Vernazza, Via Roma Part 1, Cinque Terre, Italy.

After leaving Monterosso on Sunday, 22 January, we hopped on the train to see the state of Vernazza, the town of the Cinque Terre that was also hit during the flash flooding and landslides that devastated the area this past October.

This is the view from the under the train platform on Via Roma. During the storm the water and soil went to the height of the platform/2nd floor of many buildings...

It was obvious from seeing the work being done, and the work that has already been completed, that the people working have been doing so diligently to get the town back...

Half of the street is closed almost all the way down to the beach on Via Roma...

...and all of the original doors on the street level are gone.

Over the past few weeks however, artists have been coming to Vernazza to paint murals on the temporary doors that are covering entrances and some windows...

A lot of the doorways were using additional support structures like the ones above...

Doc outside of the Blue Marlin...

Damage to the back of the grotto and some missing stone stairs...

As hard as it was to see Vernazza in such a state, I felt it was important to go there to be able to document it, and I felt very special to be able to do so. I hope that the pictures that I'll be posting on Vernazza (because there are many more to be posted), as well as the pictures that I've already posted on Monterosso, will raise awareness and hopefully funds to help rebuild these two cities. If you'd like to contribute to the save Vernazza fund, click here. And if you'd like to contribute to the Rebuild Monterosso fund, click here. More on Via Roma and the doors of Vernazza tomorrow...

A la prochaine friends...

 

Honey

Back from Italy.

We got back home to France last night after 10 glorious days in Italy, and we were lucky to do so before the snow started as I think Doc had more than his fill of driving in the snow this past weekend. It's been coming down since the wee hours of the morning in Thoiry, and I'm very happy to be watching it from indoors while I catch up on life, rather than from the passenger seat of our car. We've gotten about 4 or 5 inches so far, (based on my highly scientific method of eye-balling what has fallen on the terrace table), and I hope it keeps going. We always seem to miss the big snow storms in our region and I've got my fingers crossed that we can try out our sweet snow shoes this weekend...

I plan on spending the day going through the pictures from our trip and updating the blog, so keep an eye on this page for Italia pictures! I'm also hoping to catch up on responding to comments, (sorry for the silence), as our internet was shotty at best while away!

Happy snow day people of France!

A la prochaine friends...

 

Honey

24 hour train strike in Italy.

One thing I've learned about traveling in Europe - the best laid plans always go up in a beautiful sparkle of flames. Kaboom. Whether it's volcanoes keeping planes grounded, earthquakes in Italy that no one seems to actually know happened, or avalanche warnings, something can and will most likely go wrong. The key is making something interesting out of the wrong.

On Wednesday we learned that there would be a train strike in Italy from 9 PM Thursday to 9 PM Friday, which meant that we would not find ourselves eating truffle gnocchi in Florence on Friday night as we had previously planned. But when Italy hurls lemons at you, what do you do? You make limoncino and then finish up with an espresso...or, as was the case last night, a few Tennant Scotch Ales and a midnight kebab with a bunch of Pisan and physicist students.

This also afforded us an extra morning to do some touristy things together for once - like go into Pisa's Duomo and then go to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Because let's be serious, after a late night full of Higgs boson discussions, scotch ale, really bad House music and late night kebabs, is there anything else you'd rather do at 10 AM than walk to the top of a tower that leans more than slightly to the left? Obviously not.

And then there was the snowstorm on the Mediterranean in Liguria slowing everything down that continued into Piedmont on our long drive to Monchiero later in the afternoon...and its still snowing out now...

But it's a hell of a lot nicer watching from the window of our former monastery/castle turned spa hotel, then it was holding my breathe and closing my eyes as we traversed slick and windy roads on top of cliffs, being passed by Italian drivers going way too fast...

...and honestly, if we get "stuck" here another night because of the snow, I am more than a little ok with that.

Bonne nuit tout le monde!

A la prochaine friends...

 

Honey

Lunch in Monterosso, Cinque Terre.

This past Sunday, after having breakfast at our hotel in Riomaggiore, we headed to the opposite end of the Cinque Terre to say hello to the town of Monterosso...

...we didn't really know what to expect after the flash floods that devastated Monterosso and Vernazza this past October...

...there was a good amount of debris on the beach, from driftwood, tile pieces that had broken off building structures, rocks, and even a tea towel with a map of Tuscany on it that had seen better days but had found its way back from sea...

...one area of the beach was being worked on with some equipment, and another area, formerly I think a parking lot (?) as it was on the far edge of the town (about where the border for being able to drive cars and not being able to drive cars is), appeared to be the area where large and non-natural (ie non driftwood, rocks, tile, etc.), such as furniture, refrigerators, soda vending machines, sinks, other restaurant equipment, and cars that had been damaged during the floods were being kept. It was all contained within a chain link fence, which was nice because the beaches were for the most part accessible (aside from the one beach being worked on, which was also enclosed).

There were also some signs of what the floods left behind off of the beach, as there were areas with orange fences where the cement was gone, showing open pipes displayed below, and another area where the trash cans and the ground beneath them had been raised to a height of over 6 feet tall.  Overall the recovery efforts seem to be very organized, but still have a ways to go...

That being said, the town is open and accepting tourists with open arms. We had a great little lunch at Bar Gio right on the beach, and we were not the only ones there...

...and after lunch, we took a nice walk on the beach before hopping back on the train to see Vernazza...

Despite all its been through in the last few months, Monterosso is still a beautiful and happy place, just with a few bumps and bruises to heal. If you want to help heal Monterosso go visit, and if you can't go visit, here's a site you can donate to if you're into that sort of thing. And again, if you feel like helping Vernazza too, here's the link to donate to Vernazza. I'll post my pictures from Vernazza very soon...

A la prochaine friends...

 

Honey

Silly sign in La Spezia, Italy.

Isn't this just the cutest and funniest toilet/toilettes/WC/Bagni sign ever? Way to go train station parking garage in La Spezia for making people giggle when they gotta go!

 

A la prochaine friends...

 

Honey

Espresso in Pisa.

I had the best table in the house for espresso the other morning...

All pictures taken with my phone from the table...

...not too shabby a way to start the day if you ask me.

A la prochaine friends...

 

Honey