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Friday, April 18, 2003
I spent the past weekend in Cinque Terre ("The Five Lands"), a stunningly beautiful area alon ghte coast about two hours west of Firenze. The area was in fact no even connected by road until 1960 because of all the hills surrounding the five towns. It's becoming more and more popular with tourists recently, and in ten years will supposedly be swarmed with them, but the towns still retain an incredible sense of quaintness and isolation, like there's nothing there but a small town and the blue sea.
We took a private bus on Saturday morning to a resort about a half hour north of the actual Cinque Terre area. It felt very refreshing and open to be next to water again. We spent the day there lying in the sun and hiking around. Me and Leanne walked down to a small beach in a tiny town called Bonasola. It took forty minutes to walk back up the winding road, but had we been able to walk in a straight level line it would have taken literally five minutes; hopefully that gives you an idea of how hilly this area is. We had a seafood dinner at the resort, where I ate fish for the first time in three months (compared to three times a week at home).
On Sunday we did the actual tours of the five towns. We drove to the first town and then took ferries between the other four. These towns were some of the most beautiful places I have seen in my life. The contrast of quintessential Italian towns along the sloping, terraced green hills against the crystal blue sea was astounding. My pictures don't do the places justice, but they might give an idea of what I'm talking about.
It's felt very good to be back in Firenze this week. The weather has been beautiful the past few days, though it did indeed hail here on Saturday. Tourism here increases daily, and along the very popular roads you definitely hear English more than Italian. I'm very glad that I won't be here in the summer when tourism (and the temperature) hits full peak. I think that I'll be staying here over the Easter weekend, writing and paper and maybe buying some much needed short sleeve shirts.
posted by Jon at 10:35 AM
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