October 25, 2011 – Stories

An Incredible Story of Courage in the Face Of Death A Personal Account of Tragedy Caused by the Vernazza Flood Pino Giannoni of the gelateria “Porto Dody Gelateria Artiginale” in Vernazza disappeared in the flood that occurred in Vernazza on October 25, 2011. This is the personal account of what happened as told by his…

What will linger forever in my mind is that the only thing more beautiful than Vernazza is the soul of its brave and generous residents. Our stay in Vernazza began late in the afternoon on Oct. 23rd. It was our first visit to Cinque Terre and like many had gone there on the advice of…

We will return to Vernazza again and again. Our hearts are with all the people of Vernazza. I was in Vernazza October 25 with my husband, brother and sister-in-law. They had never been to Vernazza and I wanted to share with them this beautiful village that I fell in love with 18 years ago and…

We left feeling deep respect for the people of Vernazza. We wish them Godspeed in their recovery. They radiate God’s grace already. The rain grew heavier as we nibbled cheese to the sounds of Puccini arias and the ducks quacking in the stream below our ground floor apartment windows. We were relaxed; reading passages from…

The conviction that I had not 5 minutes before left me as quickly as the blue water in front of the bar turned to brown. It was a gloomy October Tuesday and despite the drizzle I awoke happy knowing that it was the last day of our work week. Marco had asked me to change…

The people of Vernazza rescued me, and showed me that there are truly wonderful, selfless people in this world. When a traumatic event happens, and people ask you afterwards to tell them about it, you (at least I) give them the “Readers’ Digest” version. Those elements may certainly be the most dramatic and the easiest…

The main street was roaring and churning, washing a car and truck down under the train station and water and debris over the tracks and the train platform. The day after we arrived, we had a wonderful day visiting the five towns and woke up to rain the next morning. The owner of the place…

gas….gas….gas….same in italian as English….you could smell it everywhere This blog was written a few days after we left Cinque Terre. We were in Vernazza the day of the flooding/landslide: Thurs. Oct 27. We arrived in Florence last night after a harrowing experience in Cinque Terre (CT) our first day 10-24 in CT was very…

Our hearts go out to all those who lost everything. We ( 6 friends from Toronto, Canada) were in Vernazza that horrible day in a restaurant at the bottom of the hill near the water. As the water rose very quickly and the gas lines snapped we were trapped inside and would have drowned. We…

May God richly bless the people of the Cinque Terre. Of all days to plan a day trip to Cinque Terre, ours was October 25, 2011 — the day the towns would be changed forever. We were on a Mediterranean cruise, and we took a day trip with Papillon Services to explore the region we…

Our prayers are with you Cinque Terre. My wife and our 1 year old son were there during the storm. It started raining around 11:30am and by 2:00pm the streets were flooded out and things got very scary. It rained so hard and so fast, it was like nothing I had ever seen before. When…

At one point I really thought I was going to die Myself, my brother and my sister in law were there for a day trip from Monrolla and ended up getting stuck for 24hours. I have traveled a ton and have experienced many things but never have I seen/experienced something like this. At one point…

We can honestly say we have been blessed with the privilege of visiting Vernazza BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER this tragic event…we are forever changed. On October 25th, 2011, my husband (Preston) and I (Andrea) along with 5 of our friends set out to explore one of the most beautiful places in the world, Vernazza Italy,…