It’s time to go back to Italy for the third leg of my July 2015 vacation with my daughter, Janelle, to this wonderful, beautiful country. We started in Milan, made our way down to Florence, and then headed to our last stop, Cinque Terre, in the Liguria region. Cinque Terre translates to “five lands” in English. After the hustle and bustle and museums of the big cities, Cinque Terre was our chance to unwind and relax – for a short while at least – in the quaint villages along the rugged Italian Riviera coastline.
Cinque Terre is a string of centuries-old villages that seem to just hang onto the side of the coast. In each of the five towns, colorful houses and vineyards cling to steep terraces, harbors are filled with fishing boats, and trattorias/restaurants offer up seafood specialties. Many people travel to this area to hike the Sentiero Azzurro, the cliffside hiking trail that links the villages and offers sweeping views of the sea.
With just a day and a half slated for this portion of the trip, we chose to spend most of our time in Vernazza, considered by many to be the most picturesque of the five villages. It also came highly recommended by my elder daughter, Laura, who visited here several years ago and walked the Sentiero Azzurro.
Picking up where I left off in the previous installment of this journey, we are now on Day 7 and traveling to Vernazza. It took us three trains to get there, and having to switch trains twice was a bit nerve-wracking for me. Our first stop was the Pisa station, and we had all of 19 minutes to catch the train to La Spezia. There we had a “leisurely” 33-minute wait for the train to Vernazza. That said, we made great time and pulled into their tiny train station shortly before noon.
The first thing we did was find our hotel room. There are no real hotels in Vernazza, but rather groups of rooms rented out by locals. Ours was clean, newly renovated and quite a climb up from Piazza Marconi, the plaza the small town radiates around. We got our key from their Francamaria office off the Piazza and then made the climb to our room. There were actually two routes to the room. One was more direct but had more steps; both involved walking through rather narrow, back passageways.
That's our room, on the right, at the top of the stairs.
Quite lovely inside.
Check out this map that shows where our room, Giai, was located. You can’t really tell from this map, but it was rather high up, and we chose it for its windows and view.
We wasted no time in going back out and headed down to the harbor on the far side of the Piazza. I’m not sure how many times I’m going to say this about Cinque Terre, but the sights were simply beautiful, and the blues of the water were amazing. We had a light lunch in a breezy café by the sea, underneath maize and blue umbrellas. 😊 Our lunch included pesto tomato bruschetta. This region is the birthplace of pesto, using the basil that flourishes in the temperate Liguria weather, and many meals feature pesto.
After lunch we strolled along the harbor. We took lots of pictures. We watched the little kids play on the beach and in the shallow waters. Then we sat by the deep waters and watched the swimmers jumping in and diving off the dock. What a delightful way to spend the afternoon. And yes, we eventually treated ourselves to gelato.
We ate a late dinner in a lovely restaurant on the backside of the cliff beyond the harbor. Getting there was pretty crazy. We went inside one door off the Piazza and then just kept following the signs to Ristorante al Castello. Of course, it involved a lot of stairs. We just kept walking till we got there. Turns out the restaurant is just below the ruined Medieval castle that guards the coast. Well, at least it did centuries ago when it was built to watch for marauding pirates.
In the picture to the right, that's the castle sitting high on the hill, in the middle of the picture.
We were very excited when we were seated in their outdoor dining section that's tucked in on the side of the cliff. It offered a great view of the sea and the sun when it set.
We started our meal with the anchovy appetizer, pictured above. Never a fan of the canned variety we have back home, these were delicious, and most likely caught earlier in the day, right off the coast, and served fresh.
I ordered shrimp as my main course. Not a fan of the fact I got the whole stinking shrimp. I am not an adventurous eater, and I had a hard time getting past the attached heads and claws. Those are my shrimp below, on the left.
Janelle enjoyed her mussels and shrimp!
And we enjoyed our dessert as we watched the sun set.
Day 8
As I’ve mentioned previously, many people come to Cinque Terre to hike the Sentiero Azzurro that goes from village to village. It’s a very strenuous venture, and I will freely admit I wasn’t up to it. My feet were not in great shape because I had some really bad blisters from the combination of new sandals and all the walking we’d been doing. I was nervous to have Janelle hike the entire trail on her own. but she wanted to at least make the trip up to the cliff that overlooks Vernazza and from there, get all the great pictures! As a compromise, we agreed she could tackle that on her own.
So, this morning we got up early, and I walked with Janelle to the start of the trail up. And while she took her walk, I found a bench in a small park where I waited her return. I was actually able to watch her go quite a way up, as that part of the trail zig-zagged back and forth as it went upwards.
And she got all the great pictures! 😊
On her way...
Back down!
Of the five villages of Cinque Terre, the one with the best beaches, by far, is Monterosso, with its long sandy beachfronts and crystal-clear waters. And, so that is where we headed for our beach day, after the early morning hike. We took the Cinque Terre Express train and were in this village just northwest of Vernazza in about four minutes.
We spent more time waiting for the train than it took us to get to Monterosso.
Monterosso is the largest of the five villages. It is surrounded by hills that grow lemons, grapevines, and olives. And beautiful beaches that attract both tourists and locals alike. We had lunch and then headed to the beach.
What a great afternoon we had! I am not really a beach person, and I try not to spend too much time in the sun unless I’m coated in sun screen. Therefore, I slathered it on, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time in the sun. We mostly stayed under our big, colorful umbrellas anyway, as we played cards, did a little reading, drank a cold beverage or two, and just relaxed.
Janelle went in the water and cooled off, and I wanted to go in the water as well, but I was worried that the sea salt would sting my blisters. But the blue waters were calling me, and I couldn’t resist. I decided to just go for it and waded in. I’m very glad I did! The water felt cool and refreshing, and more importantly, the sea salt did not hurt my blisters at all. And to be honest, I think the water actually was good for them as they seemed to begin healing shortly after being in the sea.
We ended staying at the beach longer than we had planned and finally took the train back to Vernazza at about 5 p.m. Dinner that evening was in another cute little café in Piazza Marconi, Gambero Rosso, with the normal gorgeous views of the harbor and sea. We decided to order their seafood risotto as reviews said it was amazing. They would only allow you to order it if at least two people would be sharing it. And we soon found out why, as the serving was enormous! We did our best, but we barely made a dent in in the risotto, teeming with mussels, squid, and shrimp.
We took our final stroll around the waterfront before we headed back up to our room to pack. We would be heading out first thing in the morning on the train back to Milan. We really enjoyed our time in Cinque Terre, and our only regret is that we didn’t plan to stay longer in this lovely, scenic area.
After strolling for awhile, there is always room for gelato. 😊
Before we “leave” Vernazza, I want to share with you an important backstory of recent history for the town. It was hit by tragedy on October 25, 2011, when an intense rainstorm ripped through the region and inflicted serious damage on both Vernazza and Monterosso. Torrents of water rampaged from the surrounding mountains into town, carrying with it tons of mud and debris. Massive flooding destroyed homes and businesses, and landslides filled the streets with rocks, dirt, and debris up to 12 feet deep. Entire ground floors were buried. Three people died when they were washed out to sea. Life in Vernazza came to a standstill.
Pictures of the flood from the Francamaria website.
Until they dug in and dug themselves out and set about cleaning up and rebuilding. And here we were, five years later, visiting Vernazza and things looked good. If you didn’t know about the mudslides going in, you’d probably be none the wiser, as the city has come back strong. "Viva Vernazza": Vernazza lives!
The watermarks from the flood are still visible by the reception door of Francamaria's.
If you’d like to read more about the October 2011 flooding and mudslide devastation, here is a link I found on the website of Francamaria, the proprietor of our rooms; it is their first-hand account of the tragedy:
Day 9
In the morning, we were up early as we had to take the train back to Milan, from where we’d fly home the next day. Before we boarded the train, we made the short walk to Il Pirata delle Cinque Terre, the “pirate” bakery we had discovered the previous day. We each bought a takeaway breakfast to eat on the train, as well as a couple of cannoli to eat later. When in Italy, eat the cannoli! 😊
Back in Milan, we spent the last night of our trip strolling the area around the Duomo including wandering through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Italy's oldest active shopping center. Janelle does PR work back home, and Laura Mercier cosmetics was one of her clients. Nonetheless, when asked to pose in front of their shop at the Galleria, she was not amused and only halfheartedly smiled. 😊
We had a lovely final meal at Il Kaimano. We started with tasty stuffed zucchini blossoms, followed by our main courses: black truffle pasta and shrimp & asparagus pasta. We were so full, believe it or not, we had no room for dessert.
Sadly, on Day10, we did indeed fly home. Our wonderful, hot and sticky, spontaneous trip to Italy had come to an end. And so have my postings about our Italian fun. I thank you for sticking with me to the end, and I hope you had the chance to read all three posts about my vacation with Janelle. Our trip was one for the ages, and I’m grateful I was able to share it with you.
I’m going to leave you with a #BookfaceFriday picture of Janelle. #BookfaceFriday is another one of those hashtag things, popular on Instagram, created to stir up buzz for libraries. Kind of like the #librarycardadventures I posted about in July of last year. Back when we took this trip, I ran the library’s Instagram account, and I had already posted a few of those adventures from Italy:
Here are two samples of #BookfaceFriday from our Instagram account to give you an idea of what it's all about:
Before heading home, I really wanted to do a #BookfaceFriday posting. We had not brought any books with us on this trip though that could be used. But, Janelle had been reading on her Kindle. I decided to go with her and her Kindle, and a vacation version of #BookfaceFriday was born.
Thanks again for reading. Till next time, I’ll see you at the Information Desk. 😊