Vernazza

We stayed in the city of Vernazza in the Cinque Terre. Here are some pictures of the city from the Cinque Terre Trails, followed by two pictures with an arrow indicating the balcony of the room we rented. In the few days we were in the Cinque Terre I enjoyed quite a few hours sitting on the balcony watching the sun rise and set, people doing laundry, the townsfolk in the main piazza, etc.

Vernazza and the bay.

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The main church tower.

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Vernazza through the trees

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Vernazza from the back side.

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Our balcony.

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Home, sweet, home.

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Cinque Terre

The next city we stayed in was Vernazza, which is one of the 5 cities of the Cinque Terre. The Cinque Terre is

a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera...A walking trail connects the five villages.

Vernazza is the 4th of the 5 cities. We hiked on day one from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare (the 5th city) and up a steep hill to the Punto del Mesco and back. The second day we went the other way from Vernazza to Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore and back. It was about 6 hours of hard hiking each day.

Here is a series of pictures of our days on the trail.

On the trail overlooking Vernazza.

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On the trail overlooking Monterosso al Mare,.

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Carol smelling the local flora.

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I was taking a picture along the trail and Carol saw this guy coming up the trail and whispered that I had to get a picture. I opened up the wide-angle lense, set it on automatic, held it by my side and clicked a few picture. This guy was representative of European hikers.

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Leaving Lake Como

We took this as we were leaving our hotel in Varenna. Just another beautiful day, with a beautiful view.


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Varenna

Those who have been to our house may recognize the painting in the second picture. We bought it years ago because we liked it and it reminded us of a trip we had taken to Halstatt Austria. We knew it was of the Lake Como region, but didn't know where in Lake Como he had done it.

As we drove around Lake Como, and when we arrived in Varenna, we looked for locations that might resemble our painting, with no success. On our ferry trip back from Bellagio to Varenna I took the pictures of Varenna you see below. (note to photographers, don't leave the ISO setting at 1600 from the night before).

In the third picture you see Varenna, where we stayed at Lake Como, looking just like the painting. The reason we couldn't find the location of the painting is that we were standing on it. Two things jump out at me: 1) don't leave your ISO setting at 1600, and 2) the painter took some license with his interpretation of Varenna.

In the fourth picture the arrow points out where we stayed up on the hill.

Varenna from the ferry

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Our painting

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Just like the painting

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Our hotel on the hill

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Villa Monastero

These pictures are of Varenna from Villa Monastero. We had a pleasant morning stroll through the grounds of the villa.


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