Travelling to the Cinque Terra

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We needed to catch a train from S M Novella to Monterosso at 10:28 this morning so we got up, had our breakfast if fruit and yoghurt then packed and cleaned up the apartment. We needed to face the challenge of getting our bags all the way down the very steep stairs - all 4 flights of them. We both first took our big bags down to the bottle then came back upstairs for the final things. We considered this effort to also be good training for our Cinque Terre trek.

We got to the station with plenty of time to spare and then did the whole 'stare at the board until a platform number appears beside your train and then rush to that platform' game. Sure enough, as soon as the number appeared the crowd starts heading in the same direction and it is chaos! We didn't have allocated seats on the first leg of the train, which was Florence to Pisa, so we knew it was each man (or in this case, woman) for themselves! We walked further down the platform than most so were able to find a carriage with seats and settled in for the ride.

An hour later we were arriving in Pisa although we were a few minutes late. This reduced the time we had to make it to our next train, which went to Monterosso, but we are becoming good at this train travel caper so made it in time and were standing fairly close to where we needed to be to get into our carriage. We had booked first class for this part of the journey so had allocated seats but there were two carriages that were for first class and there was some confusion who were saying someone was in their seat but it was because they didn't all realise there are 2 carriages (and they have the same seat numbers). Every time I book a first class ticket I seem to have some problems. First time - train was cancelled. Second time - carriage had no aircon so we had to sit in another. This time - the aircond really wasn't great and it started to feel like a sauna in the carriage.

We were travelling through tunnels and the first time we can out once we were close to the coast, we were met with the most stunning view! We had started on the coastal line and we were getting our first glimpses of the Italian Rivera! Of course it was short lived and we were back in a tunnel - until the next time we can out, had a short glimpse and were then back in again. The train then stopped at a few of the towns on the Cinque Terra and we started to get excited by what we saw. Stunning!

Before long we arrived at Monterosso so we alighted the train and lugged our bags out of the station. We were met with the full on view of Monterosso - the beautiful seaside town. We walked for about 15 minutes or so to locate our accommodation, which did entail a little bit of dragging our bags uphill but it was quite manageable (perhaps everything after Florence will be!). We were met by our host Stefano who was very knowledgeable about the area and recommended a place for lunch. It was now about 1:30 so we headed off to find the restaurant Belevedere. It was easy to find so we grabbed a table near the waterfront. We decided to have the spaghetti with mussels, clams and octopus with the insalada mista, and had a Birra Moretti whilst we waited.

The pasta came out and it was huge! Just as well as we were hungry lol. We didn't think we could possibly eat it all but it was sooooo delicious somehow we managed. After we finished our lunch we went for a walk to check out the town (and hopefully walk off a bit of lunch!). After a while we were both pretty tired so we headed back to our hotel for a siesta. This hotel was originally a residence which has been converted into a four room hotel, so very boutique.

After our rest we headed out for a bit more exploring and found a nice walk up to a lookout area. It was one of this ones where you walk up quite a few stairs and come to the lookout only to find out there is another further up ......... and another one and another one! Beautiful views along the coast made it all worthwhile.

We came back down then walked all the way to the other end of the town then headed backwards in our hotel direction. We saw a nice looking spot along the way so decided to stop and have an Aperol Spritz. After a while we decided to have something to eat but given our lunch, we wanted something light. I had the mixed salad with tuna and Janine had the mixed salad with olives and feta.

After dinner we wandered back to our hotel and sat up in the roof top terrace for a while, enjoying the peace and tranquility. We had a big day planned the next day as we would be starting our Cinque Terra hike so we decided to call it a night.

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