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
I've enjoyed seeing your pictures of your visit to the Cinque Terre in a bitter sweet way; happy to see what the Cinque Terre towns look like today but saddened by the devastation that this area has experienced. Thanks for sharing your pictures.
ReplyDeleteIn May 2010 we stayed in the little yellow house with the green shutters that is shown in so many of your photos - My heart goes out to the people of Vernazza. It is such a wonderful little town. We absolutely fell in love with the area and it's people. savevernazza.com is doing a great job keeping us informed & letting us know how we can help Vernazza rebuild.
ReplyDelete@chcmichel: Thank you! I have many more pictures to share, just didn't want to overload the first post about Vernazza. The doors that the artists have made are beautiful and really show the immense support that there is for Vernazza. It was incredibly hard being there and seeing the devastation, especially since I was just there this summer. I definitely teared up a few times...
ReplyDelete@Sue: I agreed, they've done a wonderful job with letting people know how they are doing. In fact, there was a woman at a save vernazza table when we got off the train, despite it being January and the Vernazza station only recently re-opening...it shows how dedicated they are to the town...
I have more pictures of Via Roma to share tomorrow, as well as a video and pictures of the beach, which I'm planning on having all uploaded within the next 2-3 days, so stay tuned!
i saw the beautiful cinque terre for the first time last summer and couldn't believe what happened with the flooding...it just breaks my heart to see it in such a state...but still, progress is being made to rebuild this beautiful sea town. your pictures are clearly showing that! found your post via twitter @cinque_terre...love that place so so much!
ReplyDelete@Taylor: Me too! Ugh I teared up several times while we were there, in front of the place we've rented twice, in front of the restaurant owned by the people we rented from where the sign was completely wiped clean, seeing the beach, seeing our favorite foccacia place, and most of all when the church bells rang. I'll post that video later in the week. Tore me up inside as I've videoed those church bells several times and its always been when the beach was superbly beautiful. It will be back, I know it will be.
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