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Published: November 20th 2006
Riomaggiore
Southernmost town of the Cinque Terre. or five lands was our second day. Photos don't do justice to the panoramic vistas one experiences here! The scenery is breath-taking!!! The Italians have a knack for building things on mountainsides, and the Cinque Terre showcases it. We only spent some time in the four cities that were closest to the Ligurian Sea; Riomaggiore, Manarola, Vernazza, and Monterossa. The fifth, Corniglia was up the mountain an bit; walkable, but not with today's schedule.
From Riomaggiore, we walked along Lover's Lane to the kissing spot (Pat had to show the rest of the group how kissing is really done) ending at Manarola where we caught a boat to Vernazza. On the way to Vernazza, we saw the town of Corniglia, way up, off in the distance. Upon landing at Vernazza, we had to weedle our way through the crowds at the docks to get to the main piazza by the beach. It was like everyone was trying to get out of Dodge at High noon! Our group had time before our lunch reservation, so Ann and Pat meandered around town looking for photo-ops.
The Belforte Ristorante is up a rather steep flight of stairs, and is
Walk of the Lover's
This was the easiest of our walking today. itself, an old watch/guard tower to protect the town. Our seafood lunch was fabulous! We ate just about everything that had moved in the Ligurian Sea. Yes, Jenny, the pesto and Prosecco were phenominal! Three hours later (are you noticing a pattern?), a small group decided to hike to Monterosso, while the rest took the boat so they could shop. Surprisingly, Ann was one of the shoppers! In her defense, her hiking shoes were not cooperating well today, and the terrain was pretty steep. Pat's vistas from the hike were awesome! Hopefully the pictures will show well on the web!
Doooglas led the hike. (That's the way the Italians pronounce Douglas. You won't believe how they pronounce his last name, Haynes. H is never pronounced in Italian.) As the hikers were descending into Monterosso, they met a local farmer peddling his lemon wares along the trail. They discovered that he was selling FRESH squeezed lemonade for 2 Euro and
homemade limoncello for 8 Euro. The lemonade was very refreshing with a hint of sweetening. The limoncello will be consumed later when it can be properly chilled. According to Dooooglas, why would anyone spend 2 Euro on 1 glass of
Manarola
View as we boat to Vernazza for lunch. lemonade when they get a whole bottle of limoncello for 8 Euro. That's hard to argue. Continuing down the mountain we saw the last boat pull away from the docks on it's way to Riomaggiore; looks like the hikers take the train back!
Meeting the rest of the group back in Riomaggiore, we returned to La Volpe, for what was billed as a Light dinner. The woman (Dr. Daniella) who owns La Volpe had her cook (Maria) make lasagna for us. OMG, it was made with the thinnest homemade noodles we had ever seen. There was no tomato sauce per se, just a Tuscan meat sauce. The lasagna literaly melted in our mouths. Three hours later . . .
Oh yeah, the limoncello was excellent!!!
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