Italy is a little country, but everywhere you go, there are different landscapes to be explored. If you hop on to a train, after just an hour or two, you can step out and see a completely different world in front of you. Two important landscapes that are very important to Italy are the sea and the mountains. I traveled to the west coast of Italy, where there are five towns that comprise an area known as the Cinque Terre. The town are built directly into the rocks by the Ligurian Sea. The proximity of these towns to the sea shows the direct link between the sea and the way that people live by the coast. Additionally, the many trains passing through tunnels going through the mountains connect the five towns in Cinque Terre. In this way, the natural landscapes of both the Ligurian Sea and the mountains change the way that the Italian people have had to adapt to life on this coast. Being right next to the sea affects everyday life, from the seafood eaten at every table to the people sunbathing and swimming to the boats stationed at the harbor. These are five distinct towns, but all are connected by trains that pass within the mountain. Life is unique in this region because of the bounty of the sea and the boundaries the mountains create.
