Cinque Terre. Liguria. Five lands.

Description

I created this drawing in memory of my summer holidays in Liguria, precisely in Deiva Marina.

Deiva is a beautiful, quiet town located in the Cinque Terre, where my daughter spent her childhood in the summer at the Residence Kriss, a facility managed by the Zazzali family. Mr. Franco and Mrs. Cristina were always very kind to us, respecting a pleasant, serene, calm and friendly confidentiality.

The human and travel memory in these places, halfway between poetry and fairy tale, is so great for me that it becomes eternal by representing it also through a drawing on paper and not just by keeping it in my heart.

Pastel-colored houses, made almost as children would draw them: colored houses, leaning against each other in a vertical run between the hill and the sea. A few churches, beaches to play, transparent water. White seagulls meet every evening on the roofs next to the Kriss or on the beach to wait for the fishing boats.

Cinque Terre like five pearls, mixed with salt and the scent of freshly caught lemons and anchovies, then preserved in glass jars by the women of Deiva Marina. Five pearls set in the blue sea, very transparent and changeable.

Fragile countries but which recklessly lean out with their vertical vineyards onto a Ligurian Sea full not only of anchovies but also of mermaids and maritime legends that find space to be told between dives.

The many artists, writers, directors and painters who left a little piece of their hearts and themselves in the Cinque Terre knew well that it was poetry and fable. The Literary Park has been dedicated to Eugenio Montale and, starting from Monterosso, offers excursions along the paths that the poet himself loved to follow, strictly dressed in dark and never in a summer uniform. Extending your gaze and immersing yourself in the wonderful panoramas all around, it is easy to understand why so many poets chose the Cinque Terre and the neighboring territory lying on the gulf of eastern Liguria known, not surprisingly, as the Gulf of Poets.

They are not only the setting of a literary park but also of a natural and national one, 3868 hectares over five villages, with kilometers of dry stone walls built by man for cultivation and with the protected marine area which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1977. . I remember the staircases, the very long one (more than a thousand steps) which, challenging the vertical hill, passes through woods and vineyards and then, overlooking the sea, reaches the village of Monesteroli, which can only be reached in this way, or by boat. Surprising and exciting, like the tradition of the luminous nativity scene of Manarola which every year during the Christmas period illuminates the entire hill with magic with the silhouettes of the sacred figures. There are hundreds of them and they were created in 1876 by Mario Andreoli: their magic is rekindled every 8 December and I would really like to be able to admire it this year.

Landscapes that recall a "postcard" appearance and also hordes of tourists who literally flood the towns.

Tourists, mostly foreigners, pouring down from the train stations, the only means by which it is possible to reach the Cinque Terre.

I end with these quotes, written in 2021 and taken from "True stories of an imaginary world" by Dario Vergassola:

"I don't know if God invented this place, but judging by its beauty it could also be the opposite. Little by little calm returns, your eyes are able to bring everything into focus and you see the entire coast of the Cinque Terre on the left, on the right the majesty of Punta Mesco and in the center Monterosso which welcomes the waves of its sea".

Thanks to the Zazzali family, Deiva Marina and this spectacular paradise of the five villages of Monterosso al mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.