Cudilleros

You’d be forgiven for thinking that you are actually on the Amalfi Coast simply because idyllic fishing villages like Cudillero no longer existed in Spain.

With its amphitheater of colorful cliff-top houses around the central Plaza de la Marina, Cudillero could get by on its postcard-worthy look. Centuries of virtual isolation from inland Spain gave rise to Cudillero’s peculiar Nordic-influenced dialect (legend says it was founded by Vikings).

We got our bearings—and broke a little sweat—by clambering up a couple dozen flights of stairs from the Plaza de la Marina to the Cimadevilla viewpoint, which overlooks the puerto viejo. See how many colors you can discern beneath the mishmash of terracotta roofs: Cudillero owes its signature harlequin hues to a surfeit of leftover boat paint, which locals repurposed through the centuries to add pizzazz to their cottages.