Cinque Terre

Note: The downside to shooting an average of 600 photos per day on a trip, is sometimes I forget where I’ve been! After returning home Monday from Europe and posting what I thought was my final post (Il Duomo), I discovered Cinque Terre in my files! How could I forget such an iconic place! So this post officially marks the end of our 2016 trip to Europe.

Cinque Terre is a string of centuries-old seaside villages on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline. Cinque Terre translates to Five Lands, representing five villages on the Mediterranean Sea: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s a long day trip from Milan, and tour buses run daily.

In each of the villages, colorful houses and vineyards cling to steep terraces, harbors are filled with fishing boats and trattorias turn out seafood specialties along with the Liguria region’s famous sauce, pesto. The villages are connected at the top of the hills by a road, and then you must walk down into the villages, as no cars are allowed. So it is best to arrive by boat, and then you are already at the village. The bus dropped us off on top of the hill and we walked down to the first village. It was a steep walk down a narrow sidewalk. For heartier souls, the Sentiero Azzurro cliffside eight-mile hiking trail links the villages and offers sweeping sea vistas.

We navigated three of the villages by boat from point A to point B and by local scenic train from point B to point C. It was all very quaint and colorful, just as in all the photos I have seen for decades, in spite of rain in the afternoon when we were on the sea viewing the villages from that perspective. Because the area lends itself to photography, and after awhile everything starts to look the same, I have taken artistic license with some of my images and filtered them to please my eye. I hope you enjoy the departure from straight photography.

Ciao ciao! I mean it this time!

Arriverderci!