Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...
May 18 turned out to be a mistake. We had to get from Vernazza to Paris via Turin. Because of an impending train strike, we were forced to get up very early Friday morning to catch a 5:00 AM train to La Spezia in order to catch a 7:00 AM train to Turin in order to catch a 5:00PM flight to Paris. Yea, yea, yea, you say - you heard it in the last post.
Why was this day a missing day and a mistake? Well, we spent the entire day traveling! I guess it depends on one's viewpoint. Money vs. "The Experience." Instead of planning to take a 3.5 hour train ride to Turin to catch a $29 flight, we could have taken a 1 hour train to Genoa and flown to Paris for about $500 each. Yes, it would have been much more expensive, which is why we chose the other option, but that one full day of miserable travel starting at 4AM, quite possibly cost us the remaining 2 days in Paris. We were so tired from traveling that we didn't really enjoy the last two days as much as we could have.
I suppose a third option would have been to take and overnight train to Paris for a few hundred each. The only problem there is that we didn't know if our hotel would be able to accept us at 6AM - unlikely - and even if they held our bags, what would we do all morning? We would have been exhausted then too.
Who knows what would have been best. Either way, perhaps it was unavoidable.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Hike from Corniglia to Vernazza - The last leg! (5/17/2007)
The last leg of the trail today from Corniglia to Vernazza is almost as difficult as the leg from Vernazza to Monterosso. Lots of steps, rocks, narrow trails, but GREAT views!
Along the trail (and in every city we visited in Italy for that matter) we came across little statues of Mary, like this one:
You see them everywhere!
We started seeing cats again in Corniglia:
Leaving Corniglia - a site that will haunt me for the rest of my life:
Yes, more steps! You learn to LOVE steps in Italy. On this part of the hike, they never seemed to end! I guess it's just a lesson that you have to work hard to get any rewards - and we were rewarded with views like this of Corniglia:
And here's an example of how narrow the trail can get - to Candice's right is a drop-off of about 200 feet!
After about 45 minutes of non-stop climbing, we came across this sign for a free beach. All you have to do is follow the trail down the side of mountain about 20 minutes. My thighs were so rocked at this point that as good as the beach may have been, all I could think of was, "if it takes 20 minutes to go down, how long would it take to get back up?" We didn't go.
Up a few more steps and the view gets even better:
You can see Manarola off in the distance.
Just after that, you come across a most welcome sign:
Yes, at the top of the trail is an air conditioned watering hole - serving wine by the glass, very large beers, water, sports drinks, etc.
We were getting close to Vernazza when we came across this - any guesses as to what it is?
I have no idea either.
Just over a hill, we get the first look at our destination - HOME!
In the middle of the picture, look at the two-store pink house. Just below that is a stone wall with three little windows and a second stone wall making a little porch. That was our apartment. Here's a closer look:
Just a few hundred steps down a windy path and we were done. This part of the hike took about 1.5 hours. My feet resigned after that.
On the way down, we stopped in at this restaurant called La Torre and made a reservation for that night to eat. This place was recommended to Candice by one of her coworkers who actually grew up in this town.
Before dinner, I went down to the harbor to take some quick pictures as the sun was setting and the light was amazing - here's a sample:
And I ran into this recipe for Limoncello - the drink we purchased from the hillbilly guy on the hike to Monterosso:
After a quick nap, we headed back up the several hundred stairs to the restaurant and were seated next to a stone wall overlooking Vernazza. On top of the wall and right next to our table was, of course, a black cat - sleeping next to his watering stone:
He didn't even move when we sat down. After a little while, he got up and took a drink:
And then jumped down off his spot and started begging the other customers for some scraps.
Of course, the view was spectacular:
Dinner was good too. The restaurant appeared to have two people running it - could have been a husband and wife, I'm not sure - as they didn't speak any English. We ordered Accuighe al limone (anchovies with lemon) again - we couldn't get enough of these things! The menu was limited, so we each ordered a slice of lasagna - which was prepared a little different than the lasagne you're used to - but it was awesome. We also ordered some muscles in a red sauce, but they forgot to bring them out, which was not a problem as the lasagna was so filling we were stuffed. Wine was just a half liter of house wine - but was still tasty!
During dinner, we decided to not attempt to bring back the bottle of mystery drink given to us by Achille - it had a strong licorice smell which made us think it might contain Absinthe - which although legal now in Europe, is not legal in the U.S. To celebrate the gift, we ended the night with a couple of shots on the porch.
Next day - up at 4AM to make our 5AM train to La Spezia and the 7AM train up to Turin so we could fly to Paris.
Here's Vernazza at 4:30 AM:
Time to catch the train!
Ugh!
Along the trail (and in every city we visited in Italy for that matter) we came across little statues of Mary, like this one:
You see them everywhere!
We started seeing cats again in Corniglia:
Leaving Corniglia - a site that will haunt me for the rest of my life:
Yes, more steps! You learn to LOVE steps in Italy. On this part of the hike, they never seemed to end! I guess it's just a lesson that you have to work hard to get any rewards - and we were rewarded with views like this of Corniglia:
And here's an example of how narrow the trail can get - to Candice's right is a drop-off of about 200 feet!
After about 45 minutes of non-stop climbing, we came across this sign for a free beach. All you have to do is follow the trail down the side of mountain about 20 minutes. My thighs were so rocked at this point that as good as the beach may have been, all I could think of was, "if it takes 20 minutes to go down, how long would it take to get back up?" We didn't go.
Up a few more steps and the view gets even better:
You can see Manarola off in the distance.
Just after that, you come across a most welcome sign:
Yes, at the top of the trail is an air conditioned watering hole - serving wine by the glass, very large beers, water, sports drinks, etc.
We were getting close to Vernazza when we came across this - any guesses as to what it is?
I have no idea either.
Just over a hill, we get the first look at our destination - HOME!
In the middle of the picture, look at the two-store pink house. Just below that is a stone wall with three little windows and a second stone wall making a little porch. That was our apartment. Here's a closer look:
Just a few hundred steps down a windy path and we were done. This part of the hike took about 1.5 hours. My feet resigned after that.
On the way down, we stopped in at this restaurant called La Torre and made a reservation for that night to eat. This place was recommended to Candice by one of her coworkers who actually grew up in this town.
Before dinner, I went down to the harbor to take some quick pictures as the sun was setting and the light was amazing - here's a sample:
And I ran into this recipe for Limoncello - the drink we purchased from the hillbilly guy on the hike to Monterosso:
After a quick nap, we headed back up the several hundred stairs to the restaurant and were seated next to a stone wall overlooking Vernazza. On top of the wall and right next to our table was, of course, a black cat - sleeping next to his watering stone:
He didn't even move when we sat down. After a little while, he got up and took a drink:
And then jumped down off his spot and started begging the other customers for some scraps.
Of course, the view was spectacular:
Dinner was good too. The restaurant appeared to have two people running it - could have been a husband and wife, I'm not sure - as they didn't speak any English. We ordered Accuighe al limone (anchovies with lemon) again - we couldn't get enough of these things! The menu was limited, so we each ordered a slice of lasagna - which was prepared a little different than the lasagne you're used to - but it was awesome. We also ordered some muscles in a red sauce, but they forgot to bring them out, which was not a problem as the lasagna was so filling we were stuffed. Wine was just a half liter of house wine - but was still tasty!
During dinner, we decided to not attempt to bring back the bottle of mystery drink given to us by Achille - it had a strong licorice smell which made us think it might contain Absinthe - which although legal now in Europe, is not legal in the U.S. To celebrate the gift, we ended the night with a couple of shots on the porch.
Next day - up at 4AM to make our 5AM train to La Spezia and the 7AM train up to Turin so we could fly to Paris.
Here's Vernazza at 4:30 AM:
Time to catch the train!
Ugh!
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Riomaggiore to Corniglia Hike (5/17/2007)
On our last day in the Cinque Terre, we decided to take the hike from Riomaggiore up to Vernazza - taking us through Manarola and Corniglia.
But first, we had to make a train ride down to La Spezia to find out why we couldn't purchase our train ticket to Turin the following day in order to catch our plane to Paris.
Turns out, there was going to be a train strike out of Florence on Friday. We had one option - catch the 7:01 AM train out of La Spezia. To catch this train, we had to be on the 4:56 AM train out of Vernazza. Our flight to Paris from Turin wasn't until 5:10 PM. It was going to be a long day!
With tickets purchased, we took the train up to Riomaggiore to have lunch at a Rick Steve's recommended site, La Lampara, before starting the trail up to Vernazza. The food was good - especially for lunch. I had a little Pizza al Mare - the seafood toppings were great, but the pizza crust was not so good - it was premade and heated. Candice had Spaghetti al Mare - which she enjoyed. The highlight was meeting the owner, Cesare, who was really very nice. He came over and asked where we were from and when he learned we were in Italy for our honeymoon, he seranaded Candice with "Ciao Bambina." It was great! Here's Candice and Cesare:
After lunch, we started the hike. Here's a view of the trail leaving Riomaggiore:
The trail linking Riomaggiore to Manarola is called the "Via dell'Amore" because it enabled young lovers between the two villages to meet more easily. They would leave messages on the walls and meet up later - However, the tradition has evolved over the years - and now it's really just grafitti:
Manarola is just a 15 minute walk along the trail. We quickly walked through the town and browsed at a couple of stores. There was a hand-painted pottery store that had a lot of really nice plates, platters, olive oil bottles, etc - and Candice wanted one of the platters. The problem was we had no room in our bags for any bulky items - and shipping a large platter would cost over 100 Euro! The platter was 140 Euro, meaning with the current exchange rate, it would have been about $325. It wasn't THAT nice! Oh well
Back on the trail - and on to Corniglia. Here's a quick look back on Manarola:
This section is pretty flat too, but it's not paved with concrete - it's more like small to medium sized stones - and many of them are pointy and make it so so you really have to pay attention to where you are stepping. The view though is great!
Corniglia is up on a hill - and strangely, the train station is at the bottom of that hill. Take a look at the next picture - in the distance, you can see people walking up a series of steps away from the station. The steps take you up the side of a cliff from the station at the bottom to the pink and yellow buildings above - and then there is a paved road taking you up to the main part of the town. (Click on the picture for more detail)
There is a little sign at the bottom of the steps - notice the "You are here" indicator at the bottom of the steps:
It's a good thing we didn't decide to stay in this town - as walking up all those steps was hard enough with just our small packs! I can't imagine how hard it would have been with 50 lb packs on our backs.
At the top of the steps, here's a look back at Manarola. Even though it was relatively flat, this part of the hike took about 1 hour.
Time to get on the plane back to Atlanta - Next up - Corniglia to Vernazza.
But first, we had to make a train ride down to La Spezia to find out why we couldn't purchase our train ticket to Turin the following day in order to catch our plane to Paris.
Turns out, there was going to be a train strike out of Florence on Friday. We had one option - catch the 7:01 AM train out of La Spezia. To catch this train, we had to be on the 4:56 AM train out of Vernazza. Our flight to Paris from Turin wasn't until 5:10 PM. It was going to be a long day!
With tickets purchased, we took the train up to Riomaggiore to have lunch at a Rick Steve's recommended site, La Lampara, before starting the trail up to Vernazza. The food was good - especially for lunch. I had a little Pizza al Mare - the seafood toppings were great, but the pizza crust was not so good - it was premade and heated. Candice had Spaghetti al Mare - which she enjoyed. The highlight was meeting the owner, Cesare, who was really very nice. He came over and asked where we were from and when he learned we were in Italy for our honeymoon, he seranaded Candice with "Ciao Bambina." It was great! Here's Candice and Cesare:
After lunch, we started the hike. Here's a view of the trail leaving Riomaggiore:
The trail linking Riomaggiore to Manarola is called the "Via dell'Amore" because it enabled young lovers between the two villages to meet more easily. They would leave messages on the walls and meet up later - However, the tradition has evolved over the years - and now it's really just grafitti:
Manarola is just a 15 minute walk along the trail. We quickly walked through the town and browsed at a couple of stores. There was a hand-painted pottery store that had a lot of really nice plates, platters, olive oil bottles, etc - and Candice wanted one of the platters. The problem was we had no room in our bags for any bulky items - and shipping a large platter would cost over 100 Euro! The platter was 140 Euro, meaning with the current exchange rate, it would have been about $325. It wasn't THAT nice! Oh well
Back on the trail - and on to Corniglia. Here's a quick look back on Manarola:
This section is pretty flat too, but it's not paved with concrete - it's more like small to medium sized stones - and many of them are pointy and make it so so you really have to pay attention to where you are stepping. The view though is great!
Corniglia is up on a hill - and strangely, the train station is at the bottom of that hill. Take a look at the next picture - in the distance, you can see people walking up a series of steps away from the station. The steps take you up the side of a cliff from the station at the bottom to the pink and yellow buildings above - and then there is a paved road taking you up to the main part of the town. (Click on the picture for more detail)
There is a little sign at the bottom of the steps - notice the "You are here" indicator at the bottom of the steps:
It's a good thing we didn't decide to stay in this town - as walking up all those steps was hard enough with just our small packs! I can't imagine how hard it would have been with 50 lb packs on our backs.
At the top of the steps, here's a look back at Manarola. Even though it was relatively flat, this part of the hike took about 1 hour.
Time to get on the plane back to Atlanta - Next up - Corniglia to Vernazza.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Vernazza – Day 2: The hike to Monterosso (5/16/2007)
So, we finally reached our breaking point and had to find a place to do some laundry. In the Cinque Terre, there are only 2 villages with machines – Monterosso and Riomaggiore. The one in Riomaggiore opened earlier, so we hopped on the train and headed in that direction. Like everything else in Europe, washing clothes in Europe is expensive – 3.5 Euro for each load to wash and 3.5 Euro to dry.
While waiting around for the clothes to dry, I walked up through the little town and snapped these pics:
After coming back with clean clothes, we had lunch at a place just down the steps from our apartment called Da Piva Trattoria.
We had Aschiughe al Limone again for an antipasti (same as last night). Believe it or not, the anchovies here taste nothing like they do in America. Here they are caught fresh the night before right in the waters of the Cinque Terre and they are served fresh – and they are delicious! Candice had spaghetti di Mare and I had tennette (?) pesto – which was basically linguine with pesto. Pesto is a local specialty and is on most restaurant menus here – and for good reason – it’s great. ¼ liter of white wine to share.
The highlight of the day was the hike to Monterosso al Mare from Vernazza. The trail that links the 5 villages is pretty easy to walk between the first three villages, but gets more difficult once you reach Vernazza and Monterosso. The trail picks up in the middle of village across the street from the internet spot and down the steps from our room. The first section is a climb of about 200 stone steps to the trail head where they validate/check your pass to the park. At this point, the views are pretty good:
We continue on up, up, up, up, up – it never ends! Every turned corner reveals a new set of stairs to climb.
But with each step, the views get better and better:
We wanted a picture together, so we asked this German couple to take a picture - but first we took one of them. I asked if they wanted the view of Vernazza in the picture - to my surprise, they said no - just take the picture of them - the town isn't interesting! Whatever.
So they took one of us - and I couldn't tell at the time, but Candice's eyes were closed - oh well - I'll have to make her do the climb again!!
Here’s a far away glimpse of our destination:
Along the way, we see some interesting signs:
and people:
The man above was on the trail selling water, wine, lemons, and limoncello – a home made lemon-based alcoholic treat sold all over the area. We didn’t catch this guy’s name, but he seemed to take to Candice, as after we bought some water and limoncello, he gave her a free lemon.
After a while, we came to a point where looking back we could see this view:
In the foreground is Vernazza. Just beyond on the cliffs is Corniglia and then Manarola – and then way beyond that you can just see parts of Riomaggiore. Amazing.
Monterosso is right at sea level, so all those steps we climbed as we left Vernazza have turned into steep descents. Luckily, most of it is stairs like this:
But occasionally, the trail is very narrow (about 1.5 feet wide) with cliff wall on one side and nothing on the other.
Getting closer:
As we neared Monterosso, Candice had a minute to take a seat at the top of the world with her legs hanging free:
The trail leading into Monterosso:
And finally – our destination:
Monterosso is the most resort-like village of the five – with many hotels, the beach, more nightlife, better access to other cities in Italy, and of course, higher prices.
One look back at the coast line:
and our ride home:
The day was capped off by a fantastic dinner at Gambero Rosso – located at the harbor in Vernazza.
Although they have a huge section of outdoor seating looking over the harbor, it was a little chilly, so we asked to sit inside. We were sat in a room with 4 other occupied tables – all seemed to be locals, which is a nice change as there seem to be so many Americans here. Every once in a while, you kind of want to get a flavor of the local scene – this was perfect.
The meal was outstanding. We had another local white wine made and produced by the Cinque Terre Cooperative – a 2006 vintage. For our anitipasti Candice and I shared Muscardini – mini Octopus served in a tomato sauce with parsley and fresh bread. For our Primi Piatti, we shared Paccheri alla Gambero Rosso – which was a Ligurian pasta (like fettuccini) with fish sauce and tomato. For secondi piatti, we had a dinner for two of baked fish of the day in sea salt. The fish was brought to the table by the chef right on the baking pan – and was covered in sea salt. He placed the pan on a stand, scraped off most of the salt, peeled back the scales, and expertly plated two dishes of the most tender delicious fish you’ve ever had. It was served with a bottle of I Dolia olive oil by LVNAE for us to drizzle over the fish. The salt and olive oil mixed perfectly and the taste was unbelievable!
Candice had an espresso and we shared a slice of Dolce Della Casa – which tonight was a slice of cake with hot fudge and whipped cream on the side. The cake was really good – kind of a cornbread/pound cake consistency, but with a sweet taste.
On our walk back, we go by Da Piva Trattoria, and Piva, the owner/chef, is out on the steps with a guitar holding court to the late eaters there – and singing "I Did it My Way" which we can barely understand through his broken English and perhaps a few drinks. Apparently, the singing is a regular occurrence, as it was mentioned by Rick Steves in his book on Italy.
While waiting around for the clothes to dry, I walked up through the little town and snapped these pics:
After coming back with clean clothes, we had lunch at a place just down the steps from our apartment called Da Piva Trattoria.
We had Aschiughe al Limone again for an antipasti (same as last night). Believe it or not, the anchovies here taste nothing like they do in America. Here they are caught fresh the night before right in the waters of the Cinque Terre and they are served fresh – and they are delicious! Candice had spaghetti di Mare and I had tennette (?) pesto – which was basically linguine with pesto. Pesto is a local specialty and is on most restaurant menus here – and for good reason – it’s great. ¼ liter of white wine to share.
The highlight of the day was the hike to Monterosso al Mare from Vernazza. The trail that links the 5 villages is pretty easy to walk between the first three villages, but gets more difficult once you reach Vernazza and Monterosso. The trail picks up in the middle of village across the street from the internet spot and down the steps from our room. The first section is a climb of about 200 stone steps to the trail head where they validate/check your pass to the park. At this point, the views are pretty good:
We continue on up, up, up, up, up – it never ends! Every turned corner reveals a new set of stairs to climb.
But with each step, the views get better and better:
We wanted a picture together, so we asked this German couple to take a picture - but first we took one of them. I asked if they wanted the view of Vernazza in the picture - to my surprise, they said no - just take the picture of them - the town isn't interesting! Whatever.
So they took one of us - and I couldn't tell at the time, but Candice's eyes were closed - oh well - I'll have to make her do the climb again!!
Here’s a far away glimpse of our destination:
Along the way, we see some interesting signs:
and people:
The man above was on the trail selling water, wine, lemons, and limoncello – a home made lemon-based alcoholic treat sold all over the area. We didn’t catch this guy’s name, but he seemed to take to Candice, as after we bought some water and limoncello, he gave her a free lemon.
After a while, we came to a point where looking back we could see this view:
In the foreground is Vernazza. Just beyond on the cliffs is Corniglia and then Manarola – and then way beyond that you can just see parts of Riomaggiore. Amazing.
Monterosso is right at sea level, so all those steps we climbed as we left Vernazza have turned into steep descents. Luckily, most of it is stairs like this:
But occasionally, the trail is very narrow (about 1.5 feet wide) with cliff wall on one side and nothing on the other.
Getting closer:
As we neared Monterosso, Candice had a minute to take a seat at the top of the world with her legs hanging free:
The trail leading into Monterosso:
And finally – our destination:
Monterosso is the most resort-like village of the five – with many hotels, the beach, more nightlife, better access to other cities in Italy, and of course, higher prices.
One look back at the coast line:
and our ride home:
The day was capped off by a fantastic dinner at Gambero Rosso – located at the harbor in Vernazza.
Although they have a huge section of outdoor seating looking over the harbor, it was a little chilly, so we asked to sit inside. We were sat in a room with 4 other occupied tables – all seemed to be locals, which is a nice change as there seem to be so many Americans here. Every once in a while, you kind of want to get a flavor of the local scene – this was perfect.
The meal was outstanding. We had another local white wine made and produced by the Cinque Terre Cooperative – a 2006 vintage. For our anitipasti Candice and I shared Muscardini – mini Octopus served in a tomato sauce with parsley and fresh bread. For our Primi Piatti, we shared Paccheri alla Gambero Rosso – which was a Ligurian pasta (like fettuccini) with fish sauce and tomato. For secondi piatti, we had a dinner for two of baked fish of the day in sea salt. The fish was brought to the table by the chef right on the baking pan – and was covered in sea salt. He placed the pan on a stand, scraped off most of the salt, peeled back the scales, and expertly plated two dishes of the most tender delicious fish you’ve ever had. It was served with a bottle of I Dolia olive oil by LVNAE for us to drizzle over the fish. The salt and olive oil mixed perfectly and the taste was unbelievable!
Candice had an espresso and we shared a slice of Dolce Della Casa – which tonight was a slice of cake with hot fudge and whipped cream on the side. The cake was really good – kind of a cornbread/pound cake consistency, but with a sweet taste.
On our walk back, we go by Da Piva Trattoria, and Piva, the owner/chef, is out on the steps with a guitar holding court to the late eaters there – and singing "I Did it My Way" which we can barely understand through his broken English and perhaps a few drinks. Apparently, the singing is a regular occurrence, as it was mentioned by Rick Steves in his book on Italy.
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