La Mattina

The hiking trail to Manarola heads up and out over the circular stairway. Fishing boats, kayaks, rowboats underscore the maritime position of this spot, with this small waterway access sandwiched between two very steep cliffs supporting a clinging village above. A breakwater in the distance serves to provide some shelter from stormy seas and as a second opinion for fisherman who might be headed out in the same. An amazing intertidal zone where grapes for wine grow only a few hundred meters above this spot and an intact culture still survives in true Italian fashion, somewhere between sea and viticulture. This piece was done in the late morning on a warm September day.