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Oh Vernazza…how I love thee

Utilizing ancient crumbling cliff top fortifications to stow and revere the dead? Honoring them with the most spectacular view the village has to offer? Keeping their feet dry to be sure. The view from the window of my latest digs, tucked in midway up the Doria Castle, spreads across the whole lower village; its cliff side protection striated with grape vines and olive and fruit groves, tacked on and shackled thanks to dry rock walls held strong by an agricultural history that, day by day is sadly succumbing to abandonment for the more alluring tourist dollar. And right up there at the top, in the most prime real estate, sits again, a cemetery.

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The vista personifies exactly what one would expect of an authentic fishing village. Population 1,000; founded around 1080AD, originally a maritime base, later a fortification against Pirates and with a solid little rock protected harbor full of colorful little boats (and swimmers too, the water’s divine). Just one major thoroughfare, the Via Roma is strung with massive daisy shaped fairy lights and lined with bistrot, bars and pizzerias and the usual touristy lures, paralleled by narrow lane-ways between the multi story, multi colored villas. And then there’s the tiniest beach tucked in right behind the peninsula, access via a cave.

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20130801-102333.jpg20130801-102535.jpgTourists swamp the place by day but most disperse to the bigger villages in the eve leaving room for the dedicated, the locals and the lights of the restaurants lining the harbor to sparkle across water the color of ink.

Vernazza suffered the same fate as Monterosso in the 2011 flash flooding, here a 4 meter deep mud slide all but destroying yet saved by  the strength and character of the locals who simply and steadfastly got on with reparations. You would never know were it not for the engineers working on the water walls above the village given each of the Terre except for Corniglia sit over a watercourse, the sacrifice of nestling between protective cliffs. The locals’ tenacity reminds me of the willful ‘fuck you floods!’ attitude Brisbanites displayed earlier the same year.

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20130801-102731.jpgAs for the color of the octagonal bell tower above the quaint little church off to the side of the square with its slate scalloped dome? It variegates from a rich king island cream at sunrise to a soft dusky rose as twilight settles. Ah! proprio bella!

I love that tower.

It’s chimes shake me awake each morning!

Twice over!

Da bells! Da bells!

Geez!

 

As Darryl Kerrigan would say…

If you love the soft hazy colors of a twilight, thought you might like a few of my favorite shots from Monterosso. As Darryl Kerrigan would say …ah the serenity!*

20130724-164716.jpg7pm: Cute little house basking in the glow of late afternoon sun

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20130724-164933.jpg8.30pm: Beaches now vacated, folk washing the sand off, slicking back hair, prepping for dinner

20130724-165134.jpg8.45pm: A moment of quiet on the usually crazy ocean pathway, about to reenergize as folk reemerge for the evenings activities

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20130724-165350.jpg9pm:The last of the ferries now departed

20130724-165732.jpg10pm: Dusk

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10.45pm: Nightfall

*from the movie ‘The Castle’

Castrums, Neptune and a votiveship

Conquered it, lovely readers! Conquered it! I finally found the narrow stairway* up to the Capuchin Monastery and the medieval castrum that’s since been incorporated into the current cemetery, up there on the mountainside opposite my abode. Worth it? Yessir! And the view? Breathtaking!

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And did you know this dear little Monterosso al Mare village (my current abode and one of the five Cinque Terre villages) actually dates back to Roman times? And the castrum began its defense role in the early 7th century?

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Also, checked in on the remnants of the Giant Neptune bearing on his shoulder an enormous shell which was originally a dance stage. Unfortunately WW2 bombings and later, heavy seas, extensively damaged both. He sits above the Fegina beach next to the little harbour in the new town.20130724-091622.jpg
New town? Well, the village is spread over two inlets. In that of the Bruanco River, to the East, there is the historical core, while the settlement located in the inlet of Fegina, to the West, there’s the more recently developed ‘new town’. Both have beaches, unique to Monterosso, and thus are layered with deck-chairs, umbrellas and tourists.

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Population 2,000, tucked into the tiny alleys and stairways…swamped by volumes of tourists as the season picks up, the majority being village day-trippers and sun-seekers. Few penetrate as far as my eerie; deservedly if they do for they are demonstrating admirable ‘buns of steel’.

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The historic village is heavy on places of worship and despite atheist tendencies, I can’t help but be impressed by their history, humbleness and majesty. There’s the Church of San Giovanni Battista of the Gothic-Genovese style, dating back to 1244 with a proud steeple made of greenstone and which originally served as a sentinel. The oratory ‘Mortis et Orationis’ (Death and Prayer) is of the Baroque style and then there’s my favourite, the miniature oratory of ‘Santa Crose’.

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Why my fave? Well, there’s a dear little wooden ship suspended from the ceiling (known as a ‘Votiveship’; a handmade offering of thanksgiving from grateful sailors or fishermen for safe voyages) which reminds me of Telly. There’s the ever so kitsch sparkling halo the Virgin Mary’s sporting which makes me grin out loud. And then there’s the towering organ above the entrance which reminds me of my late Grandpa (a brilliant, commanding church organist). When resting in one of the pews there today, I could almost swear I heard him whisper…now that’s an organ worth playing my pet! Darling Pa? I suspect you already have.

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*Sadly, many of the Cinque Terre walks have been closed for maintenance or repair including the lover’s walk after several people were injured as a result of a landslide.image

Stay tuned for notes from Vernazza!

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