Trattoria Dal Billy

Trattoria Dal Billy sits on Via Rollandi, the middle level of Manarola village, with a wooden terrace built out from the hillside that gives a three-quarter-elevation view of the entire village cascading down to the sea. The terrace is the reason the restaurant is in every Cinque Terre guidebook — it is the view most travel Instagram accounts use — but the kitchen has kept up with the attention. This is not a scenery-first tourist trap.

The signature order is the Antipasto Misto di Pesce — 12 small plates of raw and cooked seafood that reads like a complete tasting menu of Ligurian coastal classics: anchovies three ways (salted, marinated, fried), boiled octopus with potato and olive oil, stockfish carpaccio, sea-bream crudo with citrus, raw scampi, swordfish carpaccio, marinated sardines, mussels alla marinara, and three more rotating depending on the morning's catch. The plate is €35 per person and is the correct starting order for any first visit.

The pasta course is where Capellini's kitchen shows depth — the signature is hand-made taglierini with Ligurian prawns, cherry tomatoes, fresh pine nuts, and a light garlic-and-white-wine sauce (€22). The trofie al pesto is made to order with pesto pounded in a marble mortar at the pass. The main courses are whole fish, grilled simply, priced by weight.

The wine list is all-Cinque-Terre plus three Tuscan reds. The house Vermentino (€28 the bottle) is the right pairing for the antipasto. The dining room seats 45 inside and 40 on the terrace. The terrace is the only booking that matters; the climb up from the harbour is ten minutes of stairs and is worth every step.

First-date-friendly because the 12-plate antipasto gives you an hour of shared exploration before the main course even arrives, the terrace view is the conversation starter the village provides free, and the €55-per-head ceiling keeps the evening from feeling over-staged. Book the terrace corner table for sunset, share the antipasto, split a bottle of Cinque Terre DOC white.