On contrary 2012 will be the renaissance of Vernazza where, since the very first minute after the flood, nobody spent one tear more than necessary and everyone is working hard to return back our wounded towns into the beauty that made them beloved worldwide. In these past 2 months an enormous amount of debrees and mud have been carried away, the town is starting to looks a bit more normal..A wedding has been celebrated on Dec. 10th; the doors of the first floors, 100% of them wiped out in one minute by the wild river, have been replaced with temporary plywood doors and they will be ALL painted by local artists on Jan 6th 2012 (see also http://vernazzafutura.blogspot.com/2012/01/un-arcobaleno-di-solidarieta-per.html).  Signs of strong wish of return to normality.
But will it be enough?
The huge amount of money needed combined with the logistic conditions and environmental difficulties make the job extremely hard..and the clock is running fast toward the beginning of the touristic season.

The Municipality has’nt taken an official position yet, we actually think it’s not possible to have one and -of course- we don’t want to gamble with predictions in matters that involve people’s lifestyle and livelihood, we just want to aks a question in name of all the small business of the other towns.

The strenght of  the “CINQUE TERRE” brand, has unexpectedly turned into weakness. The very first message “Flood in the 5 Terre, the Cinque Terre don’t exist anymore” left the sign. Too few (even among tour operators and travel agents) are aware that only Vernazza (completely) and Monterosso (seriously but partially) have been hitted. The flood is indeed affecting every business of the 5 Terre and of the entire province, so we do believe it’s a fair question..Will Vernazza be ready for tourists in 2012?

The answer is likely NO. That’s my personal opinion and perception. Assuming that a part of the town itself could be accessible, the problem would be to conciliate tourism and construction sites, to supply a decent level of services and, more than all, to have secured the upper part of the town and the surrounding hills, almost destroyed by more than 100 landlsides.

That said..we want to engage a bit more the public with this POLL (that will remain active until the end of February) and try to understand what the scenario will be in case…

2012: The 5 terre after the flood -POLL- is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

The seastorms in Cinque Terre  are real show, in this case the person got wet so we could laugh.. but sometimes, when they happen in summer, they can be very dangerous..

see this story»

Seastorm in Manarola – Cinque Terre – Liguria (video) is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

“Buy VIRTUAL pixels, help REAL people”

That’s the clear and effective motto of the site.

Starting at just 25 Euro for a block of 10 x 10 pixels you can buy a piece of a Vernazza’s  picture and contribute to a real project of reconstruction.
The concept is to trasform the purchase of a VIRTUAL block of pixels into a REAL donation for REAL help to rebuild Vernazza and make it looking as it was

FROM THIS	TO THIS

The flooded Vernazza will be covered by the new picture, point by point, while people buy the pixels, bringing back Vernazza to its beauty.
At the same time the areas of pixels bought will become a permanent link to the website of the buyer, a nice and effective sponsorship.

See it in action clicking on the “BUY PIXELS” button: GO, DONATE AND GET YOUR LINK NOW!!

For a “Featured Sponsorship” with exposure of your BRAND/LOGO a minimum of 30×30 pixel area is requested.

Enjoy it, this is a presentation video:

The funds are managed by the “Pubblica Assistenza Croce Bianca Riomaggiore ONLUS” a ‘non- profit’ org. located in Riomaggiore http://aid.cinqueterre.com/about

Buy PiXELS and help Vernazza is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

In the meantime we’ve set up this site to receive your donation for the Cinque Terre».

The donation are managed by the non-profit local organization “Pubblica Assistenza” Riomaggiore-Manarola, a basic and localized org. which is managing the 5terre emergency.

We can directly help those in most need with our knowledge of the area and sea, doing this much faster and more efficiently than the larger institutions.

That’s an important point, please share this information, we need your HELP!

Donation for the Cinque Terre flood is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

We all hope that it will not make the situation worse. See below a new video of the devastation with cars and trucks wiped out by the flood. Some new details seem indicate that ther’ve been at least 2 big landslides detached from the high and steep hills above Vernazza, exactly from the “road of Sanctuaries”, the most recent road builded acros the 80′s to connect Manarola (already reached by the road in the 70′s) with Corniglia and Vernazza.
As this article seems suppose, the road could be the origin (and the cause) of the lanslides that made the flood so devastating.
________END UPDATE_______

[AGGIORNAMENTO 01/11]
La decima vittima dell’alluvione è stata ritrovata oggi a Borghetto Vara mentre il Presidente della Repubblica Giorgio Napolitano in un messaggio al sindaco di Monterosso Angelo Betta ha elogiato l’eroico altruismo di Sandro Usai, il volontario morto a Monterosso, e ha confermato l’avvio della procedura per il conferimento della medaglia d’oro al valore civile.
Torna a fare paura la pioggia che è prevista molto forte per il prossimo weekend. In teoria si potrebbero verificare condizioni simili a quelle del 25 ottobre, Vernazza trema.
Previsioni Meteo Cinque Terre ->
_______[FINE AGGIORNAMENTO]_________

[AGGIORNAMENTO 31/10]
Oggi a caterpillar (Radio rai 2) intervistato il sindaco di Vernazza Vincenzo Resasco, ecco qui sotto l’audio dell’intervista

I lavori procedono con grande impegno, c’è una gran voglia di tornare alla normalità.
Lo sbocco a mare del torrente esondato martedì scorso ( è la prima volta nella storia di Vernazza che ciò accade) è stato riaperto, ma naturalmente sul percorso restano molte migliaia di metri cubi di detriti che richiederanno molto tempo per essere rimossi.
E’ stata riaperta la linea ferroviaria ma solo su un binario e solo per treni merci e a lunga percorrenza a velocità ridotta; non è possibile per i passeggeri scendere e salire a Vernazza che resta raggiungibile solo via mare.
Le 5 terre intanto chiedono aiuto agli Stati Uniti; proposta all’ambasciatore USA a Roma David Thorne un’iniziativa che prevede un “buono vacanza” per i turisti americani che effettueranno un versamento in denaro per la ricostruzione.
_______FINE AGGIORNAMENTO______

[UPDATE 30/10]
Just another incredible video today, and the 9th victim of the flood found in Monterosso, the first volounteer killed by the mud wave..

______END UPDATE________

[UPDATE 29/10]
US citizens can make a donation using Paypal and the major Credit Card, here’s a link to Red Cross Foundation http://cri.it/flex/FixedPages/EN/Donazioni.php/L/EN.

2 more videos to add testimonials to the terrible event.
Today electricity is back in Vernazza and Monterosso, the motorway are all opened but trafic is slow.
Also one track of the railway has been reactivated and the vice-major Leonardini said that there will be huge restauration but no evacuation will be acted, except, eventually for a short time. In this case the other villages ( remind that Riomaggiore, Manarola and Corniglia are intact) have offered hospitality to their brothers in trouble. In the meantime one house collapsed in the “Muro” fraction of Vernazza.
People is working very hard and Monterosso has partially changed after the catastrophic view of the first day, everyone is doing 200% of his best: no cry, no loud complain, just dig.
Unfortunately the number of casualties have increased to 8 and still an unprecised number of people ( 7-10) is missing in the zone affected by the flood.



____END UPDATE______

[UPDATE 28/10/2011]
Vernazza to be evacuated? it’s a possible evolution of the near future since several houses seem to be severely damaged, still there’s no water, no gas and no electricity. Today estimates says 35.000 cubic meters of debrees (!) have to be removed from the main street of the town, a new river-bed in place of the old one…One big Caterpillar taken in place by the Navy is operating near the seaside ( Piazza Marconi) where the space is wide enough; inside, only small buldozzer can acceede the internal street, it will be a long way to the recover.
The major of Vernazza said earlier today that Vernazza’s drama is understimated by local press and asked for HELP.
In the meantime some new videos (see here below) keep coming from eyewitness of these terrible moments when fear and impotence were mixed in an dramatically unforgettable experience..
Follow Cinque Terre on Twitter or become our FB fan: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cinque-Terre/272473763949 for updates

MONTEROSSO: the day after…

[Show as slideshow]

_________END UPDATE__________

[UPDATE 27/10/2011]
For our international guests some information for the next days:
The Town of Vernazza is unreachable because the road has been destroyed and the railway line is still under several meters of debrees. (see the picture below)
These link is to the last “TRENITALIA” schedule updated:

LONG DISTANCE: http://www.fsnews.it/cms-file/allegati/fsnews/Provvedimenti_Giorno_27_ottobre_2011.pdf

GENOVA-LA SPEZIA AND VICE VERSA: http://www.fsnews.it/cms-file/allegati/fsnews/La_Spezia_Ge_271011_B.pdf

CHECK later for updates.

More info on http://www.viaggiatreno.it/viaggiatreno/vt.html

Vernazza is the worse situation, it’s reachable only by boat and it’s a risky challenge since the harbour is filled with cars, trees, rocks, sunken boats and everything taken down by the fury of mud.
Vernazza has paid the worse tribute to the flood with 3 people missing, almost certainly died. Children have been evacuated and kept in the municipality hall, several houses are severely damaged and will need investigation.
Gas is over, water supply is over, electricity is partially over as well as comunications (phones, mobile and internet)
From Manarola and Riomaggiore a long column of small boats starts every morning to supply basic stuff such as food, medicines, water. Tomorrow ( 28/10) some diesel fuel will be taken ito supply a couple of small caterpillar already in place to try to move a part of the ENORMOUS amount of stones, trees and debrees that have dramatically changed the sealine and the heart of Vernazza. In this moment and for several month to come Vernazza is “on the knees”, most of the people has lost EVERYTHING, the entire economy is vanished..and that’s the reason why we need toursts to keep coming, to help us to recover. We’ll remake Vernazza and Monterosso more beautiful than before but we need everyone’s help.

COMPARISON PIC before and after:
see this twitter status for a dramatic comparison
Aereal view
Vernazza Harbour

The flood in Monterosso has also caused a terrible situation wit one died. A little bit better than Vernazza, due to the conformation of the town, wide and flat, the flooded area is already reachable and caterpillars have started to dig and move the enormous amount of debrees..
_______END UPDATE_______

[Show as slideshow]

12►

Documentata in foto e video la terribile tragedia dell’alluvione di oggi 25 ottobre, che ha colpito i borghi rivieraschi di Monterosso e Vernazza (dove si contano 2 dispersi) Levanto e Bonassola e più nell’interno la Val di Vara..ecco un’ultim’ora:

(AGI) – La Spezia, 25 ott. – Sale a 8 il numero dei dispersi per l’alluvione nello Spezzino. Una palazzina composta da due abitazioni adiacenti e’ crollata in localita’ Cassana di Brugnato, in Val di Vara. Al momento una ragazza e’ stata estratta viva dalle macerie ma altre tre persone che abitavano nella casa risultano disperse e Vigili del fuoco e uomini della Protezione civile stanno cercando sotto le macerie. Altre tre persone risultano disperse a Borghetto Vara inghiottite dal fiume e altre due persone risulterebbero disperse a Vernazza.
Si trovavano all’interno della vettura che secondo alcuni testimoni sarebbe stata inghiottita dal fango. (AGI)

AGGIORNAMENTO DEL 26/10/2011 ore 18.00
A Vernazza mancano all’appello 3 persone, con molta probabilità decedute; il centro del paese è una distesa di detriti, la strada non esiste più; la ferrovia è interrotta, seppellita da un monte di detriti; nessun collegamento è possibile eccetto via mare; mancano luce acqua e gas, gli impianti sono completamente distrutti.
Negli altri borghi (Riomaggiore e Manarola) non colpiti dal disastro si è coordinato un censimento dei posti letto disponibili per l’ospitalità degli sfollati, circa 80 posti letto sono stati reperiti presso gli affittacamere e gli hotel risparmiati; in caso di bisogno contattare la P.A. Manarola allo 0187 920266.

Alluvione alle Cinque Terre foto e video is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

A moment of solitude, meditation, grace, passion, sensuality and natural beauty.
A perfect partnership of spirituality, beauty and nature.
The body in symbiosis with the environment.
The mind in harmony with the spirit.

 

A video from Massimo Conti on Vimeo.

Sensuality on the beach is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

Riomaggiore (Video) is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

Manarola Video is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

Cliff jumping in the Cinque Terre (video) is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

• http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/italy/cinqueterre.htm
• http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/italy/cinqueterre_fiatfree.htm
• http://www.ricksteves.com/tms/article.cfm?id=161&extras=false

And from the pages of our blog we already wished to tribute the right credit to Mr. Steves: http://www.cinqueterre.com/blog/rick-steves-acros-the-cinque-terre

Unfortunately our impression (you can feel it reading this last linked article) of a bad administration of the National Park of 5 Terre and of the municipality of Riomaggiore were true and on Sept. 28th 2010 the entire management was arrested,  accused of several serious crimes (corruption, threats, conspiracy to fraud against the state,..).
What had appeared for a decade a shining model of sustainable progress and tourism,  a modern vision of  public management, a genial creation of prosperity showed its miserable failure. The truth, cleverly concealed behind a fake glitter of gold,  was finally clear to everybody.

What to do now?

-) Cinque Terre will survive without Bonanini; they were here well before him and they will remain well after him.
-) We need a better government (not an hard stuff if you’ve in mind Mr. Berlusconi ahahahah I start laughing before you do..) and fortunately we have a new one in Riomaggiore. Now we need everybody to help her in the difficul re-construction.
-) WE NEED ALL OF YOU FOLKS.. we’ll do our best to give people the best hospitality we can.
-) We need Mr. Rick Steves to still spend his beautiful words for us, if he still believe that we deserve them…and it seems so..

Quoting Rick Steves from his FB note: http://www.facebook.com/notes/rick-steves/the-cinque-terre-national-parkin-disarray/10150183680359702

The park was run by its president, Franco Bonanini, a powerful man — nicknamed “The Pharaoh” for his grandiose visions. In a personal visit a couple years ago, he conned me into thinking he really was a visionary committed to the region and its precious park.

But Bonanini created a medieval-style system of favorites and enemies, with the help of Riomaggiore’s mayor, and others. Starting and stopping construction projects, funneling money here and there, and extorting people to preserve their power, this cabal derailed the park vision. In 2011 they were removed from power, but the damage had been done. The good ideas of the park (info offices, baggage deposits, mountain-bike opportunities, little museums, elevators for the infirm, and even maintenance of the trails) have been scuttled.

Today, Bonanini is out of power, and the park’s run by a man from the central government whose vision for a fix, it seems, is to run the park as a business. But a park is a park, not a business.

What does all this mean to the visitor? Not much. The Cinque Terre is still my favorite stretch of Mediterranean coastline. The people are endearing. The food, culture, and nature are uniquely enjoyable. I just thrill at the thought of people working together for a grand and noble vision that helps a community’s economy by wisely treating a park as a park, rather than making a park a business. And so far, the Cinque Terre has failed in that regard.

Rick Steves and the “disarray” of 5 Terre 2010-2011 is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

Video serie: Rick Steves in 5 Terre is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

As usual he points the attention on few basic and useful infos for tourists givin an exact overview of what one can expect visiting the Cinque Terre

Another Rick Steves’ video about the Cinque Terre is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

L’indirizzo della pagina è: http://www.cinqueterre.com/blog/download ed è accessibile solo previa registrazione al blog. Seguite le istruzioni riportate sulla pagina per la registrazione e il login.

Il contenuto della sezione è in aggiornamento, potete sottoscrivere il nostro feed per ricevere comunicazioni sulla pubblicazione di nuovi contenuti, grazie a tutti.

___________________________________________

We advice our readers that are available for download Photogalleries and pdf files about the 5 Terre at the page: http://www.cinqueterre.com/blog/download . The page is accessible only to registered users; follow the istructions on that page for registering and logging-in.

The contents are updated time by time, so if you like to stay informed you may like to subscribe our feed, thanks to all.

Area Download di www.cinqueterre.com is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

The Cinque Terre on CNN – Video is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

Enjoy it!

HD video of the Cinque Terre is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

Overview of the Cinque Terre – Video is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

After Riomaggiore on the homepage of BING during last summer, now it’s Manarola to be shown, this time on the new release of Windows 7 by Microsoft!! And it will not be a quick glimpse ..it’s, in fact, one of the pictures of the  “ITALY” theme of the new OS and everyone can keep it on the desktop of his computer..Not bad!!

You find a full gallery of WIN 7 wallpapers here >>

Picture of Manarola - Cinque Terre - on the " ITALY" theme of Windows 7

Manarola in the theme of WINDOWS 7 is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

La scelta della casa di Houston di pubblicare ogni giorno uno sfondo nuovo utilizzando suggestive immagini di luoghi di tutto il mondo è decisamente controtendenza rispetto al maggiore competitor (www.Google.com ) che da sempre ha scelto di utilizzare sfondi bianchi senza alcun elemento grafico.

Già il 4 giugno 2009, uno dei primissimi giorni di vita di BING, l’immagine di Riomaggiore aveva fatto da sfondo alla pagina di ricerca della sezione USA attirando centinaia di ricerche alla scoperta dei meravigliosi luoghi della nostra regione.

Vista la bellezza delle immagini utilizzate, abbiamo pensato di raccoglierle in una fotogallery che è scaricabile all’indirizzo http://www.cinqueterre.com/blog/download-foto , per accedere alla pagina è necessaria la registrazione al blog.

Abbiamo colto l’occasione per pubblicare anche una nuova foto gallery dedicata ai tramonti delle Cinque terre, scaricabile allo stesso indirizzo.

Two months after the official launch of www.bing.com , the new search engine of Microsoft, today, july 26th 2009 the background image of its homepage ( italian localization)  is showing Riomaggiore .

Already on june 4th, one of the very first day of  BING’s life, this picture has been used as background image of the main US localization homepage.

For those who don’t know BING yet, it’s used to show every day a different (..and beautiful!)  picture taken all around the world as background of its homepage.

Seen these beautiful pictures, we tought to put all the 60 images of the first history of BING in one photo-gallery, you can downolad it from the page http://www.cinqueterre.com/blog/download-foto, to get the file it’s necessary to register to the blog.

Also online a new photo gallery dedicated to the sustets of the 5 Terre, you can download it at the same address.

Le 5 Terre su BING, il nuovo motore di ricerca Microsoft is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

The story:
Around 1995 Mr. Rick Steves came into these lands and since the first moment he felt in love with this lanscape, espetially Vernazza . From there on, he started to spend beautiful words on his guides, (and these words were and hopefully still are …again just the truth!..) and after the editions of “Rick Steve’s Italy” 1997 and 1998 .. we were plenty of tourists from USA, also in the other villages that were almost unknown to the tourist’s mass and I’m talking about Manarola, Riomaggiore and Corniglia , this last having its mediatic prominence in this video.. From there on, tourists from USA  were the “gold mine” of these lands, at least until the “euro revolution” of 2002 and even more until the recent global recession…But they were more! They were also speakers of the beauty of our towns to the rest of the world and we want to thanks them..and incourage them to return back soon!
So now the video:

Andrea Somovigo
manager www.cinqueterre.com

Rick Steves across the Cinque Terre (video) is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog

“A video that captures Cinque Terre from the inside its five towns, above the towns on its slopes, and beyond Cinque Terre along the Italian Riviera.”

Cinque Terre Video ( english) is a post from: √ Cinque Terre Blog