Cinque Terre Part I

I have had a request by a few people (Shell and Clarisa) to put some more photos up of Europe. I know, I know, I seemed to have moved on from my holiday and concentrated on photographing other things. So, the the first set of photos are of the Cinque Terre. I had never been the Cinque Terre before but had heard that it was definately one of the highlights of my trip to Italy. I had pasted an extract about the Cinque Terre which describes it:

Eighteen kilometers of sheer rocky coastline in northern Italy, terraced hills and vineyards sloping steeply down to the sea. Five little villages are built into the rocks between the beach and the hills. You can hike, swim, drink red wine, and watch blazing Mediterranean sunsets away from the tourist throngs in the Italian cities and the French Riviera. Centuries old footpaths and mule tracks wind about 500 to 1,000 feet above the sea, leading through olive groves and vineyards, orchards and chestnut woods.Each village has its own character, they are a few minutes apart by train.There are almost no cars as the villages are not easily accessible by road, but the main railway between Rome and Paris runs along the coast, mainly in tunnels.

http://homepage.sunrise.ch/homepage/avong/cinque_terre/

The following photos were taken in Vernazza, the fourth of the five villages. It is one of the most popular of the five, because it has easy access for large yachts and ferries. While it is also one of the prettiest, but because it is so popular for big boats, large numbers of people visit it daily and it can get crowded.