Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre (literally, ‘five lands’) is a set of towns along the Mediterranean coast of Italy connected by a walking path. They can also be accessed by car or boat, but most visitors use a combination of trains and hiking to explore the towns. I’ve even heard that the resident population of Manorola has a higher rate of boat ownership than of automobiles.

The villages are an interesting exercise in small community survival tactics, although I don‘t think they would identify themselves as an ‘intentional community‘. Their bread and butter is the seasonal tourism and fishing/farming industries, in that order. To help with large influxes of visitors, there is very good public transit to and from each town. People who live there were intertwined with the tourists - their mutual dependence seemed obvious to both. For example, we found a place to stay only because a local tried to rent us a room when he saw we were carrying a tourist guide book. Turns out the place we were originally looking for was run (and built) by his cousin who was on the other end of a cell phone thrust at me a minute later.

A large part of the income generated in Cinque Terre seems to stay in Cinque Terre - the only advertisements I saw were for local businesses, often in hand-painted signs. The way to find the best restaurant is to ask someone who lives there. Some of the seasonal restaurant owners did live elsewhere during the slow season, which attributes for some capital attrition.

The towns of Cinque Terre are difficult to drive to and park in. More automobile access might provide a longer tourist season, but would certainly alter the character that attracts people in the first place. Nor is it easy to manage the seasonal income from tourism. It requires some budgeting and allowing for certain governmental regulations that aren’t always beneficial to small, seasonal businesses. One store owner was required by his business license to remain open for 9 months out of the year, even though it would have been more profitable to only be open for 6 (many of his products have a shelf-life; when his supply outpaces the demand there is a significant amount of waste).

Many of the intentional and eco-villages we’ve encountered are an exercise in managing trade-offs such as Cinque Terre‘s seasonal dilemmas: restore an existing (inefficient) structure OR build a new one? Attract lots of people and grow quickly OR be very specific about inhabitants and grow slowly, if at all? Perhaps the answer is in how to change the ORs to ANDs.

Torri Superiore

Torri Superiore (TS) is in the town of Torri which is just outside of Ventimiglia which is just outside of Nice, which is actually in France, even though we are in Italy.  TS is a cohousing/ecovillage/hotel in a converted medieval stronghold on the side of a hill.  It only has a footprint of about 300 ft by 200 ft, but its  network of Escher-ish staircases and efficiently shaped spaces provide for hundreds of rooms.  During peak season, over 70 people can stay here.

Although a stone castle structure isn’t the most efficient in terms of heating, the architects of the TS community decided that it would be better to start with an existing structure instead of building from scratch.  The renovation process started in 1989.

TS has an entire system of people that contribute to its well-being.  Some live here full-time, year-round and divide up cooking, cleaning, administrative, remodeling, and other responsibilities.  Others arrive only seasonally and help out with farming and other projects such as furniture building. Others own sections of the village and use it as a summer home.  Others are members of the Cultural Association and contribute in a variety of ways.

We got a chance to talk with several of the local farmers that help supply TS with organic and very local food.  Olives are a big crop here, although it appears to be more and more difficult to make a living growing olives, making olive oil, or providing many other crops while staying small and independent.  Hence the mutually beneficial relationship between TS and the local farmers -- one gets organic, local food, the other gets customers, and both share the labor of maintaining/remodeling an ecovillage and farm.

The olives from the trees don’t grow into new plants once they hit the ground -- the trees that are covering the terraced hillsides can be several hundred years old, and many are the same plants farmed by the people who settled in Torri during the middle ages.  The olive trees take a while to grow as well -- often times a farmer would plant trees not for his crop but for his children 15 years in the future.

Another challenge for local farmers is the restrictive national regulations.  One farmer had worked across the US and Europe and found the ability to try different practices and innovate with farming techniques was much easier in the US due to more flexible laws.

Meals at TS are shared in a common dining area.  Although people there may have different jobs and interests, food and eating is what brings everyone together.   Dinner doesn’t start until 7:30, and when we leave around 9:30 it is still going strong.