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Riomaggiore
From the beginning of the hiking path.Riomagiorre, in the Cinque Terra, moves into a slight lead over Santorini as my favorite place on this trip. The Cinque Terra, “the five lands”, is a national park that consists of five little villages in a remote area on the Italian Riviera. Although it is remote, this place is very popular with Americans, (Australians and Germans coming in a close second). Let’s just say you hear more English than Italian as you’re walking around the street.
I may have loved this place so much because it was a mini miracle that I even got there. Yesterday afternoon in Florence (pretend that this blog is up to date!), I had no place to stay that night, so I went to the Internet café and began sending emails about apartments in Cinque Terre and also printed a list to call. After about 10 calls, I found one that was available for four nights. I had one hour to get my bag at my hotel, get to the train station, figure out how to buy a train ticket with two connections, and hope that the train would actually run (there was a train strike going on this day). There were about 50
Riomaggiore
The view from my deck. people in the ticket line so I used the automated ticket machine and hoped I did it right. After two very quick train transfers (picture OJ at the airport) and a cab ride, I pulled up to the edge of Riomaggiore around 11:30 pm (no cars are allowed in the towns). Beppe, the apartment owner, was waiting there to walk me up the hill to the apartment where his wife Christina was waiting. They spoke about three English words which matched my three Italian words, but with that and a whole lot of hand gestures, we figured out what we were talking about. I fell in love with this couple. They were the sweetest people, and the apartment was just lovely.
I headed out for the seven mile hike between the five towns which runs along the coast, through vineyards and lemon groves. Each town is beautiful with its own unique charm but my favorites were Riomagiorre and Vernazza.
Throughout the day I had ended up meeting 5 people from the states, 3 guys from Seattle, and later two sisters from Anchorage, all having just graduated either high school or college. I invited them all over for dinner
Villa Dellamore
Starting the hike at "Lover's Lane" the locals "inspiration point". which was great for me because I’ve been dying to cook and great for them because they had a home cooked meal (hard to come by in hostils). It was entertaining to spend the evening learning about what’s going on in high school and college these days.
World Cup - You don’t need a TV to know when Italy wins or moves on to the next round . . . (again, pretend this is up to date) you get fire works and men singing all night long in the streets.
Food - This is the place for Pesto! I’ve never tasted anything like it and I ate it every day determined to figure out how they make it. The other specialty is Trofie, a pasta made with a little potato, designed specifically for pesto. This region is also known for their Focaccia, which I did try and am happy to report tasted very similar to the one Mika, Richard and I made at cooking school. White wine - hiking the trails you can see all the vineyards planted on the cliffs and just imagine the amount of physical labor it takes to work the land during harvest.
Fisherman
The water was so beautiful! It’s A Small World Part Deux: I just finished up with the pay phone in town and decided to get a gelato. As I walk up the hill, I see a couple relaxing after finishing the long hike and realize I know them. It was Stacey and Joe, my friend Mickey’s friends from San Francisco! We talked for a bit, got a gelato and then headed off to the train station. I think this tops my Vatican experience for Small World Stories.
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Richard and Mica
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Your cooking pals
We are loving your travel blog and thank you for adding our picture at Badia a Coltibuono to it. I tried making "schiaciatta" right after the class and instead of coming out "flat" it came out kind of unevenly fluffy. "Whoops!" My second try last week was a suucess. Mica and I were in Cinque Terre when Italy beat Australia in the World Cup. What chaos and what fun. It looks like you are having a great time. We sent your blog to our friends back in New York, so you have a lot of fans out there. Continue to have a great time. All the best, Richard and Mica