Hello faithful blog readers. I must apologize again for my lack of timeliness in posting on my blog. It has been an exciting two weeks since I last posted, including a 10 day stay by Amy. but I am getting ahead of myself. Let me fill you in on what happened before Amy's visit.

I think I was in the middle of my visit to Cinque Terra region. Since then I have been in Rome, Florence, back in Rome, Montepulciano, Assisi and back to Rome. But I get ahead of myself again. Let me finish my visit to the Cinque Terra.

Did I tell you is was picturesque. Wonderful place to visit. Great seafood. On Friday I visited Riomaggiore and Manarola. On Saturday I visited the other three towns in the region, Monterrossa, Vernazza, and Corniglia. the pictures below are from Monterrossa, the largest of the five towns, and the only one with a beach.

 

The picture below was taken in the town. It is a picture of someone's house. Just the pink part. It reminded me of the nursery rhyme, "there was an old woman who lived in a shoe..."

 

Just last year, the Cinque Terra region was devastated by a tidal wave. The water and mud that was washed ashore caused significant damage. The area is now just recovering. There are many pictures hanging in the town depicting the damage. I took a picture of one of these pictures. See below.

From Monteterrossa, I traveled to the town of Vernazza. Vernazza was a two hour hike away, so I took the train. I wanted to be sure to see all three towns in one day. And as you can tell from the pictures, the weather was not promising.

 Vernazza also claimed to have a beach! you can see it in the picture above.

The picture below is of the view back towards Monterrossa from Vernazza.

It was amazing how much living space they were able to cram into such little land space

After Vernazza, it was on to Corniglia. Once again I took the train. It was only an hour walk. But at the end there were 375 steps. I decided to take the train steps rather than hike and steps. Corniglia is the only town in the region without sea access. It is literally built on top of a rock that sticks out into the water. The pictures below were taken from the town as you viewed the sea from a 100 meter cliff.

The picture below was taken in town. Once again recognizing the medieval ability to build rounded walls. Not a straight wall to be found anywhere.

The picture below was taken back in Riomaggiore after my day long excursion to the other three villages. To visit the waterfront in Riomaggiore, one had to take the tunnel from the train station. The tunnel was nicely decorated. I am sure the decorations were added since the flood of 2011. I took a picture of the starfish below. but really one could have filmed the entire trip through the tunnel as every wall was covered with this kind of decoration.

And everyone by now recognizes the decoration below.