The Head is the Best Part!

Aaaahhhhh. We are out of Tuscany and on the coast of the Cinque Terre in the lovely small town of Vernazza. The Cinque Terre must be one of the most beautiful coastal spots anywhere. Five tiny villages nestled in valleys and on hilltops, all right on the sea except one. Four out the five are very small with limited places to stay (the largest, Monterosa, is more of a resort and can be missed). The towns are all linked by trails that are easily hiked, about 10 kilometers of trail in all.

We arrived here yesterday morning after 1/2 day in Lucca, which, frankly, was 1/2 day too long. Lucca is pretty, with nice walls and all that, but enough already. We are just ready to be by the sea. So we arrived in the morning and as we were walking down the main street with our suitcases a little nona came up to us and said she had a room for us to look at with a sea view. Climbing not too many stairs we saw a very nice little room which indeed had a sea view and nothing below us, so no possible noise. Only 65 euros, which I think is a pretty good deal here,.

Vernazza is just so darned quaint. Except for the boatloads of tourists who unload here between 10am and 4pm, it is fairly quiet and not over run. For lunch we ate in a restaurant overlooking the town and had a frito misto (mixed fried fish), which included shrimp, squid, sardines and other assorted sea creatures.

Now about eating fried shrimp. All experienced fried shrimp eaters know that the best part is the head. Some people, no names mentioned here, will just not eat the head. But that leaves extra heads for those who are not squeamish about such things.

To get around these villages you can either hike or take the train. The train stops in each of the towns and leaves every half hour or so. So we took the train down to Riomaggiore, the southernmost town. This is a very narrow village that goes from the sea up about 300 feet.



We explored the town, saw some fisherman hanging out at the port, and then had our daily afternoon gelato. The pause that refreshes. From this town it is an easy 20 minute hike to the next town, Manarola. This turned out to be my second favorite town, after Vernazza, and the one with the best restaurant so far. We explored this town for an hour or so and then saw the sunset from the path that goes to the next town.



We had dinner in a restaurant right up from the port. It was across the street from the one that was "Raccomeded" by Rick Steves (according to the sign on the window), which Amy refuses to go to (in truth, everything there is 2 euros more then the one we went to). We had a great mixed seafood, trifie with pesto (pesto is from this region and trifie are these short, narrow noodles), stuffed clams, mixed salad and a walnut cake. This was all washed down with the local white, grown a few hundred meters up the hill. Mmmmmm-mmmmm good. We met some very nice young women from Slovenia who were at the table next to us. I had to admit I had no idea where Slovenia was, but in fact, it is only a five hour drive from here in the former Yugoslavia. They were very nice, but unfortunately for them they were staying in the dreary nearby town of La Spezia. After dinner we waddled to the train station and took the 10 minute ride back to Vernazza. The night was spent listening to the ocean waves banging against the cliff below our window.

This morning we woke up early and after a quick breakfast of capuccino and a croissant, were the first ones on the trail to Corneglia, a 2 hour or so hike south to the next village. This hike is a little harder, as it goes up about 700 feet. Amy has had a bum knee for awhile, but it seems to be getting better as she had very little trouble going up or down. The hike has a beautiful view of Vernazza and then goes into some pretty old olive groves.



And the nicest thing was being on the trail early in the morning, mostly in the shade, before the heat of the day sets in and before the hordes hit the trail. By the time we reached Corneglia, we only saw 8 or 10 other hikers. We had a nice little coffee in Corneglia and met a very nice Aussie couple, Richard and Laurie. We started talking politics, as Amy just assumes that everyone outside of the US is going to be an Obama supporter. But it turns out that Richard is more to the right, shall we say, and they had a nice and lively discussion. Richard is a very cool guy, even though he doesnt believe in global warming. They are in the Cinque Terre for 7 days, which gives plenty of time for hiking.

So this afternoon we will probably take a swim here in town and then have a nice fish dinner tonight. Tomorrow we plan on hiking way, way up to a village about 1300 feet up from the coast....Ciao!!!!