By now you may have heard about the devastating flash floods and mudslides that hit parts of Liguria and Tuscany over the past few days (more rain is expected, so it’s not over yet). Among the most severely damaged are the Cinque Terre towns of Monterosso and Vernazza.
>> UPDATE, NOVEMBER 4: A second wave of storms and flooding has now devastated the Ligurian capital of Genoa, killing at least six and leaving many more wounded, stranded, or homeless. The death toll in Liguria from the previous flooding now stands at 10.
While this is by no means high season, there are still people who have been planning to visit the affected area for some time. If your holiday plans include the Cinque Terre, Ligurian coast, or Tuscan coast, you really need to contact the hotel where you’re planning to stay to find out if their area is okay, if they’re going to be open when you arrive, and if you should make alternate plans.
There are parts of Liguria and Tuscany that are merely getting rained on rather than flooded – note that not all vacationers to those regions should change or cancel their plans – you would just be smart to check on the status of things before you leave home.
How can I help?
Several people on Twitter asked if I knew of any relief efforts to which they could donate to help the affected areas, and thus far I’ve heard of one. If you’re in Italy, they usually make donations easy by allowing you to donate via text message from your mobile phone.
- From Alex of Italy Chronicles on Twitter: “To help storm damaged 5 Terre send text message to 45500 to donate €2 via mobile phones using Italian moble operators.”
If you’re not in Italy, you can arrange to wire money to a specific bank account set up for the relief effort.
- Bank name: Banca Intesa Sanpaolo
- Bank address: Viale Lina Cavalieri 236, Rome
- Account details you’ll need to arrange a transfer: IBAN – IT 80 O 03069 05061 100000000567; BIC – BCITITMMXXX
- Memo that must be included with the transfer: “Un aiuto subito. Alluvione Levante ligure e Lunigiana”
Other ways to donate money:
- You can also donate to the Italian Red Cross directly (there’s a page in Italian about the specific relief efforts in Liguria and Tuscany that they’re involved with).
- The Florentine Press and The Florentine have set up an easy way to accept international donations to help flood victims in Liguria and Tuscany, collecting money via PayPal in €2 increments.
- There’s a specific site/organization that’s now been set up for Vernazza called Save Vernazza. I haven’t researched the organization, so I don’t know who’s behind it or where the money will go – I’m just providing it as an option I’ve been told about.
- Kate left a comment below that Monterosso is now accepting donations via PayPal, which is great news. She says the site is currently in Italian only, so you can go to this page of her blog to find the steps explained in English if you want to donate.
Other Resources/Stories
- Several dead after floods hit Tuscany and Liguria [video report] on BBC
- Mudslides and Flooding Ravage Areas of Scenic Beauty in Italy on New York Times
- Villages all but wiped out as storms batter Italy’s Cinque Terre on The Telegraph
- Six killed in Genoa flooding on Telegraph
- Videos of the Flooding in Genoa on Italy Chronicles
- A Violent Rain Buries an Old Friend – editorial by Rick Steves
- Photo gallery of the damaged areas on the Washington Post
- Photo gallery of the damaged areas on Corriere della Sera
- Vernazza main square buried under mud & rock on Pietro Ligure’s Facebook page
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{ 10 comments }
Some of those areas were hit pretty good. When the weather is that “off” its better to postpone to 2012.
Thanks for citing The Florentine Press’s initiative to collect donations! We wanted to do something easy, with paypal, because most other methods are geared towards people with Italian cell phones or bank accounts. We’ll be donating everything to the Red Cross’s fund for the tuscany and liguria emergency. Just FYI, people who wish to donate more than 2 euros can just up the number of pdf’s ordered and donate more. We received 20 euros from one reader!
Thanks for the note, Alexandra – and I agree, it’s nice to have an option for those of us who aren’t in Italy and therefore don’t have Italian phones or bank accounts.
I pray for all those people involved. good article.
Hi- Just to let people know, the municipality of Monterosso is now able to accept donations through Paypal.
If you go to the town hall’s home page, http://www.comunemonterosso5terre.it/hh/index.php and click on DONAZIONI, it will take you straight through to the Paypal site.
If you do not speak Italian, I have explained the few steps you need to get through before the page is able to switch over to English at http://www.littleparadiso.com/2011/11/donating-to-help-flood-victims-in.html .
Thanks Jessica and Alexandra for your support.
Kate
Thanks for the information, Kate! I’ll update the post.
Hi!
Thanks Jessica for the most helpful informations! I`m starting to falling in love with 5 Terre.
I`m planning a trip to Rome and 5 Terre with my friend next summer (2012). Do you think that the damages is prepared enough by then? We are planning to go to Monterosso. But where else we could go? What village of the 5 Terre would you recommend for us, if we would like to have sun, beach, calm/quiet but still things to do, good food, actual Italian life, shops etc. When would be “the best” time to go (in summer) there, if we want to avoid tourist growds but still have warmth? Is it better to fly to Pisa if we go first 5 Terre and then couple of days to Rome? I know, hard questions! 
I would be very thankful, if you had time to answer!
Anna, Finland
I recommend the Ligurian Coast as a place to visit in 2012, so even if Monterosso and Vernazza are not ready for visitors, you can read here about other places in the area that should be:
http://www.italylogue.com/planning-a-trip/5-places-to-go-in-italy-in-2012.html
And here you can learn more about the Cinque Terre in general, including a description of each town:
http://www.italylogue.com/cinque-terre
There are links on the right-hand side of that page that should help you learn about transportation in the area, as well as between the Cinque Terre and Rome/Florence.
http://www.italylogue.com/planning-a-trip/getting-around-in-the-cinque-terre.html
Hi Jessica! Love the website. My wife and I will be spending 2 weeks in Italy in mid May. This will be a first time visit for both of us and we are having a hard time deciding between Cinque Terra or Southern Italy(Sorrento, Capri, & Naples) Had the floods not happened CT would have been our choice since hiking/beautiful scenary is one of the main things we are looking forward to, but now we arent so sure. We would love to hear your thoughts on if you would still reccomend going to CT in its current condition or to take the safer route and go to sothern Italy. Thanks!
Pete
I actually listed the Cinque Terre & Ligurian coast as one of the places to visit in 2012:
http://www.italylogue.com/planning-a-trip/5-places-to-go-in-italy-in-2012.html
The area may not be exactly as it was last summer by the time you get there, but from what I’ve heard from friends in the area it is rebounding more quickly than I think many expected. Vernazza is still digging out, Monterosso is a bit further down the road to recovery, and the other three villages weren’t so badly damaged to begin with that they required as much repair work. I don’t know the status of the famous hiking trail linking the five villages, but there are several other hiking options in the area that aren’t right along the coast.
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