Cinque Terre
 

We spent 10 days in the Dolomites followed by 3 days in the Cinque Terre. We stayed in Manarola and loved it. Trip report and photos at www.talkingchin.blogspot.com

Lovely photos. :)

Thank you. I really enjoyed reading your report.

I enjoyed looking at your report, but I wanted to respond to one comment that you made about le Cinque Terre. You wrote:

" trail maintenance is often unscheduled and unannounced, typical of Italy"

The trail maintenance can only be done when the weather permits it, and the weather in le Cinque Terre is highly unpredicatable.'

It is not just the trail surfaces that are an issue in le Cinque Terre when it comes to maintenance. It is also the stone walls that are above the trails, which can crumble and cause heavy rocks to tumble onto the trails and injure people.

Those walls can only be repaired at a time when the weather will be dry enough for several days running to allow repair work to settle and stabilize. It's not possible to simply mark days on a calendar and send out a work crew.

The unique beauty of le Cinque Terre is that, over the coure of hundreds of years, a human settlement with farming was established in a near-impossible environment for doing so. Repairing all the damage done in 2011 by the devastating mudslides cannot be done in a single season, and it will need to be done in cooperation with nature, not against it (some of the worst problems of 2011 were caused by paving over the natural waterways of the hills to make things easier for tourists, and that mistake will not be made again).

Topping for a leisurely read.

sandralist, your comment about near impossible environment for farming reminded me of DH and I seeing an unfenced basketball court high up on a hill. He made a comment about that being the height of optimism.

Sandralist, good post.

Ichin, I really enjoyed your beautiful photos.