosa sends a strong message by this cartoon: love yourself, whosoever you are, accept your identity and enjoy life. The scenery, recalling the tiny squares and narrow streets of cobblestones which really wind through the villages, become one thing with the joyful experiences of these two children Luca and Alberto, originally sea monsters, who turn into humans. Their common desire of discovering the land leads to extraordinary, unexpected experiences of true friendship and somehow love.

Visiting the ‘Cinque Terre’ and those settings include catching a train, the ‘Cinque Terre Express’ and walking on the footsteps of Luca. The ‘Cinque Express’ leaves from Levanto and arrives in La Spezia (and return). From village to village, it takes between 5 and 10 minutes.

The best season is between March and October, when the train operates. In other months, it is possible to walk the connecting paths leading from village to village.