Morning and early afternoon in Monterossa al Mare
Today, May 31st was my last chance to photograph early morning in Monterosso. The plan was to go out for a walk before breakfast and then do a little bit of shopping with everyone. The day was pretty much free until later in the afternoon.
One of my first long exposure shots ( 15 seconds at f16, ISO 100).
Finally I had a chance to photograph the tunnel without people. The town is divided into two distinct parts: the old town and the new town. The two areas are divided by a single tunnel that is used by the pedestrians and the very few cars in town. We walked through the tunnel many times each day as this was the way to the train station.
I saw this cat a few times near the hotel and today stopped to get a picture.
This is a photo of where the trail starts to hike over to the town of Vernazza (the hike we had done the previous day). I found out that the village was briefly excluded form the Cinque Terre trail in 1948, but was re-introduced in mid-1949. This is because Italian officials considered the village too large to be considered part of the historic trail. Originally the village was only accessible by sea or by mule paths that connected the villages of the Cinque Terre and to Via Roma, the main road that connected all of Italy to Rome. These mule paths have been maintained and used over the centuries and now provide hikers with fabulous views of the Cinque Terre. These hiking trails have been taken over by the national park system. Normally there is a fee for the hike but officially the trail system was not open due to the spring rains when we were there. However, after talking to locals, we discovered that some of the trails were actually in good condition which is why we were able to hike to Vernazza.
Chris and I hiked up a different trail to a cemetery that some of the others had been to the day before. This was one of the views on the way.
Overlooking the highway. When we first arrived in town we were met by a car and driver at the train station. The driver and Jed took the luggage to a meeting place near our hotel. They had to go way out of the way via this highway. When we finally met them at the square near our hotel we still had to walk with the suitcases about five minutes to the hotel(and up quite a few steps). We had been wondering what took them so long to arrive not realizing how far out of the way they had to go. The road was built in the 1960's so the villages remained isolated but even now cars are not allowed in most areas of the villages. Now you can drive between all of the villages but these roads are often narrow and winding and go along a steep hillside. The best way to visit the villages is by foot, train or boat.
The trail leading to the cemetery. |
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Chris and I walked all around as we found it quite interesting. The town cemetery is located on the hilltop where the early settlement of Monterosso was located. The cemetery is built into the old fortress.
A view from the top of the cemetery. For the original Monterossini who were farmers and not fishermen it was way more convenient to settle in the hills and also less dangerous than living near the perils of the sea. At one time this spot and ones like it were important vantage points in protecting the village. The complete view of the coastline was critical for alerting the townspeople of potential danger.
One of the best views of the town from the cemetery.
A close up of the colourful houses in the town.
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To the left you see part of the fortress where the old cemetery is built into. This isolated fortress on top of the hill was able to be completely secured against sint any kind of intruder. Above is a photo of the olive groves. |
A poppy field on the way back to town.
After lunch I spent a couple of hours enjoying the sunshine on the beach. When the girl came down she and her friend asked me to take their picture so they handed me the camera and went back up on the rock. I guess they trusted me not to run off with their camera equipment (it was a nice one).
As you can see the water is still very rough.
It was a lovely afternoon with lots of people on the beaches but not overcrowded at all. This beach runs along most of the coast line and is very well used by tourists in the summer- a time I would definitely not want to be here. I can imagine how busy the beaches, trains, paths and restaurants would be. This beach is the only extensive sand beach in Cinque Terre.
I was actually very far away from the people in these beach shots so the pictures are heavily cropped. I was just walking around with a 24mm wide angle lens.
After these beach shots I headed back along the boardwalk to the hotel to meet the gang for our train trip to Manarola, the only town of the five villages of Cinque Terre that we had not yet visited. However, perhaps this guy had a better idea.