Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre

Our stay in the Cinque Terre, the five lands of a National Park that stretches  along the north west coast of Italy, was much anticipated. After having spent most of two weeks with friends, we were definitely itching to get some alone time to enjoy the beautiful beaches and relaxing atmosphere of these tiny coastal towns. When we arrived in Riomaggiore, the southernmost town of the five, it was raining. We got out and walked down the tunnel which was decorated with a beautiful tile mosaic depicting images of sea wildlife. We weren't too sure how to get to the offices of Mar-Mar apartments, but once we popped out of the tunnel, we saw that the entire town consisted of basically one street. The apartment offices were right there. We were brought to our room, a cute one room place with a bathroom, a mini fridge, and a window that overlooked Via Colombo. 

We immediately unpacked our things and headed down to the marina, where we saw about 50 colorful rowboats stacked one on top of the other between  red, green, pink, blue, and yellow apartment buildings. We walked to a lookout point where we were safe from the wild, crashing waves, and just watched in awe of the clear blue, green, and purple sea smashing down on the 'shore.' 

It stopped raining for a while, so we headed up to dinner at the top of the town. There is a really cool tiny castle at the top of the town that is open to the public. From there we were able to sea each of the five towns from right along the water. I have never seen so many different colors of blue.  The Ligurian Sea combined with a post-rainstorm sky was one of the best things I've ever seen. 

Dinner at Ripa del Sole was great. Since anchovies, pesto, and focaccia bred all are typical of this region, we had a lot of that not only for dinner but throughout our whole say in the Cinque Terre. That first night we had a five fish appetizer, two of which were anchovies, one octopus, fried mussels, and tuna. We also had a pesto pasta with zucchini (awesome), and boiled Sea Bass. We shared a bottle of vino bianchi that was bottled  in the Liguria area.

The following day, we decided to do a 4 town hike from Riomaggiore to Manarola to Corniglia to Vernazza. The route from Riomaggiore to Manarola is not so much a hike as it is a walk on the boardwalk. Nevertheless, it was awesome because the entire 20 minute walk on the Via del Amore was built into the cliffs above the shoreline. The coastal hike from Manarola to Corniglia was closed due to a landslide, so we took the detour route instead. The detour route consisted of a 45 minute vertical hike up sets and sets and more sets of stairs. Once you get to the top, thou, it's definitely worth it. This detour brings you right through wine country where they harvest the grapes along the hills next to the sea. It was a little scary at times because the trails were really thin and if you slipped it would have been to your death, but it provided the most amazing scenery which made it worth it. 

We had lunch in Corniglia and then finished our hike to Vernazza. As soon as we got in there we headed for the water and immediately changed into our swimming suits and got in. The water was really nice and not quite as rough as it was the day earlier. We met some nice people from Bristol, England and got some beers with them while we waited for our train to take us back to Riomaggiore. We made plans to meet up with them later that evening. 

That night we went to Manarola to meet up with Rich and Lizzie. We had some so-so dinner and then went to a bar across the street to sit and listen to music with our new British friends. We headed back to the train station to get to our 12:07 train, only to arrive in time to see it leave. Figuring we would give it a try, we went back to the Via del Amore trail to see if we could walk back, which luckily it was. We had heard that it was safe, but being the freak that I am, I held an empty beer bottle in my hand the whole way, ready to smash it and then threaten someone who might want to steal my stuff. That's my Jersey beer muscles for ya. 

Day 3 we went to the beach in Monterosso. All day. It was beautiful. Do me a favor though people, please stop smoking cigarettes. If that is not immediately possible, at least stop smoking them at the beach. That night we stayed in Riomaggiore for some drinks and socializing. We met some cool people with terrible accents from Chicago, and had a really fun time with them. Because the bar we were at served food that was advertised as 'microwaved pizza and pasta' we decided to ask to see if we could bring food from somewhere else in. The chick behind the counter said yes, buy when Dave returned with pizza (and a beer) from another place we were formally reprimanded in Italian, and then a little later, not so formally reprimanded in English curse words. Either way, this was the only place open at midight so we decided to stay and outstay our welcome. Later that night in our apartment I got to see Dave fall down for the first time ever. It was hilarious and luckily nothing broke. 

Our last day in Cinque Terre, Dave and I got stood up from our Midwestern friends and instead of having breakfast with them, headed down to our 'beach' in Riomaggiore. At the marina, there is one large rock that people were sitting and sunbathing on. We stayed there for about an hour and a half and then decided to leave after realizing the rock was dreadfully uncomfortable and was making our body parts hurt. We got some gelato and sandwiches with pesto, tomato, and mozzerella and went for another walk around town. We discovered another beach that was actually a little bit more like a beach than the rock we were sitting on. This one, too, was covered in rocks, but it was a little more manageable and less crowded than the first.  Sitting and sunbathing was easy and enjoyable, but trying to get in and out of the surf completely kicked my ass. The big waves crashed on top of rocks and more rocks. Once you were done getting thrown around and thoroughly embarrassed, the water past the break was beautiful, clear, and seemingly a little calmer. 

That night, battered and drained from the waves and sun, we decided to have dinner and make it an early night. We ate at La Lanterna and had a delicious dinner of mussels,  penne with garden vegetables, and three-fish ravioli. It was a perfect way to say goodbye to Cinque Terre and to Italy.