Ahhhh! What a feeling it was! To arise with the warm sunshine hitting the trellis of grapevines hanging down the steep city walls of this truly charming coastal village of Manarola, one of the five towns that make up the Cinque Terre.




I felt immediate creative energy rushing to me, and I was inspired to write a few lines of prose and poetry in my hard bound journal, as I sipped cappuccino and broke into a freshly baked croissant. I could imagine some of the legendary writers and how their mornings must have started much in the same way: a leisurely stretch into a reclined position overlooking the crystalline waters of the Ligurian Sea.

Yes, this stretch of waters in the far northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea was dubbed the Bay of Poets more than a century ago when the likes of Lord Byron, the Shelleys, and Leigh Hunt settled along these shores to find the inspiration in the natural beauty and quietude.




Lord Byron strikes me as a particularly enigmatic character of those times long since retired. The term Byronic hero was in existence long before James Dean took to the silver screen for a few brief years before burning out like a supernova on central California highway. Byronic or Dean characters are the type that are defiant and melancholic, as if there is some deep, dark secret in their past that continually haunts them each moment of life.




Being born with a clubfoot could be that source of malign that drove Lord Byron to create such brooding works of prose and poetry that still draw considerable attention by the academic community. Despite the defect, his absurd sexual conquests likened him to an English version of Don Juan, as he boasted of sleeping with more than 250 women in the city of Venice in less than a year. Wow. Fortunately, he was not alive during today's much more perilous times in terms of sexual activities.




There is a rumor that he once swam from one side of the bay near Genoa all the way to the Shelley estate sitting on the other side of the bay, several miles away. Well, I did not swim quite that far, but I was definitely enjoying the warm waters of the Ligurian. With temperatures somewhere in the upper sixties, it was refreshingly cool, but you could stay out there swimming without getting hypothermia is the case in my home in Northern California.




I leapt off twenty-foot metamorphic rock formations that formed an impromptu diving platform for the adventurous traveler. At first it was all fun and games, until later in the day after we had hiked to a different part of the Blue Walk. There I spied a rope tied into the rocks that looked perfect for climbing and then diving. Once I climbed all the way up to where the rope was, and used it to get me a precipice overlooking the turquoise blue, it was a little higher than I anticipated. As I am pondering the drop, a boat cruises by and they start shouting at me in Italian. Although I could not translate directly, I got the gist of it, which basically said: "DO NOT JUMP!"

Of course I did jump, and obviously I made it and can therefore relay the tale to you, but I want to say that I do understand the dangers involved with cliff jumping, or waterfall jumping. I have a friend who was almost paralyzed with a mishap from a rocky dive, so I would urge those reading to not emulate the author unless you understand the risks and feel confident in your ability. Even then keep the realization in my mind that there is a possibility of failure - and the consequences are severe. Another time I will recount my journey to Acapulco where we saw the famous cliff divers at La Quebrada.




Another chapter was finished in our European tour. We sadly checked out of our bungalow overlooking the sea and purchased some cold cuts and fresh baked goods to take with us on our way back towards the Slavic region. We would make it to Trieste by sunset, just in time to watch the sun drop away into a different body of water that we saw it rise over. What an incredible few days - and Croatia was next!

Photo of Lord Byron courtesy the link above, a great site for researching great authors of the past.

ER Harris