Tuscany Cinque Terre (2005) Painting by Zo

The Cinque Terre ("Five Lands") is not strictly speaking Tuscany. It's Liguria, actually, but so many visitors to Tuscany have the Cinque Terre on their 'must-see' list.

The Cinque Terre are five small fishing villages that lie down the coast from Portofino. They all cling to the sides and tops of the steep coastline and were only reachable by boat until well into the 1960's.

There are numerous trails that cover the 15 miles between villages which are Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore, but be advised that these are hikes as opposed to strolls, winding down to the coast and back up into the forests.

There is a rail line connecting the five villages that blasts its way through the cliffs, occasionally opening up into galleries that offer tantalising glimpses of the impossibly blue water below.

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CINQUE TERRE

by Jon Pineda

Between the train’s long slide and the sun
ricocheting off the sea, anyone
would have fallen silent in those words,
the language of age in her face, the birds
cawing over the broken earth, gathering near its stones
and chapel doors. In the marina, the sea and its bones
have grown smaller. Though the tide is out,
it is not the tide nor the feathers nor the cat
that jumps into the street, the dust
lifting with each wing and disappearing. The rust-
colored sheets that wrap the sails of ships,
I don’t know their name nor the way to say lips
of water in Italian and mean this: an old woman
stood by the tracks until his hand stopped waving.

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PaintingLandscapesItalyTuscanyCinque Terre