A Mediterranian Sunset along Via Del Amore - Cinque Terre

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After a comfortable train ride through Milan from Venice, we arrived about 5pm yesterday to Monterosso al Mare. I'm loving it here....the fishing village is so much more quaint and laid back then Venice. Our hotel is really comfortable...Hotel Margherita is newly remodeled and modern. We have a great room with a large veranda and lounge chairs. I was a bit worried about the weather as it was cloudy and cold when we got in, but lucklily today turned out to be a big surprise.

We found a much better restaurant in our village then the one in Venice, delicious for half the price. Found a great local red wine that I will try to bring home too....rosso something...gotta go back and find out. Warren had grilled scampi, and I had ravioli stuffed with sea bass in a really light tomatoe / basil sauce with squid and octopus...YUM!!! We also found a great pizza joint and brought home a midnight snack...sausage, sweet onions, and tomatoe sauce.

Then today I made a dream of mine come true....we hiked the Cinque Terre and the weather was PERFECT! About 70 degrees.....thank you Lord!!!!! We actually slept in, ate a quick breakfast, and then hit the trail about 11am. The first part of the trail from Monterosso to Vernazza took us about 2 hours I think...it started out pretty steep up into the vineyards. It reminded me a bit like hiking in hawaii with the waterfalls and geckos at times, but the vineyards and olive groves reminded me....YES, I REALLY AM HERE IN ITALY!!

The whole trail between the villages is about 13K. Vernazza was really beautiful, the next village (Corniglia) was pretty small but we stopped here to grab some fruit, some stuffed foccacia, and ice cold beer. I also downloaded all the shots I already took onto a disk for backup. After that was Manarola, but unfortunately the trail was closed between Corniglia and Manarola, so we hopped the train and hiked straight onto Riomaggiore where we made it to the Via del Amore during a perfect Mediterranean sunset. We found a restaurant here off the beaten path recommended by Warren's coworker, called Ripa del Sol. Again another great meal...we shared antipasti carpeccio, raw beef marinated in lemon and drizzeled with balsalmic vinegar and shaved parm. Tonight we both had plates of fresh home made pasta with pest and swordfish, anchovies, capers, tomatoes. We took the train back and walked along the beach in the moonlight.

Tomorrow, we plan to get an early start back to Manarola to check out the town shops, then walk to Riomaggiore and bring our lock that we forgot to "seal our love" as tradition goes. Can it get any more sappy than this? Ha Ha. =) After that we may either take a boat ride for a different perspective and spend the rest of the afternoon on a beach soaking up some sun and swimming in the Mediterranian sea. The next day we will be making a very early dash to the train onward to Florence.

Ciao friends,
Warren and Tami

Day 2 UPDATE: We pretty much took it easy today to relax at a slower pace and get reorganized. The weather was overcast and cooler today but still warm enough to enjoy a dinner on the deck overlooking the water. Did I mention that our room smells like truffle oil? There is a pizzeria just below our room!

We went back to Riomaggiore this morning to check out the church, then we walked along "lover's lane" to leave our combo lock, and explored Manarola which to me was the most dramatic. Other than that we took the train back to Monterosso to find a laundry mat, tried a few wines of the region, had more pizza, and picked a great place for dinner. We met so many nice people along the trails...many Germans, English, and a few people from California. Tonight we had anchovies in lemon - YUM!!! and stuffed mussels in tomatoe sauce

I'm not sure when we will be able to update next as we are very limited on time in Florence but I'll try and upload a few more pics in the next day or so....hope everybody is doing well. Need sleep!!!! ciao!

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Photos

Monterosso clock tower
I snapped this when we first arrived off the train..

Monterosso Tunnel
from old town to new town...