Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre, which literally translates to Five lands from Italian, is a portion of coast in Liguria, a Northern region in Italy. The area is composed of five breath-taking villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.
The correct pronunciation of Cinque Terre is cheen-kweh teh-rreh.
There are two keys to pronouncing Cinque Terre: the vowels and the two "r"s.
First of all, the "i" in Cinque is pronounced with a long "e", that is to say an "ee" sound. The second syllable in Cinque, "que", is much less daunting than it seems; the "q" and "u" must be taken together to produce a "kw" sound, to which a short "e" or "eh" sound is added. Keep in mind as a general rule that in Italian the "e" is pronounced with an "eh" and not an "ey" sound. This also applies to how you pronounce the two "e"s in Terre.
The second key to pronouncing Cinque Terre are the two "r"s in Terre. This can be particularly difficult because they are pronounced as trilling "r"s. As you can hear in the audio pronunciation, they have a rolling quality to them that can be difficult to replicate for a non-native speaker. Luckily, it isn't absolutely fundamental to achieving a good pronunciation of Terre. It is sufficient to emphasize the "r"s by elongating their duration.

Places

Italian