Cinque Terre Vernazza Flood Updates | Highlights from January

Some of the past week’s highlights include (courtesy of Save Vernazza):

• January 3, 2012:  New York Times article “In Liguria’s Coastal Hills, a Storm’s Fury Brings a Struggle for Restoration“is published, in which Save Vernazza is featured.
• January 3, 2012: Save Vernazza does a three part interview with Lise Betram of Cheo Vineyards, Vernazza’s only commercial wine producer.  Lise discusses with us the damage done to their vineyards as a result of the over 100 landslides of October 25, 2011.
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  For additional photos and to view the three-part series of short films click here.
• January 3, 2012:  Save Vernazza’s Michele Sherman is interviewed for the Canadian Broadcast Company’s “As It Happens”  feature “Italy Landslide Restoration”.  To listen to the broadcast click here.
• January 6, 2012: Local and international artists gathered for what has been called “Un arcobaleno di solidarietà per Vernazza” (a rainbow of solidarity for Vernazza).  The painters decorated the temporary doors along Via Roma’s commercial businesses with beautiful murals.
  For more photos and videos of the “arcobaleno” event click here.
• January 6, 2012: Vernazza celebrated with our friends from Riomaggiore the “festa della Befana”, the Feast of the Epiphany, a public holiday in Italy.  The Befana is an old woman, dressed like a witch, who delivers gifts to children for “La Festa dell’Epifania” (Feast of the Epiphany).  The event included construction of lanterns to release into the night sky, a “spettacolo” (performance) and the arrival by sea of the “Befana” with gift giving following thereafter.
• January 7, 2012:  Vernazza says goodbye to the Navy cooks who have been present since just days after the events of October 25, 2011 feeding Vernazza’s volunteers hot meals twice a day, as well as the residents for the occasional “festa” (party) under the tent.  The parting is bittersweet, a necessary step toward the rebirth of Vernazza.  But these hard working men have also become good friends and they will be missed, for their service went well beyond food.  Thank you for your kindness, your encouragement, your smiles, laughter and tears.  Grazie ai nostri cuochi amici della marina!
  
  With each crew that pulls out, each truckload of dirt that passes by and each brick unearthed, Vernazza becomes familiar yet again.  With every paint stroke and pressure hose we catch a glimpse of her former beauty.  She will no doubt reclaim her place in this world as the “jewel of the Cinque Terre” and inevitably along the way will be painful reminders of that fateful day.