Featured Post

Great Tastes - Pineapple Crab

-
Image
  From Ruby's Kitchen Crab in Pineapple Crab in pineapple served with corn pulao, salad and chutney Recipe & Method of Preparation Ingredients for Crab (dressed) -500 g Onion Paste -  2 tbsp Garlic paste - 1 tbsp Ginger Paste - 1 tbsp Green Chilli paste(deseeded) 6 pcs Tomato paste ( deseeded ) 3 tbsp Coriander 1 tsp, Cumin 1/2 tsp, Fennel 1 tsp, cloves 1 tsp, black pepper 1 tsp, sesame seed 1 tsp. (All spices to be dry roasted and powdered) Grated coconut 4 tbsp ( ground to powder form ), Basil leaves 2  tbsp              Cooking method Crabs to be thoroughly washed and then mixed with turmeric and salt. Sauté the onions and garlic ginger paste using 2 tbsp oil in a kadai till the onions turn light brown. Next, place the crabs in for frying. After about 5 min pour the dry roasted masala and coconut tomato paste. Keep frying till it dries. Add salt to taste. This process should be carried out in low flame. Meanwhile, slit the pineapple lengthwise and scoop out the pineapple fl
Post a Comment

Cinque Terre

-
ITALIAN RIVIERA

Simply enchanting! A sight that provokes a longing to return again and again. As our train passed through a series of tunnels after La Spezia and was about to enter Riomaggiore station, the openings in the tunnel walls provided a fleeting view of the precipice leading almost vertically down to a spectacular expanse of blue Mediterranean.Crystal blue, totally different from colours of seas I have seen so far. So distinct that this shade of blue has come to be known as Mediterranean Blue. Riomaggiore is one of the five villages on the rugged portion of Italian Riviera. The other four villages are Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia and Manarola. All these five villages and the surrounding hillsides dot the Riviera and belong to Cinque Terre (meaning ‘five lands’) National Park – a UNESCO World Heritage site. Since almost thousand years from now, residents of these villages carved terraces on the rugged and steep rocky lands right upto the cliffs. These heavily terraced hills were used to cultivate grapes and olives. And today this region flourishes for its vineyards, some of the best Italian wines, olives and fishing.



Riomaggiore Rail Station



Mediterranean Sea


A view of the Riviera

Cinque Terre

Blue sea


Tunnel leading to the beach at Riomaggiore

Shop for water sports equipments

Water sports equipments are available on rental for tourists

Beach

Riomaggiore

Riviera 

Mediterranean Blue

Map of Cinque Terre National Park, UNESCO World Heritage site


Cafes and shop selling souvenirs and local wares

Riomaggiore beach area



Houses at Riomaggiore



Cinque Terre

6

Photographs : Arundhati Sengupta




How to get to Cinque Terre from Florence ( Firenze )
There are several trains run by Trenitalia from Florence to Pisa and from Pisa to La Spezia. In order to travel to Riviera and Cinque Terre from Florence, one can plan out a comfortable day visit. Buy a ticket at Florence Rail Station for your journey to Riomaggiore. Florence is a very friendly station and buying a ticket is an easy task. Change trains at Pisa and La Spezia. Florence to Pisa takes less than an hour, while Pisa to La Spezia takes around one hour and La Spezia to Riomaggiore about ten minutes.

As Cinque Terre region is heavily terraced upto the cliffs no motorable roads came up over the centuries due to ruggedness and complexities of the Italy’s landmass along the Mediterranean Sea. In absence of such corporate development, the region has retained its pristine beauty. But Italian Railways has done a great job in providing connections to these five villages which otherwise was largely cut off from the larger world. Prior to rail service, boat was the only lifeline linking the isolated communities to the larger world. Railways have made properly guarded pathway around the cliff walls for a spectacular view of the Mediterranean lapping úp against the rocky shores, and also a tunnel running parallel to train tunnel for tourists to take a shorter and easier route to sea level.There are three to four cafes on the riviera where one can enjoy delectable seafood and Italian wine. Washrooms are located near the cafes and at Riomaggiore station where entry fee per person  is one euro. The other shops located at the shore end of the tunnel cater to water sports products like kayaks,scuba diving equipments etc. on rental, nice souvenirs and local products.If you plan your stay in La Spezia or any of the Cinque Terre towns you may click the following link to book your stay.
http://www.booking.com/city/it/la-spezia.html?aid=359014&no_rooms=1&group_adults=1

Book Now Pay Later for your Hotels or Apartments in Italy

Booking.com






India 68, Pratapaditya Rd, Lalpara, Sahanagar, Kalighat, Kolkata, West Bengal 700026, India

Comments

Kanchan Dasgupta said…
Very well written.Lucid and interesting.
14 November 2017 at 21:43
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Florence

-
Image
FLORENCE     Florence –  the capital of the Tuscany region and the cradle of Renaissance   We opted for Flix Bus while traveling from Venice to Florence. The road journey takes about three and a half-hour. In Florence, it terminates at the rear end of Santa Maria Novella (SMN) train station. One of Italy’s busiest stations, it got its name from Santa Maria Novella Church just across the plaza from the main entrance. We debarked at the station and refreshed ourselves at McDonald's before hiring a cab for our hotel. Florence, popularly known as ‘Firenze’ by the Italians, is located in central Italy. This dreamy city with a romantic name is the regional capital of the lovely Tuscany region.   Columbus Hotel, where we stayed, is located in Lugarno District. We always prefer to book our hotels through Booking.com as we always land up getting good hotels at good locations. Despite being a little away from the heart of the city and Santa Maria Novella station
Read more

A Roman Holiday

-
Image
ROMA - Ancient Rome & Papal Rome Imagine going back 2000 years in time and space while standing on the stone floor inside a colossal amphitheater. Amidst thousands of Roman spectators. The booms of drums reverberate as the ceremonial parade enters the stadium. After saying ‘Ave imperator; morituri te salutant’ (those who are about to die salute you) to the Emperor, the gladiatorial combat begins. The crowd shouts jeers and throw their hands up in excitement. 60000 spectators? Like the excitement at Eden Gardens in Calcutta while watching a Cricket match. The gestures, the excitement, the uproar may be different from our present-day Mexican waves. But how does that matter? After all, a stadium is a venue for entertainment – be it the bloodiest sport in the history of mankind. And how the Romans loved watching violence and killings. Historians remain befuddled as to how Romans who are regarded as the precursor of human civilization could have indulged and e
Read more

Phnom Penh - from Killing Fields to a Humane City

-
Image
Phnom Penh-a great Cambodian City Time began with the Big Bang about 13.77 billion years ago. Our universe originated and began expanding from Day One which included the formation of our planet Earth. But not so long ago, on 17th April 1975, a Cambodian school teacher Pol Pot (who had been to Paris on scholarship to study Radio Electronics and returned to Cambodia to take up a teaching assignment) declared Year Zero in Cambodia. That was in line with the concept of Year One declared during the French Revolution. The idea was to discard and destroy all culture and traditions within the society and bring in revolutionary culture. President Lon Nol fled Cambodia on 1st April 1975 following a bloody civil war that lasted for five years. And on 17th April 1975, a swarm of locusts in the guise of Khmer Rouge descended on Phnom Penh to devour teachers, artists, and intelligentsia of the Cambodian capital. Pol Pot’s intention was to eliminate threats to his idea of agrarian society. That wa
Read more

Italy's Floating City

-
Image
Vienna to Venice On the last day of our stay at Vienna, we had moved to an apartment closer to Wien Meidling Railway station. This was because we had to catch a train for Venice, early the next morning. The beauty of the ‘La Petit’ apartment was that our window opened out to the rail station, a tram terminus, metro, and a bus stop. After breakfast and a little shopping at the supermarket next to the metro station, we rode a tram to Karlsplatz. From there we walked down towards the famous Kunsthistorishes Museum (Art History Museum). In short – Kuntz Museum. A refreshingly pleasant walk in this beautiful European city with the mesmerizing sight of imposing buildings on both sides of the road glistening under the clear daylight. Built in 1891, near the Imperial Palace, the imposing façade of the museum is a treat to watch. The museum houses extensive collections of the Imperial Family ranging from Artworks of Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Baroque era.
Read more