‘We’re not anti-tourist’: Italy’s picturesque villages struggle to cope with deluge of Insta-visitors

Tourists in the town of Riomaggiore. Photograph: Roberto Salomone/The Observer

Grappling with suitcases and rucksacks, the bewildered-looking crowd that piled off the train and onto the platform at Manarola, the second smallest of the five picturesque villages that make up Italy’s the Cinque Terre, could hardly move. But still the jovial Italian steward ushering them into a single file and towards the station’s narrow exit was telling them to hurry up.