The weather was PERFECT. It was in the 60s at night (no A/C, none needed) and around 80 during the peak of the day, which made for great swimming weather. On the way into town, on the train, we ran into Pickle and Simone Vlasak, our ex commander and his wife and our friends. Small world. Over the next days, we ran into them a couple of more random times. Small Cinque Terre. On day one, we hit the trail from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare. This is the hardest, steepest, narrowest section of trail. Here we are leaving Vernazza:
A little farther up the trail, with a better view of Vernazza. On the first night, we stayed in a B&B on the main square seen down by the water, overlooking the restaurant area.
Approaching Monterosso. Notice the beautiful, clear blue water--you can see the boulders under water if you look carefully. We'd been on the hike for about 2 hours at 80 degrees. Katie decided we should climb down to the rocks and just jump in.
So we did! The water seemed cold at first, but was actually great. Salty, cool and clear. We swam out to this rock formation, carefully negotiating the black mussel colonies along the water line for our harbor seal imitation.
Too much sun and not enough cold water, so Jeff went from harbor seal to spider monkey on the Mediterranean. That's the ferry between towns heading into Monterosso in the background.
The little mermaid in Copenhagen has got nothing on our little mermaid. Those boats in the background eventually ran themselves up on the rocks and sank as Katie did her Siren impersonation.
We changed and headed into town for an unbelievable meal (acurate description of every meal that followed, too). We had the local white wine, served ice cold, plus a round of Limoncello shots, also ice cold. Here's Andrew eating octopus and potato salad. It's tender and drizzled in olive oil. We also had paninis served on our new favorite bread: focaccia! We were overhanging a beautiful beach with a cool breeze and the sound small waves breaking. It was easy to sit for a long while and enjoy the day.
After a major hike, we moved our bags from the B&B to our apartment over Vernazza. The kids were wiped out and took a good nap in the sea breeze.
This is the view from our room toward the main square and waterfront.
Andrew got up and joined us down in town. We bought a bottle of wine and walked down to the harbor to watch a wedding and just enjoy the late afternoon views.
Later that nght, we ate at our new favorite restaurant in Italy, Gianni Franzi. It's right on the water on the main square, but reasonably priced and ridiculously good. Andrew had the mixed fried seafood, Jena had an outstanding veal scallopini, and a local specialty Trofie al Pesto. It is the best pasta on earth. Period. Jeff had the octopus and potato salad, jealous of Andrew's earlier lunch. Katie had pasta. Everything we had was as good as it could have been. Even the neighborhood cats were big fans.
When in Rome...yes, go on... Well it's not Rome, but it is Italy, so what's wrong with Pizza on focaccia bread for breakfast? Nothing. If you look overhead you'll see our clothes lines, over which we draped beach towels for shade. This will be important in the next, Lee family standard point-at-something photo.
This is leaving Vernazza on the hike to Corniglia. If you click to enlarge the photo below and look just to the left of the point of Andrew's finger, you'll see our patio, complete with towel sunshade! Notice how small these towns are?
From Corniglia, we took the train back to Monterosso and rented a pedal boat. Katie is on the driver's side, with the rudder. Two people pedal and there's a big sun deck on the back like a pickup truck. We actually went about 1.5 mles down the coast, exploring caves, coves and cliff diving. Yes, I said cliff diving.
The sun is playing on the lens in this photo, but it gives some perspective with Katie and Andrew making the climb. Jeff swam down under the cliff wall (you could see the bottom) to determine the depth, for safety. It turned out to be 20-25 feet deep. no problem for a 15-20 foot jump. After Jeff made the jump, the kids went next. Jena got up to the ledge, but couldn't do it, so she jumped from lower rocks. After much chiding and fear of being outdone by her babies, she mustered up the courage and made a screaming plunge from the higher cliff area. In her words, "IT WAS NOT FUN." Jeff went a couple of times and says it was, indeed, good fun.
This is actually Jena's entry. We gave it a 9.8. The scream was a 9.95, but .15 was deducted for the excessive splash. More work must be done prior to the Olympics...
This is a first, and I hope it works. This is Katie's screaming plunge in video. What you can't see is that there are hikers high above ,to the right, as we look on, shouting "jump" and "do it" to Katie which gave her the little push she needed to get over the edge. Listen to the textbook scream.
That night we ate at Gambero Rosso, also in Vernazza. Jeff had the pasta with fish sauce (really sounds bad, but is soooo good) which was recommended by friends who went a couple of weeks before. They were very right. We got another pesto pasta, a ragu and Andrew and Jeff got a salt encrusted baked fish. It was the best fish either has ever had--as good as eating fresh redfish on the day you catch it. Never had that kind of experience in a restaurant before. Katie is wearing the new dress Jena bought for her at a little boutique that day. Jena got a matching one in turquoise.
The next day, we went to Riomaggiore, the southeastern most of the 5 lands. Had we only known, we'd have gone sooner, as there was diving and snorkeling right off the harbor in a marine sanctuary! Next trip...
Another eating pic. What can I say? We can't get seafood like this here in the Fatherland. This is Katie picking/eating an anchovie. Now before you make American comparisons, don't. These anchovies are fresh and larger. They are cleaned and fried. You just split them in half and pull out the bones, then you have two little fried fillets. Andrew got 20 of these on a platter and we all shared some of his. We had more pesto pasta, too.
One last look before heading out on the train to Bologna.
Unfortunately, the trains in Italy are never on time. We got stuck in Parma waiting on a connection, after missing our planned connection. This was a wall at the train station...do they not speak English? We were amused and perplexed, check it out.
Well that wraps up the Cinque Terre. We have so many more places to go that going back this year doesn't seem feasible. However, we will go back at some point in the future. For anyone going, We recommend Vernazza as the place to stay and late May was the perfect mix of sleeping and swimming weather. It seems like it would be too hot in the dead of summer.
