The Cinque Terre, "The Five Lands", is an area of the rugged Ligurian coastline, on the north west coast of Italy, and consists of five picture perfect coastal villages, perched amongst terraces of vineyards, olive groves, lemon orchards, and overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. More about the villages in a future blog. The one thing that I remember most about a recent trip to this area is the explosion of colour wherever you look - the azure sea, magenta bougainvilleas tumbling over buildings and rocky outcrops, shades of black, white, charcoal and grey marble pebbles on the beaches, bright yellow, blue, green, red and orange umbrellas offering shade at pavement cafes, old blue and green painted fishing boats, and every shade of ochre, terracotta, burnt umber, oranges and reds that you can imagine on the buildings - peeling and fading in the hot summer sun and adding to the magnificent character of this less commercial area of the Italian Riviera. Magnifico!
