Cinque Terre - recovery from the floods?

[BlueGoo]

Hello - has anyone been recently in the Cinque Terre since the terrible floods of October 2011? Are Monterosso and Vernazza back to normal? We are going to be there in June.

[BlueGoo]

Thank you everyone for your information. I guess we'll keep our fingers crossed and not expect too much.

[betta12]

Monterosso is about 99 percent back to normal. Only 2 restaurants have yet to open (both due to open May 1st) after the flood and the hotels and infrastructure are operating as normal. The streets are rebuilt, the beaches are clear, the water has been tested safe. The link for Monterosso's recovery is www.rebuildmonterosso.com, a site started by American women living there to spread info about the recovery, and now that they have more or less recovered, information about the traditions, culture, and food of the region.

And yes, Vernazza is OPEN. They have tourists, streets, restaurants and more and more opening up every day. Though they still have a lot of work to do, it's important to keep this area in mind. These little towns clawed back from near destruction, and keeping them in your travel plans is essential to their recovery.

[allende]

Vernazza is back to normal. Don't know about Monterosso, but I imagine it is.

[Godwin77]

What??? Back to normal??? It's not true! Vernazza is still in terrible state. Look at the photo here: http://cinqueterre.a-turist.com/alluv... Vernazza will be ready only for 2013, only a part will be ready this summer.

[barberinibee]

People can look at this website and see exactly what is and isn't open in Vernazza (including restaurants).

http://savevernazza.com/traveladvisor/

Vernazza has been declared "open" and safe for tourism and many restaurants/lodgings are open and have been for weeks. Of those remaining that are not open, the website gives projeted opening days (mainly for May and June), and is updated frequently.

There is a similar website for Monterosso al Mare (which was less damaged anyway) but I am sorry I don't have the link. But generally the report was the same: opening back up in 2012.

[allende]

@ Godwin77

Every day, the papers here are reporting that more and more restaurants are open. There was a huge article about how the entire family who own Gambero Rosso, probably the best of the restaurants right on the port ((a decent restaurant to have a lunch), worked every day since the flood, to have the place opened. They succeeded. Perhaps I shouldn't have used "back to normal." What I should have said was that the town was functioning well (and all the newspaper accounts say that it is) and that the restaurants have reopened (we focus on food on this site, don't we?).