MichaelByronSmith: The Power of Dadhood
  • Home
  • Blog: Helping Fathers to be Dads
  • Dadhood Book
  • Photos
  • About Me
  • A Vagabond Life - A Memoir of Father Hunger

A Photo Journal of Cinque Terre

3/26/2015

5 Comments

 
Picture
This will be another break from fatherhood, Dadhood, parenting, etc.  After 23 days in Italy, we are returning in two days and I must get to work marketing my book. But the trip has been great and exhausting! I’ve logged 130+ miles walking and climbing in Italy. History here in Italy is beyond compare! There is so much to learn! But photography is my hobby and I loved the Amalfi Coast, the Tuscan countryside and finally…Cinque Terre!

The Cinque Terre, "The Five Lands", is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. It is in the Liguria region of Italy, to the west of the city of La Spezia and comprises five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore , from north to south. My wife Kathy and I stayed in a very nice room in Manarola with a fantastic view as you will see in the photos. Paths, trains and boats connect the villages, and cars cannot reach all these town from the outside. 

The towns were built in coves where, naturally, water flows from streams down from the mountains. Walking streets were built over the streams and you can hear rushing water in most areas of Manarola, Venazza, and Riomaggiore. Houses were built on solid rock and those rugged mountainsides that have soil are terraced for growing grapes, olives, lemons, etc.

The variation of house colors is due to the fact that while fishermen were doing their jobs just offshore, they wanted to be able to see their house easily. This way, they could make sure their wives were still home doing the wifely duties (or so it is said). Most of the families in the five villages made money by catching the fish and selling them in the small port villages. Fish was also their main source of food. Today, tourism is their bread and butter (pane and burro).

These days the towns are connected by trains along with the trails. The ride on the train from one town to the other may take from ninety seconds to three minutes. There is not much to see on the trains in Cinque Terre because they travel through tunnels. If you hike along the coast, when they are not closed due to landslides, you can walk between towns in a short amount of time. If you hike over the mountains, it can take five hours, sweat, and lots of steps to go to all five villages!

My hike from RIomaggiore to Manarola took me an hour and twenty minutes with breaks for breathing and taking photos. My iPhone health app said I climbed 86 floors and I think it was a mile or two. In a day and a half, we visited four of the towns, missing Corniglia, but I did see it from the trail (photos) and I visited the train station late one night when I was coming back to Manarola from Riomaggiore. I missed Manarola because the stop came so quickly and the train stopped shortly in a pitch black tunnel (a standard procedure, the entire train is too long). After 20 minutes in Corniglia, I made my way back to Manarola on the next train back.

I hope you enjoy the photos. It’s a very beautiful place!! Bellissimo!

Cinque Terre, Italy
5 Comments
Larry Thomlison link
3/26/2015 10:46:32 am

These pictures are incredible!
I think a job with Nat Geo is in the making!
Keep up the good work!

Reply
Michael Smith link
3/27/2015 08:24:11 am

Thank you Larry!! See you soon.

Reply
custom essay writing services link
8/25/2015 01:09:13 pm

I see that you enjoyed your trip in Cinque Terre, Italy. These photos are amazing and these inpire me to pursue my passion in photography. I was doing street photography for 2 years, portrait for 1 year and if I will be given the chance to travel, then I would love to go with my camera as my bestfriend. Thank you for sharing your incredible journey with us. I'll post mine, in my page :)

Reply
Teri Leutzinger
1/16/2016 01:01:42 pm

Incredibly awesome photography Mike. That area looks just gorgeous and you did a magnificent job capturing it's beauty!

Reply
Mike link
1/23/2016 01:32:04 am

Beautiful country Teri! Thanks for the nice words. I love photography as I know you do.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Click on cover to order! 
    Picture
    A review of "The Power of Dadhood" by About.com
    100 Top Daddy Blogs - Healthy Moms Magazine
    Picture
    Picture
    ​daddy blogs

    Subscribe to MichaelByronSmith: Helping Fathers to be Dads - Blog: Helping Fathers to be Dads

    Subscribe in a reader
    'Helping Fathers to be Dads' Facebook page

    Archives

    May 2025
    January 2025
    August 2024
    July 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2011

    Follow my blog with Bloglovin
    Visit Michael's profile on Pinterest.

    Categories

    All
    Accomplishment
    Activities
    Adolescence
    Adulthood
    Advice
    Anxiety
    Attention
    Babies
    Balance
    Baseball
    Basketball
    BLM
    Books
    Boys
    Charity
    Checklist
    Child Custody
    Children
    Choices
    Christmas
    Clouds
    Communication
    Competition
    Confidence
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Creed
    Crime
    Dads
    Decision Making
    Discussion
    Diversity
    Divorce
    Eclipse
    Education
    Environment
    Equity
    Ethics
    Fairness
    Families
    Family
    Fatherhood
    Father Issues
    Fathers Day
    Finance
    Fire-safety
    Flying
    Free Speech
    Games
    Gangs
    Girls
    Goals
    Gold-star-families
    Guest Article
    Guns
    Happiness
    Harry Chapin
    Holidays
    Honesty
    Humor
    Ideology
    Integrity
    Interview
    Lesson
    Lies
    Life
    List
    Loss
    Lottery
    Love
    Marriage
    Memories
    Memory
    Men
    Mentoring
    Mistakes
    Motherhood
    Mothersday
    Nature
    News
    New Year
    Normies
    Nuclear Family
    Outdoors
    Pain
    Parenting
    Perfection
    Personality
    Pesonality
    Photography
    Poem
    Poverty
    Principles
    Racism
    Risk
    Ryan
    Sacrifice
    Safety
    Self Help
    Social Influencers
    Social Media
    Society
    Spain
    Sports
    Statistics
    Story
    Success
    Summer
    Teen Pregnancy
    Tools
    Travel
    Video
    Violence
    Woke
    Working At Home
    Worry

Web Hosting by iPage