Boomer goes to the beach

Buon giorno from Italy (buon giorno means good morning in Italian, but it is also used as a general greeting)! Boomer and I went to a place called Cinque Terre yesterday on a day trip. Cinque Terre means “five lands” in Italian and this place is named that because there are five lands in the Cinque Terre region. The names of these lands are: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. Boomer arrived by bus in La Spezia and from there he took a train to the fourth and fifth lands, Vernazza and Monterosso. To learn more about Cinque Terre, visit Rick Steves’ travel website and read this article he wrote about the five lands. http://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/the-enchanting-cinque-terre-fiatfree-italy?extras=true

In October of 2011, Cinque Terre was hit with a devastating flood and mudslide. Mudslides are triggered by a large amount of water coming in contact with dirt, which causes mud to rapidly rush through land. When this happens, buildings can be moved from their foundation and the quickly moving mud can injure people.

Vernazza was hit most significantly and it destroyed a lot of pre-existing structures and businesses. Since then, the town of Vernazza has been rebuilt and Boomer got to see how far they have come since the flood and mudslide. To learn more about the Cinque Terre flood, visit this link to read a Travel and Leisure article and watch a video of the flood coverage: http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-blog/carry-on/topic/news/cinque-terre-news-flood-devastates-vernazza-italy

 Vernazza has a lot of seafood restaurants because since it is right next to the water, there is plentiful fresh fish available. This is Boomer enjoying the revived town of Vernazza:

After Boomer finished exploring Vernazza, he took a train to Monterosso. Monterosso is the town in Cinque Terre where people can go to the beach. Boomer was excited to relax by the water and he was glad that he brought a towel because the beach at Monterosso has a lot of small, smooth rocks, also known as pebbles, instead of all soft sand like many beaches in America. The body of water that Boomer saw when he was at the beach is called the Mediterranean Sea. Do you know what the difference between an ocean and a sea is? Boomer wondered this while we were at the beach, so he went to http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/oceanorsea.html and learned that oceans are larger than seas and seas are part of the ocean, usually enclosed by land. Which two oceans are on west and east of America? Look on a map and see if you can find them!

Boomer was glad he remembered to put on his sunscreen so he didn't get burned while he was laying on the beach. He was so tired from the adventure filled day that he went back to his hotel and fell asleep right away, dreaming of what adventures this week will have in store. Ciao!