Cinque Terre The Italian Riviera Where the Apennine Mountains drop into the sea

1. Cinque TerreThe Italian RivieraWhere the Apennine Mountains drop into the sea For many generations, these 5 small villagessitonthewater line at the bottom of a verydeepnarrowvalley.Narrow, winding, roads lead to these villages from the highway way up on the top of the ridge Yafa kfir 2005 www.yafakfir.co.il yafakfir@gmail.com

3. The villages are picturesque - Tourism revived them

4. 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.

5. This is one of the villages’ train station – the Eastern one

6. The villagers make liquors from coffee and fruit

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

8. Women are busy at traditional tasks

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

10. But are doing more simple works….

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

12. 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

13. 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 fourwalksbetweenthefivevillages: The first, like young love, is the easiest, and most frequented by tourists - hangingabovethe sea - called: Via del Amor

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

17. To my delight, thedaywasverypleasant, lots of sun and light

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

19. StrongMediterraneancolors: the fruit and vegetables, the goods in the shops and the houses.

20. As expected, likealloverItaly, thereis a selection of local wines, made of dark grapes and white grapes, growing on the sunny slopes

21. But they don’t have beaches with golden sand – so they make do…

22. 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”.

23. Many, verymany, stepsbrought me totheonevillage before the last

24. That justified a delightful rest on a stony bench

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

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

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

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

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

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

31. andI think she felt abit cold....

32. The sea wasbeautiful, as italwaysis in theevening, onourbeachestoo..

33. 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 www.yafakfir.co.il yafakfir@gmail.com