Log book

Sailing along the coast of Cinque Terre Patrizio asks about the rules for access to the Marine Protected Area. He discovers that the most important aspect is anchorage, because anchoring here means furrowing the seabed, doing irreversible damage, so the whole area is dotted with mooring buoys to use as an alternative. In addition to the buoys here and there there is also “Clean Sea”, the first floating refuse container, so crews really have no more excuses for dirtying the sea!

The Marine Park is divided into three zones:

1. Zone A: the smallest, only 5% of the total, it is a total reserve and you absolutely cannot go into it by boat
2. Zone B: a “buffer zone”, where professional fishing is forbidden, but you can go through it by boat at a moderate speed
3. Zone C: a big zone, which covers about 4,000 hectares and where both fishing and the passage of craft are regulated

However, ships or boats longer than 24 metres cannot go in anywhere.

Patrizio’s tour continues in the “Patagonia of Cinque Terre”: Monesteroli, a “spontaneous village”, so remote that isn’t even on the maps! To get to it, after disembarking you need to climb up a path of over 1,500 steps, an itinerary highly unsuitable for tourists that suffer from dizziness. Once you get to the top, the little breath you have left is taken away by the panorama! It is unbelievable that though finding yourself right in the middle of one of the most frequented tourist places in Italy – Cinque Terre – there still exist hidden spots like this, self-sufficient from the energy point of view thanks to a couple of little solar panels, practically out of the world!