Sunday, September 7, Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre

After going to Mass this morning in Genova, we hoisted the old backpacks and took off for the train to Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre, where we will park it for 2 weeks. We had the milk run train, made a million stops but it wasn’t bad and it is always fun to look at other towns and the train was not crowded so that was nice.

Arrived in Riomaggiore and had lunch. Not sure I should show the photos since it wasn’t the healthiest of meals but it was pretty tasty. We ate at the same restaurant that we had our last night’s dinner in 2007 when we were here with Chad, Juli, Michele and my sister Connie so it brought back memories.

Our apartment is absolutely adorable and has a view to die for. It’s a 2 story apartment; oh yeah, a winding staircase with the bedroom on the lower floor and the bathroom on the second floor. The second floor is the main living area, eating area and kitchen with a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and the back of a few other apartments. We love it! The weather was really hot when we arrived but it cooled down early evening and I had to put on long sleeves – way to go: it’s perfect weather.

Roamed around the town for a bit and picked up some groceries and are just enjoying relaxing for the rest of the evening. We’ll do some exploring tomorrow and since it is so hilly here, I guess it is safe to say, more leg work! Should be in great shape by the time we get back to AZ!

Stay tuned for more adventures from Cinque Terre!

Monday, September 8, Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre

After a very good night’s sleep, we decided we needed to go to the market and the grocery store for some food. We hopped on the train to La Spezia, the large town and province capitol just down from Riomaggiore. We found the outdoor market which turned out to be fabulous. We walked all around before we bought anything, checked it all out and one stall looked just as fabulous  as the next. So out come our bags and we start buying fruits, veggies, cheese, a good knife to take with us, and before you knew it, Jim’s back pack was full and so were my bags.
A shot of the market area.

Time to head back to Riomaggiore. We bought our tickets and had to wait before the train left. We were on the train platform and I decided to wait inside the train so I could sit down. I was on the train with one other person when the doors suddenly closed and I jumped up and looked out the window at Jim and we both had that look on our faces that said, Uh Oh what’s going on here! I started to freak out and then thought, oh for pete’s sake. You can take it to the next station and get off, turn around and go back! Except that I had ALL the groceries and knew it would be a challenge to carry them. Suddenly the doors open and Jim gets on the train and says, we are good, they were just testing the doors. Holy Cow Really? Then we both laughed! So that was our Uh Oh moment for the day.

Got back to the apartment, fixed lunch then went on a walking tour that we found in a Rick Steve’s book and it was great. Just enough hill climbing and stairs to keep us in shape but not kill us. It’s a lovely town and of course with the Sea, it’s big view makes everything most enjoyable.

Another thing we learned today is that back in Napolean’s time, he decreed that for sanitation purposes, people couldn’t be buried in the populated parts of a town. They followed that practice in the Cinque Terre so you’ll find many of the cemeteries and crypt locations outside of town. Notice next the location for the deceased families of Riomaggiore up on the hillside.

Of course by this time it was Gelato time – our downfall lately. As you can see, our blogs now are slowing their pace with no museums, palaces and only a few churches and I must say we are also slowing the pace, and loving it.

I’ll have to start dinner soon and we have fallen into the Italian way of eating a little later which is really not all that bad.

Check in with you all tomorrow!

Tuesday, September 9, Riomaggiore & Manarola, Cinque Terre

Both of us were up fairly early today, before the churches began ringing the 7 o’clock hour. I think we get 28 bells total at 7:00 from the four churches in town. Want to make sure the fisherman are all up and at ‘em. Or is to get everyone up to prepare for all the tourists. After caffé, we boarded the train and headed over to Town #2 of the Cinque Terre, Manarola, where we stayed in 2007. We jumped off the train, walked through the tunnel to the town and just as before, there was our apartment from 2007 as we exited the tunnel!

We then hiked around town, refamiliarizing ourselves with the town and our old haunts.

We went up to San Lorenzo Church where there is a piazza memorable to us for the little old Italian ladies who would be there towards the end of the day — just like in the movies. We passed the winery where our friend Claudio’s cousin makes local wine.

We then chose once again to take a Rick Steves recommended hike and from which many of the following photos were taken. It was worth it although we are pretty sure Claudio took us on that tour from the opposite direction when he put on a wonderful wine and olive oil tasting for us the last night we were in Manarola in 2007.

I mentioned yesterday the tradition — the rule — about interring the deceased residents outside the populated parts of the towns here. Today we visited the cemetery in Manarola.

Still on that path, we had a good long distance view of Corniglia, the third and middle town of the Cinque Terre. We’ll head over there later this week, to include climbing the nearly 400 stairs from the train station to the village. Also, while still on the trail, we came across our 2007 swimming hole where Michele and Jim cooled off a few years back.

We arrived back in the main part of town and much to our chagrin, Princess Cruises had dumped at least five, perhaps even more, groups of their tourists on Cinque Terre. We hate to be negative but Lordy, can you imagine what I am sure were 500 tourists filling the streets of this little town at one time? And, further to our chagrin, and Jim’s dislike for people who don’t think about their impact on other people, particularly the wonderful residents of these towns, they absolutely paid no attention nor consideration to anyone else in the streets. Sorry for a little negativism but if you have never been around large groups of French, Germans, Englishmen and Australians at one time, it’s rather pushy! So, we headed back to the apartment for the remainder of the day, falling further into our preferred mode — Slow Italy.

We stayed in most of the day, venturing out to grab a beer at a local bar and to do a little shopping for supper. Actually, I, Jim, am writing tonight as I sit out on our balcony, overlooking the sea and smelling the wonderful aroma of “gravy” – tomato sauce – being prepared by mia moglia, Frani, the Italian. I am also watching the little old lady above pulling in her laundry of the day and the kids playing soccer in the piazza about one floor level down and to the left of our apartment. Folk, we ARE in Italy. And wouldn’t you know it, Fran has the TV on watching Italy beat Cyprus in soccer. Uh oh, now Fran is out talking with the lady!

Well, time to wrap up. These last photos though sort of tell the story of adorable Cinque Terre. Regardless of the tourists, when they leave, and they generally do at the end of the day, this is our idea of where to spend ones time. Oh, and the little lady just above was still, after all these years, equally enthusiastic about “her” Cinque Terre!

A post script. After a great supper, I was standing out on the balcony when two young ladies and a man walked up to the railing on the piazza overlooking the harbor and the sea one level below our balcony. They looked a little concerned when I said “buena sera” but one gal waved, said something about being American, and that started the conversation. The fellow is an American technical type working in Frankfurt, Germany, so I imposed on him to “tidy up” my Italian cell phone. That resulted in an invitation to join Fran and me in the apartment for a glass of wine followed by a “personal tour” of Riomaggiore. The three of them are U of Michigan grads and were doing some touring of Europe this summer. We just returned (it’s 10:00 PM) after settling them in at a local restaurant. What a great way to end the day!

So, buona notte!

Friday, September 12, Fran’s Birthday in Cinque Terre

Topping a birthday in Cinque Terre is going to be very difficult. It was a glorious sunny day.

Wednesday on the other hand, began with one heck of a thunderstorm first thing in the morning — make that around 1:00 AM. And the rain continued until very late into the afternoon. So we studied our Italian a bit, looked over our next stops, checked to make sure we are doing what we want to do here, and generally relaxed.

Yesterday, Thursday, we decided to venture over to Vernazza where we had lunch at del Capitano, a restaurant we ate at with our gang in 2007. I ordered the Spaghetti Seafood which was absolutely fantastic and Jim ordered a mix of fish which was also fantastic. Jim ordered the house white wine and it was delicious so I actually had half a glass. I told Jim I enjoyed the wine in Venice in 2007 and now that we were in the town of Vernazzo, I was enjoying the wine again. Must have something to do with the name of the location beginning with “V.”

This was to be our main meal of the day but that was not to be the case. We then walked around the town before heading back to our apartment in Riomaggiore. By the way, Vernazza is the fourth of the five towns here.

Back to the apartment, we phoned a friend we met in 2007, Claudio Cappellini.  He in fact, is the person who arranged for our apartment. He invited us to his house in Manarola for wine and to meet a couple from La Spezia who had come to Manarola to go swimming and meet up with Claudio. So we went over about 5:30 and sat in his lovely garden area drinking water because as Claudio said, it was too early for wine! After listening to him tell us amazing stories about the history of Italy, his friends showed up around 7:30 and we went for a walk and then to dinner at the restaurant right next to his house and right on the Manarola harbor. Slight change of plans!

There were five of us so Claudio ordered antipasti for six, which we all shared, along with a bottle of local white wine. This was followed by a pasta dish, the pasta made with black squid ink, followed by a fish dish! And another bottle of wine. Although we shared the food, there was still more than enough for all of us and after our lunch and the dinner, I thought I’d explode. We had a fabulous time and it was an interesting evening. Claudio speaks perfect English but the couple spoke only Italian. Claudio did some interpreting but he was forcing us to speak and learn more Italian and he was forcing his friends to speak and listen to more English. Turned out we had a fabulous time and we were actually able to communicate and figure out what we were all talking about. The couple were so very nice. Francesco is a retired architect and Alysia is a sculptor – very interesting people. She was doing a lot of chatting with me and all I could think was please, Fran – use your brain and soak up this Italian so you can communicate with her. Worked out just fine and I actually understood most of what she was telling me. By the end of the night we were fast friends walking arm-in-arm back to the train station.

We are supposed to visit them this weekend in La Spezia so we shall see what happens. Without Claudio there to help us, we are really on our own but somehow I am not worried about it, we will be fine!  Took photos of our lunch but unfortunately not our dinner which would have made for an amazing photo op!  The fish at dinner by the way was orata, the same type of fish that was substituted for branzino at the restaurant in Genova.  Unlike that little thing you saw in the photo of our last dinner in Genova, the fish last night was enough to feed at least seven or eight of us.

I am truly hoping that by the end of this trip, Jim and I have not gained weight! Seems like all we do is eat but hey isn’t that what Italy is all about? Guess we will just have to keep going up and down hills and steps and we’ll be fine.

Buona Notte

Saturday September 13 – Pietrasanta

We  had an invitation from Claudio to meet him at Pietrasanta, about an hour from Cinque Terre, to spend the afternoon and evening with him and Francesco and Elisa, our new friends in Italy! On our train ride we rode through Carrara which is where the world famous Italian marble mines are located. Since we did not stop there, we did the best we could to capture a photo from the train.

We arrived  in Pietrasanta before Claudio and spent some time roaming around the town. We found another church, San Martino Cathedral  which was also very beautiful. The town itself was pretty quiet so we only walked around for a bit.

A photo of one of the streets in the town of Pietrasanta

Francesco picked us up once we called him and took us to his house. Elisa showed us her sculpting studio at the house and it was totally amazing. She is a famous sculptor, Elisa Corsini, and has some of her pieces in Phoenix as well as several other countries. It was interesting to hear her explanation of the different materials she uses for sculpting and her work is beautiful.

When we were done, we sat on their balcony having drinks and gelato before heading to town to meet Claudio. The town is all about the arts. There are so many art museums, it’s unbelievable and they were all very different and interesting. There were paintings, sculptures, tapestries and rugs. All very beautiful. There are also many clothing shops, pricey but very upscale and gorgeous. Nope, didn’t go shopping, just looked and it was fun.

At the beginning of the road is a very large sculpture of a picture frame so Jim snapped a shot of Fran and Elisa – now how cute is this.

After so much walking around, Fran and Elisa took a little break. You will see this sight all around Italy of the Italian women when they want to stop and relax for a bit so we decided to follow suit.

Around 8:30 we stopped at a restaurant and had pizza, several different kinds and all very tasty. Then at 10:00, we hopped on the train and headed home, got here at midnight, way past our bedtime and totally exhausted. We had a great time and learned a lot more about Italy and it’s people.

Sunday September 14- Monterosso

Sunday was cleaning day at the apartment so Jim and I had to be out for an hour. Good excuse to visit another town so we took the train to Monterosso which is mostly a tourist town but it is beautiful and has plenty of beach area for the public. This town was hit really hard in October 2011 with a very bad storm. It destroyed a lot of beach area, housing structures, churches and shops. Going there today you would never know this because the Italian people have put it all back together and very nicely. They have even added new hotels and housing to include more beach area with room for travel trailers and a section for automobile parking.

We walked to the Northwest end of the town – the end of the Cinque Terre closest to Genova — and then all the way back through to the Old Town, or Centro Storico. At the NW end, we saw some pretty nice homes, and a big statue which at one time might have been Neptune. It’s called Il Gigante, the giant.

The town was extremely crowded leaving us to wonder, why on earth did we go there on a Sunday! We walked around the town and up into the old part of the town which was just as crowded but at least people were spending money so for the Italians, that is a good thing.

As we wandered around the town, we came upon a church that was really beautiful. It had been destroyed by the storm in 2011 and put back together. We saw the photos from the destruction and we could not believe we were in the same church, it was so amazing. It gave me a new respect for the people of this country and their resiliency. Rather than tear the church down, they put it back together and we were completely impressed. We are adding a few photos so you can see for yourself. We took a picture of the photos showing the destruction and hopefully you can see them as well.

Took some photos of the beach with all those people trying to get as tan as the Italians! Do they really think this is going to happen? No way!

We wandered around for a few hours then found a little restaurant and decided we needed a pasta fix for the day. It was well worth the stop. We sat outside, of course, a little white wine, spaghetti bolagnese and gnocchi with pesto! Both done to perfection but just a little more than we really needed so we finished it off with a great mista insalata. It was now time to walk off our lunch and then head back home. It was a beautiful day!

Lunch was enough to get us through the rest of the day which meant no cooking for me! What a life for a happy wife!

Ciao until domani!

Monday September 15- Corniglia

Spent the afternoon in Corniglia, the town of 387 steps! Yup from the train station up to the town you climb 387 steps, we’ll even show you a photo!

Below is a sign in the village of Corniglia, advising of the good things on the walk that God has provided.

Kind of says it all!!!

It is a smaller town and very cute with lots of little shops, restaurants, gelateria’s, wine bars and a piazza or two to park yourself for a little rest. Did we find another church – but of course and it was lovely. This is Corniglia’s Church since there was no name for it anywhere. This church sits up the top of a bluff in the small fishing village of Corniglia, amazing!

We walked around the town and saw some very beautiful gardens in addition to fantastic vineyards. We found the machinery that takes you up and down the vineyards so you can harvest the grapes for the wine. This equipment did not entice me in the least to hop on and take a ride. As a matter of fact, it reminded me of a nasty roller coaster of which I am deathly afraid to ride! See what I am talking about in the photos we took.

Corniglia also has it’s beaches so snapped a shot for you. You can also see the town of Manorola from one of the places we were standing in Cornigla. We have not found any site in Cinque Terre that is not most pleasing to the eye – every town has it’s beach area, vineyards, hills, valleys and the people are friendly and so willing to help you when it is pretty obvious you need a little guidance! Below are a few shots of the beach area and the beautiful view of the sea.

We are including a shot of an apartment that our friend Claudio Cappelini owns and would like us to rent on our next trip. It is in Corniglia and has been totally remodeled and has the most amazing view of the Mediterannean Sea – looks like a must on our next trip.

Jim and I had dinner at Ristorante Mananan, which was recommended by Chad and for which we had to make a reservation. In addition to the absolutely good looking waiter, the food was delicious. We met a couple from DC who had just gotten married and were on their honeymoon and they didn’t seem to mind chatting with us, kind of hard not to since were all were sitting so close to each other. We ate our dinner and ordered dessert, Jim had a Tiramisu which was really good but more than we could finish so the newlyweds were happy to share it with us!

A long and tiring day with all the climbing, but after dinner it was down all the steps to the train station. Fortunately it had enough lighting that we didn’t break our necks.

We were pretty pooped by the time we got back to the apartment. Something tells me we need to slow it down a bit.

Off for more adventures on Tuesday when it’s to the market to shop for a cooking class in the evening. Stay tuned for that adventure!

Tuesday September 16- Shopping and Cooking Class

After a little slip down the stairs last night, with just a skinned elbow, then stubbing my toe on the bed this morning (and saying something not fit for print,) we were ready to go to the market with Claudio and the other two couples to purchase the food we are going to cook for tonight’s dinner. Claudio taught us how to purchase all the fruits and veggies, how to check your food to make sure it is fresh. We learned a lot and it was interesting hearing the different ways to cook the foods. Some of the vendors even let us taste some of the fruits and veggies before we purchased them.

After we finished shopping with Claudio and the group, Jim and I ventured out on our own and picked up some fruits and veggies to take back to our apartment. We walked around town a bit and went to Bella Napoli for pizza and beer for lunch. It was the best pizza yet and it was ice cold tap beer! Perfect combination for lunch! When we headed back to the train station we spotted a store called “Pet Therapy” where they take care of pets, train owners and had a tone of bird cages. We had to take this photo for our animal lover: Michele!

We headed back to our apartment to relax for a while before heading to our cooking class. The class was held in Via dell’ Amore restaurant before the restaurant opened for business. It was given by Chef Lela and it was awesome. We learned a lot about Italian cooking. Our chef had done a lot of prep work ahead of time since she knew it would take a while to get it all done and the kitchen is not that large plus the restaurant was open for dinner so she had to cook for more than just our group. There were only 4 of us cooking and we really had a great time and our Chef was so patient with her teaching and our ability to follow orders!

Below are some photos from our class!

Once we were done with our lesson, it was time for dinner. Chef Lela took the prepped foods and turned them into a gorgeous and exceptionally tasteful 7 course meal. We had an Apertif, appetizer (clams & mussels soup), salad, pasta, potatoes with mushrooms, 2 different desserts. Had a great time with Claudio and the other couple who were from Canada. We were the loudest ones in the restaurant, imagine that! I am sure everyone was entertained by all the stories going around our table because you’d hear them chuckle and look our way at times. I’m showing you the entire meal – it was so beautiful and so delicious, why not share the photos so you know we enjoyed every single bit of it.

I forgot to take a photo of the mussel and clam zuppa so here they are cooking!

After our meal, we walked around town for a bit since Claudio and our Canadian friends missed the train to Manorola and had to wait for the last train! Oops, guess we were just having way too much fun!

Wednesday will be spent doing laundry and relaxing with maybe a small jaunt to town. We are pooped after 4 days of going strong with traveling and walking, need a day to rest.

I have to leave you with a funny comment for the day. Chef Lela knew part of my roots were from Sicily! So she said I was half Italian, the rest was Siciliano! We all cracked up laughing over that because we all know that Sicily and Italy each considers themselves the true Italians!

Back to you soon with hopefully more very good adventures!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday wrap up of Cinque Terre

Thursday we took a boat ride to see the 5 towns (the Cinque Terre) from the Ligurian Sea and it was amazing. We loved it and it gave us a totally different perspective. We stayed on the boat and took it to Portovenere which is another very lovely town with yachts, shops, and restaurants. We roamed around, then ate lunch and enjoyed watching all the boats. One more day in the Cinque Terre then it is off to Palermo, Sicily.

A few photos from our Thursday sea venture and Portevenere to enjoy.

We had lunch right down on the water and while it appears we behaved ourselves with melon, tomato and mozzerella cheese, we did follow up with a small pizza as the next course!

Views were great. Am providing only two here. One, the mountains, two sets that is, across the water, and if not the original, a dead ringer for Rod Stewart out on a classy little boat.

Of course it was a rough day — we were on the sea much of the time so we needed something to settle our stomachs!

Friday was a rain day which helped us decide we were staying indoors for the day. Worked for us. We relaxed, did the mundane chores such as laundry and some cooking and basically we just read most of the day. When the rains stopped we were on our balcony chatting with two of our local neighbors. The folks here are really very nice and enjoyed hearing our story and gave us some of their story.

Saturday was to be another day of playing but when we went to the train station to head out of town for a few hours,  we discovered there was a be a 24 hour train strike at 9 pm. This meant we would have a very difficult time getting to Pisa to catch our plane to Palermo the next day. So we opted for plan B, that is the plan that is made on the fly! We went back to our apartment, packed our bags and hopped on the next train to Pisa where we had time to see more of the city than we had in 2007, refresh our memories of the Leaning Tower and duomo area, eat a nice meal and stay at a pensione (small hotel) for the evening. Turned out this hotel gave us the biggest room they had, on the main floor and with a little terrace. Unfortunately it was so noisy it was hard to get any sleep. Oh well, go with the flow I guess.

We went to the Duomo at the Piazza for mass on Sunday morning where we finally got to hear a real organ during mass. It was so amazing and really took us back in time. We then looked around the town, came upon a weekend festival for fitness and healthy living and then went to a nice little restaurant outside for lunch. I believe my biggest complaint about all of Europe is the cigarette smoking. Wow it’s unbelievable and I really have a hard time tolerating it but not much I can do. Thankfully we do not have to put up with this in the U.S., thanks to our no smoking laws.

This pretty much wraps up our Cinque Terre part of our trip – a little of our hearts are still there but we have fabulous memories to take with us! Thank you to the new friends of Cinque!