Boots to Vernazza

Thurs May 10 we slept in for the first time during this expedition.  Rome had so much to see that there was little time to sleep between the site seeing during the day to the evening walks where people were as much the attraction as the illuminated architecture.  I had wanted to write a little in this blog every day but was generally so out of gas that it was low on the list.

Reflecting on Rome from a distance, and a few days, causes me to reinforce my previous opinion that Rome is my favorite city, I suppose I can say 'in the world'.  A city of contrasts which may not be so different after all.  From the immense pagen temples to those erected by the power of the Catholic Church.  Enduring engineering feats realized in temples antagonistic to the one true God, yet only possible in a world made uniform by His power.

Today we hiked from Monterosso to Vernazza where we had lunch and gelato then back to Monterosso.  The hike was about 3 hours round trip plus a lingering lunch where we bribed the kids to hike back rather then return by boat or train.  The chip that sealed the deal was my jumping into water with them for a little swim.  I knew the water was cold from our dip the day before and planned to get in when the sun was high, not at 4:30 in the afternoon, but a deal is a deal.

There were devastating mud slides on October 25 2011 that wiped out the main streets of each of these cities.  If you can imagine, the cities seem to start at the sea and then stretch up the steep hillsides.  They appear to have originally been centered around creeks that came down the mountain and the cities grew up, literally, around them.  Over time the creeks were covered over with elevated streets and I suppose in some sense forgotten.  Forgotten that is until October of last year when heavy rains brought much of the hillside down in a devastating and deadly flow of mud and debris taking cars and everything else you can imagine with it.  The buildings in the gulch of the creek were hardest hit and literally filled with feet of mud.  There are a few images in thenweb album of the damage that you will see.  There seems to be strong resolve by the people to rebuild in the wake of this act of God.

See the link to Cinque Terra Pics on the right side navigation bar.