Like sun through the clouds

Where we were...

Via Roma, view from the foot of the street, two days after the flood on October 25th

Via Roma, October 27th 2011

Via Roma, Il Pozzo to the right, Fast Bar to the left, October 27th, 2011

Yesterday afternoon, sun through the clouds

 The sun has been stubbornly shooting rays through the cloud cover all day, creating these distinct slices of light through the blue on blue sky and water.  As I walked to the Old Town to check out the progress on Via Roma, I noticed some similarities on how the sun can peek through the clouds, and the progress being made here in Monterosso.  Like rays of sun, hardheaded and still making themselves seen through a cover of thick clouds, walking down Via Roma can also seem a bit like an overcast day.  There is work being done all around, as I've said many times before, and recovery and rebuilding a town is never a neat and tidy thing to do.  It's dusty, it's loud, it's full of noises and boxes and mess, but, like little streaks of sun, you can see more and more signs of progress peeking out of the clouds of construction dust.  New doors, glass sparkling clean, lacquered wood shining, swing open.  The clean, bring color of new asphalt on the newly rebuilt street provides dramatic contrast to the faded pavement next to it that remains.  Little tables with fresh, clean tablecloths make their way outside restaurants, displaying menus, as the town starts to shake itself off and stretch itself open, like after a deep sleep.
What a difference a few months makes...

Il Pozzo yesterday, open, new, and mud-free.

The new tabacchi

Via Roma, under the arch, the new street inching along (centimetering along?)

Quiet looking from here, but inside each door is a shop or restaurant full of people hammering, scraping, and painting away