Vernazza was founded around 1080, and was called "Castrum Vernatio". The most wealthy period for the town was under the domination of Republic of Genoa, one of the four Marine Republics of Italy, together with Pisa, Amalfi and Venice.
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Vernazza was used by the Genoese like a strategic point of interest for the economical ruling of the whole country,
With the new French rule of Napoleon Bonaparte returned from December 2, 1797 in the Department of the Gulf of Venus, with capital La Spezia, in the Ligurian Republic. From 28 April 1798 with the new French law, Vernazza returned in the eighth canton, as capital, the Jurisdiction of the Gulf of Venus. From 1803 he was the main center of the canton III Gulf of Venus in the Jurisdiction of the Gulf of Venus. Attached to the First French Empire from 13 June 1805 to 1814 was included in the Department of the Apennines. The nineteenth century was also the period that marked a new recovery of the economic activity related to the production and export of local wine trade that gradually declined in the seventeenth century (event to be recorded in the other villages Levantine) and stagnated in the eighteenth century.

In 1815 it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Sardinia, as well as established the Congress of Vienna in 1814 for the other municipalities of the republic of Liguria, and later in the Kingdom of Italy from 1861. From 1859 to 1927 the territory was included in the sixth district of Levanto the Environment Levante part of the province of Genoa before and, with the establishment in 1923, the province of La Spezia then.

Date back to 1871, the final adjustments to the municipality with the aggregation of the village of Corniglia after his departure from the territory of Riomaggiore.

The construction of the railway network in Vernazza and the Cinque Terre, between the second half and the end of the nineteenth century stirred the country from geographical and historical isolation; at the same time was recorded, also, a substantial increase of the population that was not limited to overload the already exploited agricultural work in the terraces and in the vineyards, those affected by diseases. He was then to create a migratory phenomenon, in the early twentieth century, to the nearby towns and the capital of La Spezia, especially for the excellent professional opportunities created by the construction of the military arsenal.

From 1973 to 31 December 2008 he was part of the Mountain Community of the coast of La Spezia, the latter suppressed by the Regional Law No. 24 of 4 July 2008 and in force since 1 January 2009.