Cinque Terre
The Five Communities of Cinque Terre: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore
Next destination: Monterroso, one of the hillside towns in Cinque Terre. Since we had to take a train from where the bus dropped us off, once again we had been advised to downsize our luggage.
Monterosso al Mare
In Monterroso, our group was divided in half between two nearby hotels. Our hotel was called Albergo Pasquale, and our room had a lovely scenic view of the water. The hotels were owned by an incredibly entrepreneurial couple who worked with their two sons. All of them were very warm, kind, helpful and incredibly hard working. In addition to owning and running the hotel, the family also owned a small restaurant next door where we joined the rest of our group for dinner.
We all met at the hotel restaurant and the owner, Felicita, gave us a pesto-making lesson. She described all of the required steps in detail and then gave us each a copy of her recipe for the perfect pesto sauce.
For dinner, we were served pesto sauce on crusty sourdough bread, a delicious lasagna made with that same sauce, and a light, mild fish. To finish off the meal, we were served a surprisingly light and delightful ice cream dessert. The homemade lasagna noodles were so soft and tender, it was one of the best lasagnas either of us had ever had. Felicita and her husband, Angelo, were such gracious hosts, they made the experience truly memorable for us all.
DAY 10
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This was our day to have a vacation from our vacation, and we were given some free time to either visit the other towns in Cinque Terre or just relax in Monterosso. In order to visit the other towns, our options were to hike from one town to another or to take the train connecting all five. We were eager to see the other areas and decided to utilize the train in order to have enough time to see as much as possible.
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Exploring the Towns of Cinque Terre
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As we did in Lake Como, we traveled first to the town farthest from Monterosso al Mare which was Riomaggiore. Then, we visited Manarola and Vernazza before returning to our home base in Monterosso. After speaking with the manager at our hotel, we decided to skip Corniglia since he said it was higher up on a steep street and without very much to see. Even though there are no particularly historic sites or monuments in Cinque Terre, the small, quaint towns have an ambience and charm all of their own and provide an incredibly memorable experience. There are unique characteristics to each town. For example, Monterosso has the only sandy beach while the Manarola and Vernazza beaches are much rockier. Although Monterosso is not as hilly as the other towns, all of them have the colorful, picturesque hillside buildings and streets which make these towns so famous and easily recognizable.
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The Mosquitoes of Vernazza & The Miracle of Bug Bands
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As we hiked up the hills of Vernazza with a couple of our travel buddies, we ran into another couple from our group who told us how to get to a place with a much better view for our photographs. They also advised us to beware of the voracious mosquitoes. Just then, the other lady in our group noticed that she was getting bites on her legs, too. Bug Bands to the rescue! It was time to wear my insect repellent Bug Band which I had brought with me from home. When I first bought them, I was skeptical that they would really work. But apparently they do! I normally get bug bites when I'm outside for any extended period of time- I must have extra delicious skin. When I got back to the hotel that night though, I realized I hadn't gotten any bites at all! You can wear the bands on your wrist, ankle, belt loop, or backpack, and they are Deet free and water resistant. They do have a strong odor, but I am now a convert after seeing that they really do work.
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Tricky Trains
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A funny thing happened on the way back from Vernazza. After boarding the train with some other group members, we patiently waited for it to leave the station. However, after waiting for what seemed like more than a reasonable amount of time, the train had not moved. Nobody on the train seemed to know what was happening. The long delay gave us some time to get to know our fellow passengers. We had an interesting conversation with a young girl from Barcelona, Spain and her friend from Germany, which helped make the time pass more quickly. We all decided to get off the train and hoped there would be another one arriving soon to take us back to Monterosso. Luckily, not that long after another train arrived and took us back to Monterosso. We came to the conclusion that for some reason, that was the last stop for that particular train even though no one thought to tell us.
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