Apparently the rain is over. Nothing in the forecasts today. The news from the Cinque Terre is no better. More videos have surfaced, along with the news that people (mostly tourists but some residents) have been successfully evacuated by sea from Vernazza. At least nine have perished.
A stream goes down the middle of Vernazza. About a hundred years ago, the stream was put under the pavement. It continued to flow, draining water from the terraced vineyards that surround the town on three sides. There are points along the street where you could hear the water flowing beneath the road, from vineyards to the sea.
It was a freakishly intense rainstorm — they received 20 inches of water in less than 6 hours. It was like a misplaced monsoon — torrents of water funneled from the surrounding mountains into the town carrying rampaging tons of mud and debris. That narrow street became a riverbed again, and Vernazza met a fate almost similar to Pompeii: the entire ground-floor of the town was buried.
Now most of its people are evacuated, there's no water or power, no communication, and the town is cut off from the rest of the world as roads and train lines are still being dug out. Businesses that the people of Vernazzan have worked all their lives to build have been washed away. Its church now houses only a mucky indoor lagoon.
Word comes now in these early days of recovery that there are fears that Vernazza may not rebuild and it could become a ghost town. I don't see this happening. People are determined to dig out and bring life back to both Vernazza and its neighbor Monterosso. The other three towns of the region — Riomaggiore, Manarola and Corniglia — because of their more fortunate topography, went through the storm essentially unscathed. The president of the Napoli region in the south is sending equipment and people to assist. This is what people do – send help. Help others to rebuild their lives. If not for tourism, just because these people have lost everything. Literally.
We walked over to the Uffizi after breakfast and I handed my ducklings off to their guide and we went in. Pictures in the cafe and all questions of that day's planning over, I hung out until 12:30 and went to meet Rossana at Antico Paoli. We had a lovely time. She told me how worried she was when she saw the news in the Cinque Terre because she knew I go there with my groups so she was very pleased to get my call. I told her about mamma's surgery and how we've changed my tours for a few weeks, but I will be back in two weeks for a five day Florence private tour. We agreed to find time to see one another during that time. Kiss kiss goodbye for now.
Spent the rest of the day relaxing in my room watching terrible television dubbed into Italian. I have never been able to watch an episode of “Grey's Anatomy” at home, but if it's on here and I'm around, I'm watching it. I like the “acting” better with the dubbing. “Murder She Wrote” and “Walker Texas Ranger” are on every afternoon. Still. It kills me.
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