Italy Bound - Cinque Terre - Part 2

Saturday, September 10

All the windows are open here with no screens.  You would think the houses and restaurants would be full of flies and mosquitoes – but they are not.  We have seen very few flies and no mosquitoes.  Are mosquitoes only a New World thing?

The sea is so important here.  Riomaggiore was filled with small boats on wheels and chocked to stay in the alleys and plazas until needed.

The fishermen go out in their small boats at night for sardines.  They shine a huge light on the water’s surface that attracts plankton  -  which attracts the sardines and then they scoop them up in a big net.  Lots of the restaurants here serve various sardine dishes using fish that have never seen the inside of a can.  Most of the villages have rocky shores.  

I think only Monterosso has any sizable beach – and that only in the ‘new part’ that was built for the tourists.  It’s the existence of this beach that makes it so much more of a typical vacation place.  The beach has been packed with lots of people playing in the water.  Hopefully this afternoon we will go too.  It looks so refreshing and so much fun.  I haven’t been in the water all summer.

Today the plan is to take the train to Corniglia (corn-ee-lia) and hike to Vernazza.  Getting off the bus that took us from the train station up a steep hill to the town’s center, the sole on one of my hiking boots started flapping.  The other one was starting to come off too.  We glued them down using a superglue that one of the shop keepers gave me, but were unwilling to trust it on a 1.5 hour hike up d down hills in the hot sun.  So Don and I baled from the hike.  We looked around Corniglia – the smallest and sweetest of the 5 towns - then took the train to Vernazza.  There we had a much more relaxing afternoon sitting in a café in the piazza on the waterfront under the shade of big yellow umbrellas, soaking up  the ambiance, enjoying bruschetta and drinks verrry slowly so we could stay there a lonnnng time.

While we were there, a bride was escorted through the piazza to the church amid much applause.  When she and her groom eventually emerged from the church, the church bells rang and a crowd gathered round.   Such a nice touch to a beautiful day.

Around 1:30 the others staggered in from their hike and it sounded like my shoes saved my knees from a very hard hike. 

Around 4 we finally got our swim in and it was wonderful.   Bobbing around in the very salty water with the hills of Cinque Terre surrounding us made it very clear that we were on the Italian Riviera!

Sunday, September 11 – (didn’t realize till evening that this is ‘9/11’ !!)

Had a bit of R&R today.  At least, Kris and I did.  The others hiked from Monterosso to Vernazza – reputed to be the longest and most beautiful hike.  They reported that it wasn’t as hard as the previous day’s hike, but still had lots of stairs up and then lots of stairs down. 

Tomorrow – 3 hours in a boat for snorkeling!

Monday, September 12

The day started out windy and the sea was choppy.  We had scheduled a boat to take us swimming and snorkeling at 11AM.  But the small boats in the harbor were pitching and rolling.  What to do?  What to do?  Could we cancel?  Should we cancel?  Would we (meaning me and Lisa) get seasick on the rough water?  We went to talk to Paula, the American woman who is married to Angelo who owns the boat charter service.  She introduced us to Davide who would be our captain.  He said we could wait till 1 and see if the weather cleared some – he thought it would calm down after noon.  We stressed, and waited, and paced the dock area, and watched.  Lisa said she’d skip it and do something else.  Finally, at 1, the water did seem to calm down and Davide said we could go out for 1 hour and if we thought it was too rough, he’d take us back.  Paula said we could have a full refund if we didn’t go, and a partial one if we stayed out less than 3 hours.  They couldn’t be nicer (Angelo’s Boat Tours, Monterosso)!  Finally we decided to try it – and Lisa came too.

The Cinque Terre is beautiful  from the water.  The little hilltop towns sparkling in the sunshine. 

Davide was a font of knowledge about the area and its history.  The color of the water mixed royal blue and army green – just gorgeous. 

The colors glowed like jewels – I know that’s a cliché – but they did.  We anchored near a small isolated beach and everyone went swimming – even the captain.  The water felt glorious. 


Cradled in the water with the mountains and towns soaring over me, it truly felt that we were very priviledged people to be able to do this almost halfway around the world. 

After getting back in the boat, seasickness finally did overcome Lisa and Davide took her to shore at Vernazza.  She jumped ashore and took the train back to Monterossa.    

This truly was one of the most memorable days of our trip.