Day 6: Cinque Terre

Florence, Italy

Bongiorno (good morning) from Florence! On Wednesday night I was too deep into a food/wine coma to write, so playing catch up this morning! On Thursday morning we met our driver and departed to the west coast for Cinque Terre. It’s a very rugged/mountainous portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. We passed through the city of La Spezia to get to “The Five Lands” which comprises five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. Our driver dropped us off at the 2nd village (Manarola) and we had all intentions of walking the Via D’Amore (pathway of love) to Riomaggiore for a pre-arranged lunch. We took in the panoramic views of Manarola and learned there had recently been a rock slide, temporarily closing the Via D’Amore. I was slightly disappointed, but all the intense walking trails and steps seemed to look just like the pictures I had seen of the walkway of love, so I feel we still got the full Cinque Terre experience! I’m simply shocked these villages never traveled (although after seeing the cliffs and rough roads I guess I get it!) to one another until this pathway was constructed to more easily transport military supplies in WWII. People between villages began to meet this way, and it became the meeting point for lovers (for the first time people married outside their native village). This is where our true adventure began! We had reservations for lunch at 1pm, so at about 12:20 we headed for the train (it appeared the trains ran between islands every few minutes). Well…we had just missed the train, and the man at the ticket booth told us the next train wouldn’t be coming for another hour. Yikes!! He did tell us that there was a boat just about to leave we could take instead, so we ran through the uneven streets and down some seriously steep steps to board the departing boat. As we left from the island we were relieved to be aboard then the boat suddenly turned the opposite direction of Riomaggiore, and we soon learned we were headed the opposite direction to the island of Monterosso! Opps…time to get creative! Jeff called our restaurant and we learned the kitchen closes daily at 2:30pm, so we were in a time crunch. When we got on land, we also quickly learned the boats between islands are very leisurely and stay inland for about 20 mins or so before departing again. Luckily, we spotted a small water taxi that was departing and even though he was full he called for another one for us! Bryan and mom spotted “Brian Sticks” as we awaited the taxi, which we learned were toothpicks. Soon we were on a tiny water taxi bopping along the large waves in between giant cliffs and beautiful clear blue water! Although we ended up missing lunch, the view and this experience was certainly a once in a lifetime moment we’ll never forget (much better than any meal we could eat). When we arrived in Riomaggiore we headed to the train station after checking in at the restaurant… we decided we weren’t going to miss our next form of transportation! We enjoyed a casual pizza lunch (our favorite pizza yet) in La Spezia before meeting back up with our driver. For dinner, we made reservations for Il Latina, a great recommendation from my friends Jess & Felix who had visited Florence last year. This was a wonderful dining experience to get a taste of a traditional Florence feast! Everything was served family style with unlimited wine…the most wine we’ve had yet 🙂 Starters included fresh shaved prosciutto, melon, a barley salad, fresh tomatoes & mozzarella, chicken liver pate, and salami. Next came three pastas: a rigatoni with an amazing meat sauce, gnocchi in an olive oil based sauce with rabbit, and ravioli in tomato sauce. The main plate included a variety of meats: chicken, beef, veal, rabbit, pork and lamb! Wait, there’s more! For dessert, they brought out a great sweet moscato and a plate of various desserts (their version of a cream pie, raspberry torte, Neapolitan, almond cake, and bread pudding); and, a dessert wine with biscotti! Phewww, hard to breath on our walk home last night! But, enjoyed all of it! Thanks again, Jess & Felix for the recommendation! This morning Bryan walked to a cafe near by and was excited to get ‘American’ sized coffee to go! We enjoyed a quick jam stuffed croissant as we clean up and pack to leave Florence. Time to head to the high speed train again…next stop Rome! Ciao! (Sorry for the late post, just got back on wifi at our hotel in Rome)