The time is now. For everything.: Magic of Manarola. Colour, cliffs, sea... Beauty.

Manarola, besides Vernazza, was I think my favorite of five lands.

Great view at the station.

Nice little square placed over the houses.

And all these silly colors!

I mean, even I would not be able to combined these.

Loved it.

See?

Little taverns,

gelaterias and cafes.

Loved all these little carefully chosen details.

What I find interesting in Italy in general is that they little fountains with drinking water everywhere.

If you choose to go straight up the hill you will se the old mill and big old church.

There is one thing that makes Manarola very special when compared to the rest of the 5lands.

And thesse are The Hill of Lights in Manarola, Italy.

See those white characters on top of the hill?

I chose to leave the group and explore this little by myself.

It was easy to chose where to go.

Cliffs were closed because of the landslides so the only way to go was up, following tiny concrete path and smell of orange and lemon trees.

It proved to be the best choice I made.

Mario Andreoli has been creating Manarola hill lights for the past 50 years, adding and changing figures each year to the now 300 or more characters.

A retired railway worker, passionate about his creations, forever designing new scenes and improving on the old ones.

He is loved by the community and the excitement mounts for the ceremonial ‘light up’ on the 8th December.

All the life size figures are made from recycled materials, lit by thousands of light bulbs and in this you tube video you can see Mario at work.

The Alpine Club volunteers help him with the heavier work and to mount the characters.

Magical, isn't it?

Manarola may be the oldest of the towns in the Cinque Terre, with the cornerstone of the church, San Lorenzo, dating from 1338.

The local dialect is Manarolese, which is marginally different from the dialects in the nearby area.

The name "Manarola" is probably dialectical evolution of the Latin, "magna rota".

In the Manarolese dialect this was changed to "magna roea" which means "large wheel", in reference to the mill wheel in the town.

Manarola's primary industries have traditionally been fishing and wine-making. The local wine, called Sciacchetrà, is especially renowned; references from Roman writings mention the high quality of the wine produced in the region.