Cinque Terre The Italian Riviera Where the Apennine Mountains drop into the sea Cinque Terre The Italian Riviera Where the Apennine Mountains drop into the sea For many generations, these 5 small villages sit on the water line at the bottom of a very deep narrow valley. Narrow, winding, roads lead to these villages from the highway way up on the top of the ridge Yafa kfir

The villages are picturesque - Tourism revived them

Today the villages are connected by train. The railway in between the villages runs in a tunnel. The train comes out of the tunnel only for few minutes, stops on he beach and continues inside the mountain. Sometimes one should continue walking within the tunnel in order to get to the village.

This is one of the villages train station – the Eastern one This is one of the villages train station – the Eastern one

The villagers make liquors from coffee and fruit

Especially from lemons (Limoncelo, Limonte) and mandarins, just what the Italian like

Women are busy at traditional tasks

And men - they are not fishermen as they used to be

But are doing more simple works….

This is the billboard of a local entrepreneur renting out rooms, overlooking the sea, to tourists

This is how tourists are greeted once off the train – with a painting depicting life gone bye -– life we all regard as more beautiful, more simple, healthier

In Cinqueterre there are five villages, a narrow footpath partly chiseled in the rocks, connect them. This is the historic footpath that connected the villages before the train tunnels were dug. It was used to move produce and visit neighbors. While I walked this footpath, it was a bit hard to walk up and down the steep slopes, I kept thinking of all these Italian women walking this footpath carrying heavy baskets of grapes and olives. There are four walks between the five villages: The first, like young love, is the easiest, and most frequented by tourists - hanging above the sea - called: Via del Amor

The weather is pleasant and the walk is open to the public as the sign say

To my delight, the day was very pleasant, lots of sun and light

I enjoyed the sea, the mountains, the unique agriculture and the colors, especially the colors

Strong Mediterranean colors: the fruit and vegetables, the goods in the shops and the houses.

As expected, like all over Italy, there is a selection of local wines, made of dark grapes and white grapes, growing on the sunny slopes

But they dont have beaches with golden sand – so they make do…

After the first part, the Via del Amor, which was nice and easy, came two more walks which were not that easy – clearly the number of those who walked them dropped, so did age – I was among the oldest.

Many, very many, steps brought me to the one village before the last

That justified a delightful rest on a stony bench That justified a delightful rest on a stony bench

Evening was falling… the villagers opened the blinds to let the wind in…

I slowly walked to the train station, passing through the small village square

Trying to guess what these Italians ladies were talking about….

I took the train to the last village, from afar I could see the previous basking in the sunset

The sun was down, low, and on the beach the parasols were down too

They were still few people around, among them a little boy with his mother

and I think she felt a bit cold....

The sea was beautiful, as it always is in the evening, on our beaches too..

And I ? As always, I was thinking how different it all could be, As it will never be And how the Mediterranean is always surrounded by people who, in spite of this magnificent beauty, fought, conquered, destroyed And built. Brought children to the world and killed the children of others. And how the good and the horrible dwell together on these shores. I felt good that beautiful evening. Wonderful, actually. And I felt terrible. As always. Yafa Kfir