Monday, December 13, 2010

Cinque Terre, Part Two

I think I said the next stop was going to be Riomaggiore, but it looks like I lied. 

Sorry.

Next stop?  VERNAZZA!

On this stop, we're going to to get right to the pictures.  All of the Cinque Terre towns are gorgeously amazingly awesome to the 4 millionth degree, but I think it's possible that Vernazza was my favorite one.  It's possible.

So, first, we got off the train...


...and, the train chugged away (see it escaping out the other end of the tunnel?


Then, we started to walk around.  Look at these crazily beautiful buildings!!!


We saw a lot of cute cute cute animals in Vernazza, (no bunnies, though...sigh!).  Here you see a very cute poodley dog looking around the corner of a barrel.  Look at that dog body!

And, then, there was this beautiful cat.  I pursued him for a while and he kept running off.  I'm not sure why....

He finally found a place to hide away for a bit, and as he did this, he also conjured up a pug to distract me with a very disapproving look!

OK, these next cats have a story, which is this.  I saw these GREAT cats napping on this blanket, right?  I mean, would you have been able to resist photographing them?  Really?  I didn't think so.  So, I went slowly up to them, and didn't bother them at all, just took their picture.  I mean, they wouldn't even look at me!  A second after I snapped their picture, an old lady poked her head out of a window about three stories up and yelled to me: "NO FLASH!  NO FLASH!  NO PICTURES OF CATS!!"

"OK," I said sheepishly, and I sloooooowly.....backed.....awaaaaaaaaaay.

More forbidden pictures!!  And, here are the cats:

This next picture says, "NON BERE (NOT DRINK)."  And, pretty clearly, you should not.  I mean, look at the guy who tried...  eek.


Random praying station.  More of these to come in a minute.

We walked until we got to the water.  I turned round and took this picture of the stuff right along the water's edge.  In this picture, you can see the Church of Santa Margherita d'Antiochia and the beautiful hills behind it.  WOWZA!


This is a picture looking in the other way form the water.  Oh, you can see my Aunt Anita in this one (in her shades!) and Alice (who is hiding behind a bit of greenery).

And another photo of something similar.  I couldn't get enough of these buildings and their colors.  Really, I couldn't.

And, now the water.  Again, this is the Ligurian Sea.  I like this shot, because not only do those boats look cool all in a row, but you can see the mountainous rockiness in the background.  That's some crazy strata!

Oh, and here's me crouching and looking a bit shocked about the fact that I was getting my picture taken.

Another view of the picturesque church and a few Sea Swimmers:

And now, another praying station:

And, another dog (also, you can see the forbidden cats in the background.  HA!  I got them AGAIN!)

Another praying station:

And, another backed up picture of the same praying station.  I edited out the very grouchy face of yet another old lady who had just been spying me photographing her Mary while she was hanging out her underwear.  I decided to edit out her and her unmentionables.  I left the Mary.

So that was a taste of Vernazza. I can't recall where we're headed next, and since I don't want to lie again, you'll just have to wait until Wednesday!

1 comment:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Gorgeous photos of a gorgeous village! I found all cats in Italy to be standoffish, if not actually half-feral. And that was the domesticated ones! There were plenty of ferals too in the smaller villages. Maybe they've had bad experiences over the years and it's in their genes not to trust people.