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Cinque Terre |
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The "Cinque Terre" include the coastal belt of the territory that runs from
Punta Mesco, the western promontory of
Monterosso, to
Portovenere; it’s a strip of
coast about 15 kms. long, between the sea
and the mountains. Behind them, there’s the
Val di Vara (Vara Valley) and, in their
final part, the Gulf of La Spezia.
The steep profile of this territory,
sometimes overhanging on the sea, with
growings and vineyards, terraced thanks to
the famous "little dry stone walls" (built
with stones without cement), where rocks and
barren areas appear covered with heather,
broom and pines, only in a depht of 3 or 4
kms., highlights some 700-800 metres high
relieves.
The villages of the
Cinque Terre (Riomaggiore,
Manarola,
Corniglia,
Vernazza e
Monterosso),
crouch between the ridges of the Ligurian
Appennines, downgrading over the sea, and
the creeks of their spurs. It’s a strip of
land of an as enchanting as rugged nature,
where inhabitants became used to obstacles
and toil, always fighting with love for
their landscape.
It’s necessary to go up again from the sea
rocks, from the lonely fluttering
agave to the high cottage among the olive
trees or to the Sanctuary on the mount: it’s
a daily pilgrimage for all inhabitants of
this territory, a reinforcing travel that
joins man to sea.
On the top of the hills, you can travel
along the labyrinth of tiny paths with their
"little dry stone walls" (walls built with
stones without cement), the vegetable gardens on the edge of precipices
and a lot of flower beds, protected like
relics, among the orderly and stretched rows
of vineyards. |
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