Last Day in Cinque Terre

Since I don't want to spend too much time in this "net" cafe, I won't be uploading photos today (alas), BUT the web photo on the left is EXACTLY our deck at the Manarola apartment. The same chairs, umbrella, view!

Last night we did laundry in the sink again, and Mike hung the laundry on the lines outside the kitchen door. EVERYONE hangs laundry outside their windows here, and we've seen it all over Italy. The clothes do dry fast that way, too. We splurged for dinner last night, sharing all three courses: grilled swordfish, grilled calamari and pasta with mussels.

Mike is hiking the Cinque Terre trail today (should take him 3 hours or so) while I plan to sit on the beach and read, then shop, and meet him at the end of the trail in the town of Riomaggiore where this is a bar called Bar e Vini Pie de Ma (bar and wine at the foot of the ocean??).

Cinque Terre has been a wonderfully restful stop on our trip. All that we can do here is walk, sit in the sun, eat and drink. There are many fewer tour groups here (in Florence they were everywhere): the tour groups are quite large and very annoying since they basically hog the very narrow streets.

There are 5 towns in Cinque Terre each with their own "feel" and all about 4 minutes apart by an hourly train (or a boat). NO cars are allowed in the towns (with some exceptions in Town #5):

Town #1: Riomaggiore: I'll be meeting Mike there in a few hours, so more on that later.

Town #2: Manarola: where we are staying. It's one of the smaller towns, less touristy, and, if I had to compare it to an Oregon coast town, think Yachats (but with no beach--there are two rock-decks folks sun on and jump into the ocean from). We are renting the top floor of a house. Our downstairs neighbors for the last few days have been Tom and Kirsten from Portland, ironically. I'll post their photos another day. We had breakfast together and today they are off to Lucca. Mike and I would love to hear all about the rest of your trip! Post a comment!

Town #3: Corniglia: I haven't been to this town. It's the only one without a harbor so the boat doesn't stop here. Mike said he'll check it out as a break point during his hike.

Town #4: Vernazza. We visited here yesterday, taking the boat from town #5 to here (a 5 minute, stunning boat ride). This town has almost a fairytale like harbor it's so beautiful. It's a smallish town (tho larger than Manarola), and like Manarola, there is only one main street with shops and restaurants. The gelato is excellent here and we sat for an hour in the harbor people watching while we enjoyed it (I had limone in una cupa piccola, and Mike had vanilla and chocolate in a cone). Think of this town (for the Oregonians reading this) as "Newport"-like, but with a VERY tiny beach.

Town #5: Monterossa. This is the "Seaside" of the Cinque Terre with a long beach, parts of it private, parts public. We waded in the ocean yesterday in this town and had a delicious lunch at a restaurant on the ocean (I had the ravioli stuffed with walnut sauce; Mike had gnocci stuffed with spinach). I'm here now since this, the biggest town, has two Internet cafes and I hope to go wade in the water once more!

Tomorrow we leave for Siena---more in a day or two.

Stacey