Cinque Terre

There's an interesting article on the BBC about the Cinque Terre National Park. This stunning stretch of coastline has protected status and great efforts are being made to preserve the traditional small-scale farming on steep terraces. It's a big contrast to the Amalfi Coast where road access and hotel developments have transformed the area. The Cinque Terre still retains its simple village-y character. More tourists arrive each year though (what with all those subsidies and the tourist income, the locals must be raking it in) and even coach parties now spill from the train and cram the lanes, so if you want to go there, go out of season and go soon.
> Our feature on the Cinque Terre
> Walking the Cinque Terre

Mirror brings winter sun

We love this story from the BBC about the determination of a little village in Italy to capture some winter sunshine: Italy village gets 'sun mirror' . Through the cunning placement of a large mirror on the hillside, Viganella can now direct the sun's rays into the town square. Sunshine and an outdoors social life are crucial to the Italian way of life, although one would have thought the villagers would be used to their winter gloom by now. Still, 'Progetto Specchio' (Project Mirror) will doubtless brighten Viganella's winters as well as giving the village some international publicity. The village is in the north of Piemonte, in the shadows of the Alps, and the nearest tourist town is Verbania, on Lake Maggiore.