Seawatching, what a magic!
Are you facing the same dilemma between relaxing vacation and a summer full of adventures? At Cinque Terre there is a good compromise: it is seawatching, an activity suitable for everyone! No special features are required, except being a sea lover.
Seawatching is a sport everyone can practice at all levels, since the only required skill is watching the sea! It is about observing the marine fauna; you practice diving with a mask and fins or, for the more experienced, in apnea. The Cinque Terre are particularly suitable for seawatching because their depths are extremely varied. The stretch of sea Between Punta Mesco to the north-west and Punta Montenero to the south-east is of great naturalistic interest: it would suffice to get the equipment and swim in the area to realize that the depth of the seabed ranges from 2 to almost 50 meters of rocky walls and sandy shoals.
Being a protected area, it is not difficult to spot extremely rare or even endangered creatures. One of these is Posidonia Oceanica, an aquatic plant, particularly flourishing near Monterosso, that contributes to the formation of marine ecosystems. Unfortunately, pollution and trawling have almost completely eradicated it throughout the Mediterranean, except for reserves such as the Cinque Terre.
If up to Monterosso the seabed is not very deep, at Corniglia it gently slopes up to 18 meters. Here, on the rocky wall called “Franata”, there are various cracks and small caves, where curls, nudibranchs and damsels nestle; if you are particularly lucky, you can even come across one of the surviving specimens of pinna nobilis, a very rare marine species. The rocks covered with sea daisies and red gorgonias are more frequent and suggestive. A little further off, large banks of blue fish swim.
You can end your excursion in Punta Montenero, where lobsters peek out from the bottom. At this point you are ready to go back to the surface, enriched with an experience to say the least … breathtaking!
