CINQUE TERRE

 

The Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. It is in the Liguria region of Italy, to the west of the city of La Spezia. "The Five Lands" comprises five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.

Upon arrival to cinque terre (via 4.5 hour train ride from Rome) we were blown away by the beauty of the Mediterranean Sea and the GORGEOUS coastline.  It is truly a site to see.  I think of all the places, this was my favorite.  Not really touristy at all, no real site seeing (although I enjoyed seeing the other sites), the sounds of the water/beach, and true authentic Italy.  I loved the teeny little towns and colorful buildings stacked up on top of one another.  I cannot describe in words how extremely beautiful this place was.  A DEFINITE place to go if you are planning a trip to Europe anytime soon.

 

we arrived in the late afternoon and this is what our first impression was.  Ahhh. The town was perfect.  We stayed in Monterosso… the first town on the map.

The first night we ate at what quickly became our favorite place there, Miky la Cantina.  Actually, Manuel is the owner, Miky is his dad who owns a restaurant a couple of doors down.  We ate in a neat garden area that they literally just threw a table into.  All the other seating was on the outside sidewalk overlooking the Med. Sea or inside the actual restaurant/bar.  The food was INCREDIBLE and so was the wine.  We asked for the house wine and got plain, unmarked bottles that they refilled with the local wine supply.

We asked Manuel for 2 bottles of house wine he had only one left – so he took his empty bottles and left for about 15 minutes and returned with his unmarked bottles all full.  I am picturing him refilling them from some barrell of wine at a local guy’s place.. but who knows.. all I know was that is was excellent.

 

see the full bottles in the back?

 

 

 

Olive oil and balsamic were also local – everywhere we went in Italy they gave you bread and a bottle of olive oil and bottle of balsamic vinegar… that was also your only option for salad dressing.

 

Our guys.. Brian (Megan’s Hubby) Charles – my guy, and John (Britni’s Hubby)

The Gals: Britni, Me and Megan

cutting up

 

 

The custom was long late dinners.  We didn’t even head to dinner most nights until around 9ish and we’d just sit and eat and eat and eat.  They have several courses and since our American tummy’s aren’t used to eating that much food, we would share each course with someone else, usually me and megan would share and so would brian and charles.  We wanted to taste everything they had and at this place the hot item on the menu was the anchovies.  We ate fried anchovies and anchovy bruschetta… very good, not fishy, just a salty flavor. I’m sure they were super fresh.  This area was also known for the pesto – it was fabulous as well.  Megan and I had the most delicious steak – they didn’t even ask how we wanted it cooked… i guess they don’t care what we think is “correct” they do it their way - and it was perfect.  This particular night we finally got up from the table at 12:30 a.m.

the view out of our window. yes, i’m serious.  totally stunning.

The location was excellent – we stayed in the new part of Monterosso.  The rooms were all energy efficient and you had to put your room key card into a slot for the lights or anything would work.  Also, if you spent too much time in the shower, it would just shut off… no warning, just stopped.  Also, some italian couple had the room next to us and got into a knock down drag out fight screaming and yelling and throwing stuff EARLY in the morning. ugh. not bad though when you look out the window and see this ^^  Nights were cool there since we were right on the water, so we left the window open at night and fell asleep to the waves crashing in… writing this makes me want to click my heels and be back.

 

 

Charles called these Luigi cars (like from Mario Bros.)  He was dying to drive one – but I’m not sure he would even fit.  They were TINY.

 

There were a couple of topless people on the beach, but trust me, you didn’t miss anything.  One thing that was so cute was that they just sat the babies on a beach towel naked.  not sure why they just didn’t leave at least a diaper on, but the little baby bottoms made me miss my babies…

 

this tunnel connected old town Monterosso to the new.  We were headed to hike  from town to town.  look back at that map.. FARRRRRR.  I was with the guys since the fighting Italians kept me up in the wee hours of the morning, I fell back asleep and missed the girls departure at 9:30 since I had just woken up at that time.  Since I was hiking with 2 sisters that both have run marathons and Brian who just finished the MS 150 I was a bit nervous about how in the world am I gonna “hang” with everyone.   It was the hardest thing I had ever physically done – yes harder than childbirth (since I had epidurals)… but much to my surprise, I hung in there just fine.  It was a huge disadvantage that I was nearly a foot shorter than everyone.. exaggerated – ok the girls were both 5’10” and naturally the guys are all taller than they are so every one step of theirs took two of mine.  The stairs went on for days… my legs were JELLLLLO afterwards.  but totally WORTH IT – CHECK out these views:

the trail

 

One bajillion steps my legs hurt just looking at it – now back to the pretty stuff:

 

 

That town back there in the distance is where we started.

 

Almost to the 2nd town. Vernazza.

 

I guess this was a popular pee spot.. they call it the WC (water closet).

 

Olive trees ^^ They roll the nets out to catch the olives and then roll them back up.

 

VERNAZZA! beautiful!

 

 

looks fake doesn’t it?!  It is 100% real.  We finally reached this town after hiking for 2 hrs. straight – mostly uphill.  Needless to say we chilled here for quite a while.

 

As we hiked and saw little houses and fields/crops etc.. we wondered how the workers got up here every day – ah ha! they had this little lift thingy that was on a track and also behind it there was a trailer to haul stuff up and down the mtn.

 

 

local produce – the BEST strawberries I have ever tasted were from one of these local markets. They tasted just like the kind that we soak in powdered sugar but they were fresh.

pesto pizza for lunch.  Pesto was delicious but unfortunately, the crust was a bit soft and uncrispy

lemons everywhere

 

 

even the boats have character..so colorful and cute!

speaking of cute,, there’s charles! :) we have started out to town #3 Corniglia

 

this stuff doesn’t even look real. just gorgeous.

 

sign: Stop. Cafe (Coffee) + Pastry = 5 Euros

 

Oh JOY.. not much further!

well.. kinda far.

There’s Corniglia (sounds like Corneelia)

 

me and the twin towers

 

cute signs

 

happy hubby.

cherry tree – just randomly there.

time for a wine break and apparently a blackberry break too

 

Over this gelato break we decided we were all done hiking. well, all but megan. she is a machine… we decided that we all really wanted to take the ferry ride back and see the views from the Sea – and knew that it was already 16:00 and the last boat was at 18:00… yes they use military time – I wish we did. it makes so much more sense. anyway – not enough time to hike 2 more towns… so it made sense to hop on the train to the last town and hang out there until the ferry ride.

We were on our way to the train station and saw this local artist – we bought this painting.

 

walking together

 

me and megan

these guys were fishing on the rocks with the biggest fishing poles I’ve ever seen. and the guy with the white hair is totally sporting a speedo.

 

gigantic mural on the wall

 

 

waiting on the boat

no words required:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved catching the locals watching out and seeing what us tourists were up to.

 

we got back to our hotel *pictured above and took much needed showers after hiking all day and went to eat at this place:

 

we had the best pasta in all of italy and the worst seafood in the same meal thankfully in different courses.

the pasta was a ravioli stuffed with something heavenly and then a walnut cream sauce.  the walnuts were ground up fine and it was insanely delicious.

the seafood, not so much.

since we are all adventurous eaters.. we tried it.. really, we did.. but it was just nasty.  we are a bit spoiled living in the South with good seafood…oh well.. we were over it and went to our favorite spot. Cantina de Miky!!

We heard a song that they played at our wedding so we hopped off the barstools and started dancing.  The hoodie was always with me since it was cool outside.

After hiking all day – I never expected a night like this:

Cheeers!

 

The bartenders – owner, Manuel is on the right

 

 

megan and brian dancing

 

everyone is having a ball.

 

this guy danced crazy funny.  He was born and raised there in Monterosso

 

two local guys

 

goodnight.. it was now 2:00 a.m.

the next day we just souvenir shopped – saw old town monterosso and these gorgeous lemons.

Then we caught a train to Florence – which I’ll tell you all about in the next post.. Ciao!