Vernazza does not allow vehicles in the main town, which is wonderful, unless your room overlooks the edge of town parking lot. We were awakened by car, trucks, and motorcycle noises. We were happy to have new reservations lined up. Sharon still felt guilty, but not too guilty to not take full advantage to the amazing breakfast provided by the B&B. Nate ate for three. Sharon ate for one. It was delicious and we were sad to say good bye to a breakfast like that for the rest of the week. After breakfast, Sharon waited outside while Nate broke the news that we were leaving. The receptionist seemed confused that we are checking out early, but the language barrier helps to cushion the blow of loss profit.
We arrived early at our new hotel and stashed our bags until noon when we could get into our room. We took a mini hike to fill the time. The views were breathtaking and we met lots of interesting and chatty people from Australia, Canada, Kansas City, and Eugene, Oregon. It was an excellent morning.
We checked into our place at noon. It was even better than we hoped with the bonus of having a queen sized bed! We stashed our stuff and hit the trails. We hiked 10k through 4 of the 5 towns that make up cinque terra, along with about a billion other hikers. This seems like a popular place. The weather was perfect. For lunch we bought some strawberries and blood oranges. Of course, we had a gelato for a snack as well.
We even made a small detour on one of the hikes down to the ocean. We got a little wet and the place smelled like rotting fish, but it was nice to cool down. We grabbed a train home. Sharon was excited to sit on the second level of a train for the first time.
As we were trudging up the many stairs to return to our hotel (everything is connected by stair streets here) we almost crashed a wedding! We got out of the way just in time for the bride to make it though with her dad. Hopefully, we looked good in their pictures. After a quick clean up, we had a late dinner at an outside pasta restaurant. It was very romantic until the local crazy man made the rounds to loudly berate the restaurant workers in the square and feral cats starting eyeing Sharon’s food. And feet. We moved the party to our hotel room and had a dessert of chocolate and fruit on our balcony.
I hope you two got to see the Giant of cinque terre. Which is a statue built into the mountain side holding up a bridge. It was featured in my awesome Italy daily picture calendar that dad and mom got me for christmas. If you didn't see it this time, check it out if you ever get back there on a weekend trip.
ReplyDelete