Cinque Terre

We left Rome at 2:10 pm for La Spezia, just south of the Cinque Terre. If you can't find it, find Genoa and then follow the coast slightly southeast. We arrived in La Spezia at 6:30 pm. We tried to reserve our next train from Cinque Terre to Nice but had a poor experience with a ticket agent who spoke no English and refused to show us his computer screen or write anything legible. We arrived in Vernazza in 7:30.

Vernazza is one of five villages perched on these cliffs overlooking the Ligurian Sea. Coming from the south (La Spezia), they are in order: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. The train went under the mountain for much of the time, but every so often you'd come out along the coast and see beautiful sparkling water with mountains in the background. My first impression of Vernazza (after getting out of the tunnel into which we stepped...there's a very short platform in Vernazza) was that it was a hive of activity. We saw tall, narrow houses all stacked together very compactly. Tourists in bathing suits mingled with locals at cafes...though the former seemed to be the larger group.

We stayed at Martina's Rooms. There were 5 flights of stairs to climb, but we had a nice view from the top, as our room looked out on the square just down by the harbour. We had dinner at a restaurant just below our room. Karen had pesto pasta (pesto originated here)while I had baked anchovies (another local specialty). During our dinner, Karen took a video of a man playing panpipes as he beat his drum with a shaker and marched around the square.

The next morning, I got up just before 8 and headed out to do a couple loads of laundry. After finishing that and getting some breakfast, we headed out to Monterosso around 11 for a hike through the five villages that make up Cinque Terre. We had been advised by a travel book to hike from Monterosso to Riomaggiore in order to do the hardest part of the hike first. It was a long, steep, strenuous climb toward Vernazza. We stopped for lunch and a swim in Vernazza. Vernazza to Corniglia was also quite steep, with lots of narrow mountain paths which made passing others difficult. We stopped for gelato in Corniglia and then carried on towards Manarola, which proved to be a much easier hike. The walk from Manarola to Riomaggiore was on the Via Dell'amore, or Path of Love. This paved, level path had been forged between the two villages in the 1920s to facilitate the meeting and marrying of young people between them. It's easy to see how isolated the villages would have been before the train was built linking them. Anyway, this part of the hike was MUCH easier. In Karen's words, "This isn't even a hike anymore." We had hoped to take the boat back to Vernazza, but we were too late by more than an hour, so we hopped on the train back to Vernazza. We shared a large pesto pizza for dinner, down by the water on the rocks. Note: In Italy you have to pay to sit down in a restaurant, so it's cheaper if you buy takeout and then find your own (free) "chair" elsewhere. After dinner, we wandered into a little shop and bought some limoncino (an alcoholic lemon drink that is from the area) and some liqueur chocolates.

The next day, we started with a delicious breakfast at Il Pirato restaurant, found by walking up the hill past the train station to the very top of the town. I had a strawberry slushie with a vanilla-filled pastry garnished with strawberries, while Karen had a very thick hot chocolate with whipped cream on the side, and a chocolate pastry. We were well-impressed with both the food and the friendliness of the Sicilian twins who run the place and resolved to return for dinner.

We took the boat to Manarola to see the olive press museum, only to find out that it was closed. It is only open for a few months in the fall at harvest time. So we thought we would take the boat to Monterosso and spend some time at the beach...only it's now 12:40 and the boat doesn't come again until 2:55. So we thought, what the heck, we'll hang out at the beach at Manarola (which is rocky rather than sandy) for a few hours. There were some young people (mostly young men) who were jumping or diving off some very tall rocks into the water near the shore. As far as we know, no one was paralyzed by so doing, though it's not something I would remotely consider doing. Karen did some sunbathing on the rocks and swimming, while I read a novel for awhile.

We eventually got to Monterosso, where we found out it cost 15 euros to make use of two beach chairs and an umbrella at the beach (it turned out it was a private beach and even to use it at all cost 15 euros). So we spent a few hours there, and then I went to an internet cafe while Karen stayed at the beach a bit longer. We took the train back to Vernazza and went to Il Pirato where I had pesto lasagna and Karen had pesto gnocchi for diner. I also ordered another strawberry slushie--they were SO GOOD! We met a Canadian couple who were holidaying there on his leave from duty in Kandahar and chatted with them for the evening, finishing off with a fruit pana cotta (like creme brulee with fruit) we shared. Divine...