Towards Vernazza the coast gets higher, rocky with rocky seabed even near the shore. Near Vernazza, the rock faces plunge into the sea almost vertically up to a bathometry of 14 metres, while, passed the Punta San Pietro, next to the village of Corniglia, the seabed descends much more gradually. From here to Manarola, there is a wide sandy bay with a sea depth of 9 to 10 metres, facing the large beach of Corniglia, which up to a few years ago was one of the most beautiful of the whole coast, reaching a depth of 50 metres. The beach, which was born and nurtured by the waste from the railway tunnel, is today made up of a few large stones, due to the erosion by the sea. From Manarola to Riomaggiore the seabed gets deeper moving from 12 metres next to Manarola and getting to a depth of 20 - 22 metres at Punta Montenero, the cape which bounds the marine reserve on the south east.

In this stretch the underwater landscape is decidedly interesting boasting numerous areas of shallow water where there is a multicoloured substrata and various species of fish. For those who love snorkelling this area of the coast is particularly interesting because even at two to three metres underwater one can admire small but interesting species of fish. Among the rocks one can see many blennies, gobies, colourful rainbow wrasses, which swim around bushes of algae, large shoals of salpa and groupers near the surface of the water, a few small white breams and a few surmullets. Swimming next to the coast one can admire the wildlife of the undertow: sea snails, patella, muscles, algae, sea urchins, sea leeches inside the crevices, stinging sea anemones, crabs, and tiny prawns. Going deeper underwater the fish become larger and it's not uncommon to spot striped breams, green or brown wrasses, shoals of saddled breams and even a few giltheads. Swimming away from shore once can meet splendid patches of posidonia seagrass divided by sand. Deep-sea divers can spot much larger fish near the Marine Reserve (we invite you to respect the rules and regulations as well as the boundaries of the reserve and to gather information from the maritime authorities with regards as to those activities which are and are not permitted.) In those areas where the rocks touch the sand there are sole fish, greater weever fish and stingrays. In the nooks of rocks one can find octopuses and the unsettling crabs and moray eels. At the end of summer and the beginning of autumn the blue fish is king: anchovies, sardines, sugherello fish, mackerel, and tuna.

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