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Day 20, Sunday, June 1
Since our arrival at our farm stay we have talked about walking into the city of Salsomaggiore is about a 2 mile walk. Getting there is not a problem as most of the walk is downhill. It is the trek back that we were not looking forward to. After a cup of coffee and breakfast we headed toward the city center. The road to get there is narrow so looking out for an Italian driver is a must and Lisa is once again on high alert. Not only for drivers, but snakes as well even though we have not seen one since we got here. After about an hours walk we were in the city center but since it was Sunday only the cafes and restaurants were open. On Saturday we noticed signs closing down a road inside the small park and since Monday is Republic Day in Italy Jim thought there might be a parade or something. As it turned out the street was closed for a “Boot Sale”, where individuals park their cars or vans and setup tables to sell whatever junk they have to sell. Boot in Italy is like
England and means the trunk of a car. Basically it was just a big flea market and by 1 PM the big crowds were gone.
It was time for lunch and Jim spotted a restaurant when we first came into Salsomaggiore call La Porchetta so we decided to have lunch there. Lisa ordered a slice of pizza and Jim ordered the calamari fritti, which we enjoyed with two beers. The slice of pizza was about an inch thick and was delicious. The calamari was fresh and tender and even though there was too much Jim ate it all.
After lunch we took a walk through town and felt like we had the place to ourselves. Salsomaggiore is actually called Salsomaggiore Terme, where Terme means hot springs. In the center of town is a large art deco building that houses hot baths heated from natural springs. Everyone we talked to before coming to Salsomaggiore knew about city, as it is a destination most Italians know of for the baths.
It was around 3:00 PM so we started to head back to our Farm Stay and that long uphill climb. As the first
Monterosso
Cinque Terre town most like a resort townhill came into view neither of us was looking forward to the climb and wondered if we could call a taxi to come pick us up. The elevation at the start of our walk was about 356 feet above sea level and we ended our trek at 1,137 feet. Needless to say when we got home the first thing we did is take off our shoes, pour a cold beer, and go put our feet in the pool which is not heated. The good news is we felt good about the exercise as the past couple of days we have been eating very well and needed to work off some of the pasta and salumi.
Day 21, Monday, June 2
Today is Italian Republic Day so we guessed that all the shops would be closed so Cinque Terre is where we are headed. The toll roads in Italy make is somewhat easy to get to long distances. The GPS said it would take us a little less than two hours to get to La Spezia where we could catch a local train to all of the five hill towns. Getting to La
Spezia was painless but once in town that is where the excitement started. The GPS was either playing games with us or was not aware of one-way streets and before we knew it Jim turned down a one-way street, the wrong way! As we came to an intersection something strange happened, an Italian driver actually stopped and motioned to Jim to turn that put us in the right direction of travel. It wasn’t until we turned did we realize we were going the wrong way on a one-way street. Jim could only imagine what the Italian driver said to himself when he saw us, “stupid tourist!” It was not long before once again we were traveling the wrong way on a one-way street but Jim quickly made a u-turn. Our goal was to find the central train station and the parking lot underneath. Somehow we found the parking garage, with no help from the GPS, and parked the car.
Once in the station there was a big crowd and most of them were standing in line to get tickets for the train to Cinque Terre. The best deal is to buy a Cinque Terre Treno card that
allows unlimited train travel and access to all the trails between the towns. The cost of the card is 12 Euros so once in hand the next task was to figure out what platform to catch our train from. After finding ourselves on a vacant platform common sense kicked in and we figured we must be on the wrong one. After speaking with a young man that worked at the station we found the right platform and headed to our first stop, Monterosso.
Monterosso is one of the five hill towns known for its beaches and resort atmosphere. Since it was a holiday there were a lot of young Italians on the train planning a day in the sun. As we strolled down the seaside promenade we noticed a small café and listed on one of the chalkboard menus was an IPA. Our waiter spoke English and was very helpful and soon we had our first hoppy beer in about a week. Jim would hate to admit it but we have been drinking the local Peroni that is kind of like an Italian Budweiser. Lisa had a focaccia sandwich and per the waiters recommendation Jim had the
Vernazza in the Cinque Terre
Smaller town filled with tourists seafood pasta. Everything was delicious and the setting was even better yet.
After a short stroll through town it was time to catch the train to Vernazza. The hike from Monterosso to Vernazza is estimated to take 2 hours while the train ride takes 4 minutes. The train does not go that fast either. The trains have a schedule but are never on time and you have no idea if the train stops at each town or just a few. In some cases the train only takes about three minutes to go from one town to the next. We arrived in Vernazza to find it packed with tourists and much smaller than Monterosso. With so many tourists and the hiking trails closed due to high rains in the winter it was time to get back to the train station and head to the next town. The plan was to go to Corniglia and then Manarola and take the trail to our last stop, Riomaggiore.
As we said not all trains stop at each town and as we whizzed past Corniglia and Manarola we looked at each other and all we could do us shrug
our shoulders. The train did stop at Riomaggiore so we got off. There is no level ground in Riomaggiore and climbing the steps and walkways through the town could be challenging for some people. There is a little beach in town but it is only about 60 feet wide and used to launch small fishing boats. The weather was very warm so before getting back on the train we found a small gelato shop and indulged in a cone.
Once back in La Spezia we found our car, paid the parking fee, and then back on the streets of La Spezia doing our best to not head the wrong way on a one-way street. Instead of depending on the GPS we followed the street signs to the Autostrada and believe or not we made it fine. About 20 miles outside of La Spezia traffic came to a halt and for the next 20 miles or so we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Because of the national holiday everyone else had the same idea of visiting the Cinque Terre. It took us about three hours to get home but we made it fine, with all four tires on the
car.
It is starting to sink in that our vacation will soon be coming to an end and just about every day we think about where we have been and what we have done and it seems like two months ago we were in Rome starting out. One reason we like to write a blog is so we can go back and see what we actually did. But we still have about a week to go so the eating, drinking, and sightseeing is not over yet!
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