the cinque terre

I'm afraid this entry will be sparse when it comes to photos as the Cinque Terre did not lend itself to pause for photography, at least not in a car. For those who have not yet travelled this far, the Cinque Terre is a small section of the Italian Riviera in the province of La Spezia, comprising of the coastline, five villages, and the surrounding hillsides. It is beautiful territory, but would best be discovered on foot, as the roads are perilously narrow, winding around the coast line and the mountains lining it.

As we travelled along the road, leading the way were small three-wheeled Piaggio's, navigating the sharp turns with ease. possessing the ability to stop at any point along the road without it being too dangerous. We got the feeling that these roads were designed with the Piaggio in mind, and not for large family size Land rovers. What was most astounding about the Cinque Terre was that the Italians had obviously been unperturbed when discovering this landscape and decided to make every inch of it habitable or to use it as their workplace. Houses were perched high up on the mountains, wedged into the rock face, and every inch of space left was planted out with vines, making for a particularly difficult journey to work.