Italy Day 4: Cinque Terre

We woke up early to see what the status was of the weather alert. We were worried that the weather alert was going to shut down most of our planned activities, but the morning status was improved from the previous day. We decided to go ahead with our plans, and bought our Cinque Terre train pass.

Our first task was to head to Monterosso, where we enjoyed a light breakfast. Liz got a slice of breakfast tart with artichoke and ricotta filling, I got a slice of focaccia with tomato and olives. We started on the trail to Vernazza. While the weather wasn't perfect - we got periodic showers - it was good enough for us to proceed. At least our shoes stayed drier than the previous day in Milan. In spite of the weather, we managed to complete this leg of the trail while making pretty good time, and enjoyed some pretty views along the way. We arrived in Vernazza in less than ninety minutes.

Pre-hike photo

Monterosso al Mare

Vineyards

Strange contraption used to ride up the rails for grape harvesting

Vernazza

Since we had been in Vernazza the day before, we were at least somewhat familiar with it. We saw a few people eating fried fruti di mare in paper cones with a piece of lemon skewered into it and decided, we needed to try that. So we got a large cone of our own. It contained fried calimari, shrimp, anchovies, and some fritters. It was very tasty, and the anchovies tasted just fine (I'd never actually eaten a whole anchovy before). While there, we also availed ourselves of gelato at the same place we had gotten it from the night before. Liz got pistachio and the peach passionfruit again, and I got fig and lemon. Liz said the pistachio was the best pistachio gelato she's ever had.

Fish cone!

This fish is delish!

Obligatory gelato photo

We attempted the next leg of the trail to Corniglia, but discovered that it was closed (in spite of what was written on the website). So we took the train instead. Corniglia's train station is not inside the city, and you have to take a quick shuttle bus ride to get there. The driver seemed like he doesn't have much patience with clueless tourists. We looked around the town when we got there and ate some more gelato. We weren't planning on this originally, but the gelateria had a basil flavor which we just had to try. It tasted like pesto, and was surprisingly good.

Basil gelato

Mark likes trains

We took the train to Manarola next, and followed a walking tour from the guidebook. Manarola gave us our best photo opportunities thus far, as the weather was getting a bit better and the walking tour brought us to some good viewpoints. We encountered the most scenic playground we've ever seen, on the bluff outside of town with a beautiful view of Manarola, the Italian riviera, and a distant view of Corniglia and Monterosso.

Manarola - one of the most Instagrammed spots in the world

Candidate for world's most scenic playground

Cinque Terre panorama

We went back to Riomaggiore for a break, and decided to head to Monterosso for dinner since we hadn't explored that town as much. Our first efforts to find a restaurant failed: One of them didn't exist at the address as described, and the other was closed. We settled on a restaurant called L'Osteria and dined al fresco. We decided to go for seafood. We got a salad with tuna in it, and then got a plate of mussels and a seafood ravioli with sea bass and shrimp. It was delicious. We just missed our train and tried to explore the western part of town, but didn't see much. We returned to the station and caught a train that was bound for Parma - it skipped Vernazza, Corniglia and Manarola but thankfully stopped at Riomaggiore for a quick ride back to our hotel. At this point, it was a struggle for me to stay awake, so I surrendered to the bed before 10:00.

How you know fish is on the menu

The seafood ravioli was amazing