Your virtual Italy vacation continues as Thor and I take the train from Florence and settle in among the villages clinging to the cliffs of Cinque Terre.
NOTE: Since European travel is still a no-go with the pandemic continuing, I’m continuing my blog series offering a virtual vacation and time-travel to my first big trip with Thor in 2008. Italy! After starting with highlight photos posted here on Saturday, Jan. 30, I’ll now resume every week (after some blogging detours in real time to Hawaii and the mountains). Join us in Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre, Venice, and Milan. Buon viaggio!
Right now I’m sublimating because Thor and I had to cancel our scheduled September trip to our beloved Greek islands (for the second year in a row), due to the Covid-19 surges and my doc’s advice. So I’ll swim those magical clear blue seas in my dreams, while enjoying these trips down memory lane. I hope they help scratch some of your itches, too! So.. we last checked in on our final day among the amazing artwork of Florence. We navigated the confusions of the train station (no real route numbers) to get on the correct train to Cinque Terre in the Ligurian region of northwest Italy. Along the way, we passed mountains where the famous Carrara marble is still being mined.
The luminous marble was the favorite of the Renaissance master sculptors, including Michelangelo. As a young man, he rode on horseback into the Tuscan mountains to select quality stone and work alongside the excavators to free and transport his marble slabs. His famous works “Pieta” and “David” are Carrara marble, and I can testify that they really seem to glow with an inner light.
Finally getting to see so many awe-inspiring works of art in Rome and Venice had nearly overwhelmed our senses, and it was time for a change of pace. While not exactly escaping the tourist crowds, we found the five villages of Cinque Terre, and the cliffside hikes linking them, a wonderful opening into rugged nature. And the villages are undeniably picturesque.
We had booked a room in the southernmost village, Riomaggiore, and this was the view from our quaint little apartment named “Babo.” The village, like the other five, clings to cliffs over the sea, accessible almost exclusively by boat, train, or trail.
Cinque Terre (“Five Lands”) was first noted in history in the 11th century, when villagers settled and created terraces on the steep hills. Fortresses came later, to protect against Turkish pirates. The main crops grown on the terraces have been olives and grapes, and fishing is also important. Today the main income derives from tourism, and the area is now a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site. The villages are connected along the rugged coastline by a rail line and by a hiking trail and walkways over the sea. (We’ll be hiking that Sentiero Azzurro — Blue Path — in upcoming posts.)
After our 2008 trip, torrential rains in 2011 caused major damage to some of the villages, and studies concluded that the decline in use and maintenance of the agricultural terraces had contributed to instability. Sections of the coastal trail are still closed for repair, and measures are in place to restore and maintain the terraces. Here are some that we saw:
On arrival at Riomaggiore, we followed directions through narrow passageways and up this not-so-promising stairway that would lead us to our top-floor apartment “Babo.”
The best part of the sweet little apartment was the rooftop terrace and its view down the ravine to the sea.
Thor got a kick out of our views directly across the ravine to the stacked apartments and balconies facing us.
We discovered that the one main lane of the village did have a few vehicles for transporting goods and occasionally people up the steep slope. Apparently the only road access to the area from inland is through narrow, precarious mountain roads, but somehow these vehicles made it. Since “Babo” boasted a tiny kitchen, we set out in search of supplies for breakfast the next day.
As we wandered, the lanes got narrower…
…and narrower.
It was lovely to be able to cook instead of always eating out.
Breakfast bounty! (Plus local wines for later on the rooftop terrace.)
And another perk of “Babo” — a laundry line! We felt right at home.
Next week: Exploring the Cinque Terre coast.
*****
You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Cafe is available in print and ebook: The Ariadne Connection. It’s a near-future thriller set in the Greek islands. “Technology triggers a deadly new plague. Can a healer find the cure?” The novel has received the Chanticleer Global Thriller Grand Prize and the Cygnus Award for Speculative Fiction. Sara has recently returned from another research trip in Greece and is back at work on the sequel, The Ariadne Disconnect. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
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