Latest News
Cinque Terre Dry Wall Restoration
December 2002: The American Express
Foundation for World Monuments will give 58.000 euros for Dry Wall
repairing. Due to heavy rain of Autumn 2000, 2001 and 2002 the old and
almost abandoned walls are in a bad situation. The Cinque Terre dry walls
keep the steep hills from falling into the sea. The length of these walls is
about three times the length of the Great Wall of China!!!
Link to article on World Monuments Foundation web site.
 The
Manarola Crib
The Manarola Crib was on TV Worldvision on the 8th December 2000. At the
same time in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, many torches were lighted. The Pope's
message was read in Manarola. In this recurrence the Ferdinando Monte's (a
famous bolivian painter) Madonna Painting was displayed. La Paz became then
a symbol of all children's sufference. Manarola made a link with La Paz and
Bolivia.
A special train arrived from Genova bringing to Manarola 200 children and
a Red Cross Comitate. While the people with torches walked from the town to
the Crosses Hill, the crib was switched on and Katia Ricciarelli, the famous
italian opera singer, performed Schubert's Ave Maria. A tug boat coming from
the Port of La Spezia completed the show with water jets lighted with
colored rays.
 The
Manarola Crib has become one of the most important recurrence of Cinque
Terre. People from all over Europe come to visit this unique crib, made with
lights and material rescued by Mario Andreoli, who 20 years ago makes this
grandiose sacred representation.
Official site: www.presepe.org
(in Italian)
An Interview with the President of the Park
... where he explains the reasons of the peoples involvement in an
epic, titanic opera of rescue
Franco Bonanini, President of the National Park of Cinque Terre - Parco
Nazionale - Riserva Marina
"We are living an historic passage, and then fundamental, that lead us to
fight a final battle that we know exactly, that is titanic!" he says...
How can we solve this problem?
We can try to stop the destruction of this immense heritage stopping the
landslides, rebuilding the dry walls that are subsiding. We have to begin
the management of all that past generation left to us, even though the
difficulties and the lack of resources....
Time they are changing...
People that are currently 50 yrs old come from a generation of 5 Terre
Middle Ages, villages unchanged for hundred years, closed, isolated living
their life in their closed world. Here we lived since we were children and
as children used to live here since generations.
And in the last 30 years?
Everything changed! A genetic mutation unespected for dimensions and
impact, mutations that changed our way of life and our environment.
Are 5 Terre still a symbol?
Yes, they are. We want they are a symbol and we want to preserve for the
future. Every time I go in the fields and I see a dry wall that subsided, it
is like an injury for me. And injuries are multipling...
5 Terre are a symbol: Via dell'Amore is a 5 Terre symbol, but it is
suffering periodic closing due to landslides...
I think we can't go on this way!
So you thought about a ticket to the 5 Terre?
Yes, because we need resources to mmaintain and manage this heritage, but
also we want to involve everybody in this project. We think about
condivision, not about impositions.
The ticket: not everybody agrees with this project...
It was a kind of provocation: we needed and we still need to make a shock
in order to involve more and more people in this great problem. But people
that came to understand what is our project, and what we think to do, began
to share our positions. Anyone coming in a World Heritage, should be proud
to be a part of a project of a W.H. rescue. We think that we are in a
museum, were tickets are used to pay the costs: this is the principle.
Give us an example.
Who use the paths should give us a contribution for the maintenance.
Only a ticket?
No, it will be a card of services, quality services diffused all around
the Park.
Wine Spectator on 5 Terre wine and landscape
The American site tells everyone to come to visit 5 Terre.
www.winespectator.com
 5
Terre Paths Remain Closed
RIOMAGGIORE 30.10.2000: Cinque Terre paths remain closed due to the bad
weather that last week made some landslides. The president of the National
Park, with the mayors of Monterosso, Vernazza and Riomaggiore, sent a
communiqué where they say that Via dell'amore is closed, but also the
sentiero Azzurro (blue path) between Manarola - Coniglia - Vernazza and
Monterosso.
They say "We regret this inconvenience to tourists and residents, but
anyone can see that it's absurd. The boards understand how important these
paths are only when they are closed!" The mayors hope that all people
that share this problem will send a send cards to the boards to make them
find a solution to this great problem. The post cards can be found in every
Railway Station of Cinque Terre.
Thanks To
www.NewsLaSpezia.com
An Elevator for Corniglia
CORNIGLIA 31.10.2000: An elevator will link the village to the far
railway station. The structure, italian designed, made of iron and glass,
will be put on the side of the brick-stairs. It can take 25 people. Soon the
project will be extended to the other villages of the Cinque Terre. The
elevator will cost 800 million italian lire.
Dollars for the "Muretti" (Walls)
American Express, the american bank leader for credit cards, will help
the 5 Terre Dry Walls Restoration. This enterprise will be done with the
collaboration of World Monuments Fund. A first step is 116 million lire for
the beginning of the work. Cinque Terre are part of 100 sites in all the
world that will receive help. In Italy there are only four sites. This is a
confirmation of the danger of other landslides.
back to top |
