hangin' in cinqueterre

today was a beautiful sunny day in cinqueterre, the 5 towns hanging onto the edge of italy on the ligurian sea. our town, monterosso is relatively flat, and the northernmost town. this morning we got onto the train and went with it to the next town, about 5 km down the line, vernazza. down the hill into the plaza, where i sketched for a while, and got hungry. after a while we found the trail, a steep stair up the cliff, and headed for the next town down the line, corniglia. we went up many steps and along trails on the cliffs for almost 2 miles and something. a real mountain goat walk. a lot of people were going along too.we had breathtaking views of the sea, and eventually the town of our destination. it sits atop a promontory, with vineyards on up the mountains, and down. the houses all seem stacked on one another and are colored pink, yellow, ochre, in many variations, and all seem to have dark green shutters. it is very hard to take a photo of the whole scene because the mountains are so tall, and to get the sea and the top you have very small images. the sea at the base of the cliffs is a lovely blue and blue green.
the seagulls were wheeling about on the breezes. boy are my legs sore tonite! i thought i have been working up to this, but maybe not hard enough!!

i am putting some of my photos on facebook--carol young, talent, oregon. i have been trying to put them in the blog, but can't figure it out. there are a few various ones going on tonite.