A tale of jellyfish and jungle gyms. And Rick Steves.

Beautiful sunny day

This week has brought progress in all forms.  The April showers started to give way to May sun, and coupled with a week of Italian holidays, the town filled up, beach towels were shaken out, shoes kicked off in the sand, and cocktails shaken at beach bars.

Our little barchette friends

The long stretch of beach in Monterosso, however, wasn't just full of people.  A normal happening in the spring time, le barchette, or velella velella, are little cousins of the Man-O-War, but harmless to humans (not that we advise testing this theory).

These little deep purple-blue creatures have a tiny sail that makes them slaves to the wind, and after a rainy April, the strong gusts swept these little barchette to our shores.  What looked like dirty water was actually a colony of sea creatures happily lolling in the sea.  As the winds calmed down, these barchette served as a reminder of the clean water surrounding Monterosso.  Now that the weather has changed, and our barchette friends have stopped dropping in, the local boys have gotten to work sweeping them up.  The barchette had to give up their space on the beach as people started laying out in the sun in the mid-70 degree weather.




On the other side of town, the playground in Piazza Garibaldi has begun to be reassembled.  Children, scattered in the piazza are happily observing the construction of their new slide, their new jungle gym, their newly redone playground.
What was an area filled with trucks and workers at the start of the Old Town, one of the most visible zones that Monterosso is still a "work in progress", is becoming more and more what it was - a tree lined playground full of happy kids with parents and grandparents (and in many cases, great-grandparents) sitting on shady benches talking with their friends, and enjoying the incredibly normalcy of a town rebuilt.

Rick Steves, dining at Pozzo with a photo of the ladies of Rebuild Monterosso

Spring also brought renewed support from an old friend to Monterosso.  Travel guidebook author Rick Steves visited Monterosso for several days this week, and Rebuild Monterosso showed him around the town and our recovery.  As the normal "shoulder season" of tourism shrugs into summer, Rick Steves visit brought a feeling of excitement and a happy reminder of the incredible amount of progress we have made here.  Seeing his impressed grin at our rebuilding makes all the work and the end result so much sweeter.

Gianni (and of course Molly) cleaning up the barchette on the beach

Sunbathers, couples enjoying the sun, and barchette clean up

The new playgound!

Schoolbus idling in piazza

A sunny week at the end of April has swept in many things - new visitors, old friends, beach chairs, little jellyfish and soft spring breezes - but most of all, the renewed smiles of a town happily embracing the start to a new season.