Cinque Terre recovering from floods and a wet ride to Lucca

The 5-Terre region of Liguria is comprised of 5 picturesque seaside villages. Each with it's own character and traditionally linked by age old trails through steeply terraced fields of olives and grapes. Huge floods in the fall of 2010 decimated large portions of several of the villages. We stayed in Vernazza, which was heavily flooded when the main creek jumped its banks causing a wall of water to come crashing straight through town, burying most of the businesses in 10+ feet of mud and rock. We were amazed to learn this because we arrived to a beautiful town, shops and cafes doing brisk business, and a general feeling of vibrancy.

For sure the recovery continues as was evidenced from ongoing work to re-open.the seaside trails and rebuild outdoor decks at trattorias, but we felt fortunate to be able to enjoy a few days exploring the villages (we were able to hike a few sections of trail, and take the local trains to visit each village - they are really all very close to one another). We were mesmerized by the awesome seaside topography and the beautiful villages which struck us as organic outgrowths on the hillsides and rocky shoreline. Amazing to realize just how long folks have been living here!

After a few days we opted to test the forecast and ride up out of Vernazza and along the ridges over to La Spezia. The road was pretty rough, and our gears ( or legs?) were almost not enough to climb up and out from Cinque Terre. The rains slowly strengthened until our final descent found us soaked to the bone, and pretty chilly to boot. We made our way straight to the train station and tried to dry off and change into dry clothes. We opted to train in dry comfort for the second half of the day to Lucca. We arrived and made our way into the walled city looking for yet another indoor accommodation (we had anticipated splitting our time between camping and hosteling, but so far the rain has pushed us indoors most nights). We are looking forward to dryer weather and more saddle time, until then we will enjoy being tourists in Tuscany.