Bellisimo! (Part 2 - Cinque Terre)

Day 4 – Pisa, Winding roads to Cinque Terre

After breakfast the next day, we head over to Pisa to see it’s famous leaning tower. It is indeed leaning. It’s quite the site to see in person.

From there we head north up to the province of Liguria. After much winding around the mountains on tiny local roads, we eventually arrive at Monterroso Al Mare, one of the 5 Cinque Terre towns and our base for the region. The Cinque Terre is a Unesco World Heritage designated region composed of 5 towns essentially built up on little spaces between the mountain sides and the Mediterranean ocean. All along the mountain sides in between the towns are terraces with rows of vineyards, and olive and lemon groves (think rice terraces).

After a plate of pasta each for lunch (spaghetti of course!), we spend the rest of the day enjoying the sunshine by the beach and chilling on a mountainside bar with bottle of Cinque Terre white.

Then we head back to our B&B, stopping by the wine shop to pick up supplies i.e. a bottle of red, some prosciutto and tomatoes to enjoy on our B&B terrace.

Some pics from Day 4 (L-R): Pisa, Monterosso, Chilling


Day 5 – On the Cinque Terre trail

Day 5 begins with a cup of cappuccino and a fresh, warm donut at the pastry shop around the corner from our B&B. On this day we decided to do a section of the Cinque Terre trail, a walking trail which links all 5 towns and takes approx 5 hours from end to end. We aim to do only the first section, Monterosso to Vernazza, a 1:30 hour trail, and also coincidentally the most difficult section, as I overheard in a coffee shop in Vernazza after the ordeal. The trail was quite narrow with lots of climbs up/down mountain ridges. A lot of the way you were barely an inch or 2 from falling into someone’s vineyard or lemon grove, or into the ocean. The views were amazing though. On the often steep climbs up from Monterosso, you could turn around and have an amazing view of Monterosso nestled up against a mountain, facing the big blue Mediterranean, frothy waves crashing against the cliff sides.

About halfway through the trail, we came across an old man selling his lemons from a crate. We couldn’t resist getting a couple of lemons (one of which we’ve brought back to London with us along with a bag full of lemons picked up at a market), we plan to make a mean lemonade this weekend).

After a while of trails winding uphill (when you’re breathing heavily and feel you can proceed no more), the trail suddenly begins to descend, and you begin to catch glimpses of Vernazza hiding behind a mountain ridge. She’s finally revealed to you as you come around that mountain ridge, and she’s quite the sight – much smaller in scale and more compact than Monterroso.

We spend some time watching 2 crazy Italian men jumping into the crashing waves along the pier. Then we go in search of lunch. We plonk down at a restaurant in a little town square, and watch the little town in action as we devour our well-earned octopus salad and plates of spaghetti (seafood for me, tomato for Ed). It felt like being in someone’s back yard. A group of men were sitting on some stairs nearby greeting people as they walked by, flirting with ladies walking their dog, imparting their stoop sitting knowledge and experience to the young.

A 4-minute train ride through the mountain side had as back in Monterroso (yes, a cruel joke after the 1.5 hour hike) for an afternoon on the beach. When the clouds rolled in, we headed into town for a slice of foccacie pizza (delicious!), a scoop of gelato, a bottle of red wine accompanied by a plate of Italian salami’s.

Despite being full from the afternoon munchies, we could not pass up a last chance for a plate of spaghetti in Italy for dinner. For some reason spaghetti is just so much better in Italy. I capped the trip off with a plate of seafood spaghetti, while Ed had the seafood spaghetti, and also somehow convinced me that in addition, we had to have another plate of spaghetti al pomodore (it being the last night and all). Hmmm…missing it already.

Some pics from Day 6 (L-R): Cinque Terre trail, View of Vernazza


Haul for the day: 1 bottle Cinque Terre white and 1 lemon

Day 6 – The journey home

We wake up early on Day 6 and carefully pack our wine in our suitcases. We had packed light for the journey here (we had come with 2 moderately empty suitcases and a bunch of bubble wrap!). We leave with 10 bottles on wine in addition to our luggage. Mission accomplished I’d say.

We head out for a cappuccino and warm donut at the pastry shop around the corner, and are surprised to find a street market set up on the road fronting the beach. We take a stroll through the market, and pick up a chunk of pecorino (we’ll try making us some of that pici pasta – we had picked some up in Siena), and a bag of lemons (they have amazing lemons) for a jug of lemonade. Ed also wants to learn how to make Caipirinha’s (with fresh lemons) as he had 3 or 4 of them before dinner the evening before.

We then reluctantly loaded up our trusty Fiat Panda (it served us well!), and headed back up the winding country roads on the way to Genova, from where we catch a 13:30 flight back to Stansted. London is cold and cloudy. We’re wishing we were back in sunny Italy!

Haul for the day: Chunk of pecorino, bag of lemons