Cinque Terre :: Corniglia

Corniglia was my last stop.  We arrived by train and the station was a bit of a ways outside of town.  There was a small shuttle bus that met the train and took you into the heart of town. Just like the other towns just about everything was closed.  Corniglia wasn't quite as perfectly situated on the water as Manarola.  What Corniglia did have going for it was tons of coffee shops, art galleries and restaurants - granted none of them were open while I was there but, there was insane potential.

When we left Manarola I declared that I was freakin' starving!  I also warned my new travel buddy that a melt down may ensue if there wasn't some food soon (Mom, you feel me right?!)!  We hit pay dirt. 

There was one restaurant open and it was on a hillside overlooking towards the ocean.  The town was to the left and the terraced hillside was to the right.  I might have to call it epic.  There was a small courtyard area where we ate - in the center of the courtyard was a lemon treaded loaded with fruit.  When we walked in there was another group dining however; we soon had the place to ourselves.

All I can say is 'Holy Homemade Pesto!'!!!  Seriously, the food was delicious.  We had some appetizers....as in anchovies and capers with garlic on bread....I had exactly two nibbles.  We had fresh tomatoes with olive oil.  We had meals covered in pesto.  It was scrumdillyumpsious. 

I can neither confirm nor deny but I've been told that the wine in Cinque Terre is fabulous.  The grapes from this region actually produce a crisp slightly sweet white wine....hmm....sounds like something I might enjoy!  One thing that I really would like to see (ahem, would need to return to see) are the terraced vinyards in full swing.  Because we were there during winter months the vines had no leaves on them so, when you looked at the hillsides it was very hard to distinguish the actually terraces. 

I will admit that I had a mini meltdown at the restaurant.  I was very fixated on getting to see all the towns.  After we ordered I realized that the train was leaving in 15 minutes.  We could either stay and enjoy the meal or ask for it to go and run with it.  Clearly, running with homemade pasta and peso is less than ideal.  We stayed.  Enjoyed the meal and then had the best treat ever.  Our hosts were very talkative and wanted to spend time with us...another perk to being there in the winter....they had time to do so!  They ended up walking us through the kitchen and into their house.  They use the home as a B&B during the summer months.  The best part?  There was a large terrace on the roof with amazing views of the small valley, wine terraces and village.  Hands down the highlight of the day. 

Because I was on the roof going camera happy we just about missed the train!  We literally watched the bus leave the town square....which meant that we needed to RUN to the train station.  We ran down the road and just by chance saw a sign for the train station - it was pointing down a hillside where there was a small trail.  It was a switchbacked stair case.  We sprinted it.  Taking two stairs at a time.  I was like a leaping gazelle....or maybe a pink puma (that one was for you Zikes).  No lie.

Cinque Terre has two other towns that I wasn't able to visit.  The town of Vernazza would have been the next stop by train.  Sadly, it was recently dessimated by severe flooding and mudslides.  The town is no longer open to the public.  (In some of my ocean shots you can see a large muddy area still remaining.)  The last town is Monterosso - I've heard that it has the nicest beach but that it's very resort town-ish. 

Needless to say, we made the train and headed back to La Spezia.  It was a perfect day ashore.  I don't think I've ever had a better one....although the monkeys in Gibraltar were mad cool.

Yep, it was epic.

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Cinque Terre :: Manarola

I only spent about an hour in Manarola.  Total bummer.  We took our time on the walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola....which meant that if we wanted the next train we had to hustle through the town.  Again, total bummer. On our first cruise through the town it seemed much quieter than Riomaggiore.  It also seemed smaller for some reason.  I was super gung-ho to make it to all five towns.....so I kind of hustled us along.  As it turns out, I ended up thinking that Manarola was the most picturesque of the towns I saw. 

Manarola had a swimming hole at the base of the town.  It looked perfect.  If it had been a little warmer out I think I would have insisted on a dip.  The town was perfectly situated on the cliffs....it overlooked the mediterranean and then wrapped perfectly around that swimming hole.  There was a small stream that ran under the town and emptied into the swimming hole.

Like I said....the most picturesque.

There was a huge added bonus.  An artist had displayed some bamboo weighted wind charms....I really can't think of a better way to describe them.  The were amazing!  I LOVED THEM!  I took as many photos as humanly possible without missing the train.  (I included a snapshot of the artists card....you can visit the website but it's in Italian....just a heads up.)

To sum things up.  The town was gorgeous - there was a swimming hole - the water was blue - there were once in a lifetime photo opportunities.  Loved it.

Don't forget you can click through the photos that are semi displayed below.  You may need to open each 'page' individually....as in set one doesn't automatically scroll through into set two.  Some of the photos are incredibly washed out by the sun....and I'd love to apologize but, I am actually quite gleeful that we got such a gorgeous sunny day to tour the Cinque Terre!

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Cinque Terre :: Via dell'Amore

Walking from Riomaggiore to Manarola might have been my favorite part of the day.  It took about 20 minutes to walk between the towns and, the walk was easy.  Paved the whole way.  When a walk is quick and easy it's an added bonus when it's gorgeous!

The path is called 'Via dell'Amore' (walk of love) and is partially cut out of the steep cliffs next to the sea.  There were tons of benches over looking the sea and at one point we even came across a small cabana style bar that hung out over the water.  People had been signing their names on the rock cliffs for years and it was insanely fun to read all the names and dates (and of course add our own!).  There was a section of the path where couples have been placing locks and throwing out the keys.  (I think this might have been in a movie at some point and now people do it everywhere?  Not sure.  Anyways, it was cute.)

In summary, the walk was fun and pretty and it was one of the best parts of the day!

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Cinque Terre :: Riomaggiore

Our first stop of the day was Riomaggiore.  It was a very quick train ride - maybe 8 minutes or so.  It plopped us just about right in the middle of town.  We had just about an hour in between trains but, Riomaggiore was a bit different because there was a walking path from it to the next town - this freed us up a bit with our timeline - meaning we could miss the next train. A bit of advice on visiting Cinque Terre.....try not to schedule your trip for January.  This is the off season and just about everything was closed.  Basically, one restaurant per town stays open but, all the shops are closed and the streets are dead.

In some ways having the town buttoned up and quiet was really nice - we could poke around and go just about anywhere we wanted without running into anyone.  Supposedly, in the summer the place is packed...which I believe because the towns are really quite small.

My favorite part of the town was up on the hill.  From there you had a birds eye view of the town, the fishing grounds, and the path to Manarola.  There were a couple quaint old churches on the top of the hill....for some reason doesn't it seem like old churches should be on the top of hills?

I loved how the homes had small terraced gardens leading down the hills.  I loved how many lemon trees could be found.  I loved the colors in contrast with the blue of the mediterranean.  In general I loved how gorgeous it was!

It just seemed to work out that as we were travelling between towns the sun was in our way for every single photo opportunity! 

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La Spezia, Italy :: The Market

I was able to shuffle around the watch schedule with my shipmates to have a full day off on Wednesday.  Getting to start your day ashore at 0800 is pretty awesome. I had done a bit of research the last time I was in port (i.e. I visited the tourist information center) and so while I was ashore on Tuesday I got a fresh train schedule.  I've been absolutely itching to get to Cinque Terre - it didn't work out for me last time but this time I had all my ducks in a row before we even got into port!

What's really great is that one of my watch partners has the travel bug like me!  This  part of the going ashore equation is actually pretty critical....not that I mind a bit of solo travel....it is just so much more fun when you have someone to bounce around with!

We weren't going to be able to get on the train until about 1000 and so we spent a bit of time in La Spezia. As we were walking around downtown on Tuesday we saw them packing up a farmers market.  We looked at eachother and both went, 'yep' this is how we'll kill our morning waiting for the train!

We walked straight to the market and it was packed with produce, fresh seafood, meats, cheeses, bread.  You name it they had it. 

We got some sliced meat and cheese for our day and we also bought some fresh fruit.  It was so cheap!  We probably spent about 5 Euro total - which is only 7 bucks - and had a bag full of food!

Next it was on to a bakery for some goodies and a little cappucino (since I had learned that espresso wasn't much to my liking....with it not having any milk and all).  I tried to order a latte....and ended up with a glass of steamed milk!  Ha!  I chugged it down and then ordered a cappucino where I got a well delivered kick in the pants!

This is where my posts of La Spezia will end because with our bellies full we walked to the train station....where the day really began....we were off to the Cinque Terre!

La Spezia :: Out and About.

This is actually my second time calling on the port of La Spezia, Italy.  I love repeat port calls.  Especially when the port is as cool as La Spezia!  The more you visit a port the better you get to know it - duh.  The better you get to know it the more efficient you are when you only have a few hours ashore!  Efficiency ashore is uber important.  After having a cup of espresso I managed to walk around the city, go grocery shopping, have dinner at a cute cafe, and buy a puff coat and some other cute accessories at Zara.  Three hours baby. Oh, and I also visited the tourist information center for an updated train schedule so that I could plan my adventures for the following day. 

One slight bummer is that everything shuts down between 1230 and 1530.  Which means, that for a large portion of my time ashore there was nothing open!  This didn't end up being too big of a deal because the restaurants stayed open and we were able to walk to the grocery.

It was great to get a second go at La Spezia - my first trip through was a bit of a whirlwind because I was getting relieved and flying home.  This time through I had nothing on my mind other than enjoying myself! 

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