I thought I’d end the week with some last Italy photos, this time from the Cinque Terre where we stayed on our last week.
Cinque Terre literally means Five Lands because of the five towns nestled into the rugged coast line – Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore, all painted UNESCO agreed, pretty colours.
These towns were once a favourite of marauding pirates but these days they remain pedestrianised, fairly closed communities and although they now enjoy (or maybe not) being a tourist hotspot, they were once largely ignored and you do get a sense that people are just carrying on with their regular lives while the tourists take over the town for a season.
These days the trails between the towns are open to walk (except where significant flood damage in the past has caused them to remain closed).
Three towns are easily accessible by boat (although it was quite choppy) and one town we didn’t get to at all because you can only get in by train ( a little walk away) or by hiking and by that time we’d eaten too many ice-creams and become sloth like so we didn’t go.
We did walk from Monterosso toVernazza one day – OMG – the steps that began the trails – the ones that got you above sea level – the trillion, million steps, well I nearly died – it was like stair master extreme! But once we were ‘up’ then it was worth it all and we got the train back 🙂
A lot of my photographs look grey – in part to my camera – and in part to the passionate Italian weather we had which was sunny one minute and tropical thunderstorm the next.
The most prized possession to most locals is their boat which are pulled up into the heart of the harbour if inclement wether is forecast – I loved that we had to squeeze round them all regardless – boat first, tourists second!
So thanks for letting me share this photo-journal here. Back to normal life now!
