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Day 20: Tuesday 22nd May: The Cinque Terre at last
We awoke in Lucca after a wonderful night’s sleep feeling excited about finally getting to the Cinque Terre today. I’ve been fascinated with the Cinque Terre for a long time and couldn’t wait to see if reality matched the area I’d been dreaming of. But first the shop windows of Lucca beckoned. And heavily beckon they did… We had fun strolling around Lucca’s wonderful shops and I made another trip to the post office to mail home some treasures (this really is the way to go). I acquired some great shoes for work (cute lace up brogues) and, as there was 50% off your second pair, I got an extra colour. I paid E35 for shoes that back home I would easily have had to pay at least E240. Amo l'Italia! Our stop in Lucca was to break the journey from the Canal boat final destination and the Cinque Terre. It was a great overnight stop and we would have liked to have had longer. Shopping aside, Lucca offers visitors lots and it would be a great base as part of a longer Tuscan adventure. After lunch we travelled Lucca-Viareggio (20mins) and then took a 34 minute fast train from Viareggio to La Spezia Centrale. This was followed by the short 10 minute hop from La Spezia to Manarola. Your first view of Manarola’s tiny houses & lemon trees precariously perched on the cliffs is nothing short of magnificent. It was a very welcome sight after we had seriously questioned whether we should visit only 7 months after the Cinque Terre’s devastating mudslides and flooding in Oct/Nov ‘2011. We were glad we had come. We had hired an apartment for the next 5 days and this was a good choice (not that we did any cooking!). Our apartment came recommended through friends and it was a great recommendation. An uninterrupted ocean view from a 3 level apartment which we rented through Homeaway.co.uk. ArbaSpaa are the local management company: Casa Bella Vista via Belvedere 223. Manarola http://www.arbaspaa.com/hotel/casa_arpaio/default.aspx It cost E330 per night and I think it would have slept 8 people easily. The kitchen was well-appointed and there was a great roof balcony where one could easily watch the world go by over a glass of lemoncello. After settling in we enjoyed a lovely stroll down the hill to one of Manarola’s lovely restaurants: Trattoria Locanda il Porticciolo Via Renato Birolli 92 Manarola Tel / fax +39.0187.920 083 [email protected] http://www.ilporticciolo5terre.it Our photos highlight that it was another excellent meal drawing on the coast’s wonderful seafood. The Tiramisu was also delicious. Our bellies full (again), we pushed ourselves up the hill feeling very content and ready to discover more of the Cinque Terre tomorrow. |
see here for Day 20 The Cinque Terre at last:
http://tinyurl.com/buj686n I love the photo of my Mum staring down her prawn & vegetable dish. It was enormous. Luckily there was some leftover for me to eat too. yum yum yum. All these food photos have made me hungry & reminded me that there are jobs to do so no more posting today. Have a great day everyone. |
I am so glad to continue your journey with the great photos and story! Thanks.
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What a wonderful trip and fabulous report! Cannot wait for the rest of it!
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Thanks for the feedback, always appreciated. It's a lonely job writing up a trip report!
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Day 21: Wednesday 23rd May: Mooching around the Cinque Terre
We awoke to find sun pouring in the window and opened the shutters to see the Adriatic sea (or as one American blogger {http://tinyurl.com/ca7grxv}describes it “Where Heaven Meets the Ocean & is only Distinguishable by the Thin White Horizon”) – I cannot think of a more perfect description. We had a lovely breakfast on the rooftop terrace which was doubling as an eating area and laundromat for us. The little store at the end of the path had the very delicious marmalata croissant and even featured a slightly more waist-line sympathetic sized custard cream pastry. Fortified on pastries and armed with our Cinque Terre train & park pass combo, we set off to explore. As others have previously written, it’s difficult to make the combo pass financially worthwhile but it is convenient. It’s probably better to think of it more like a park donation. We started today by walking along Lover’s Lane to Riomaggiore. It was a lovely stroll and perfectly accessible to everyone. Arriving in the township we weaved through tiny alleys almost reminiscent of Venezia. Riomaggiore is a pretty little village and we loved wandering down the steps to see the fisherman catching food for the table. Again, it seemed like a blissful life on a gorgeous spring day. We had a delightful lunch at: Ristorante Dau Cila Via San Giacomo http://www.ristorantedaucila.com/en/ We enjoyed a delicious lobster pasta and a selection of grilled and fried fish. The lobster pasta was scrummy. Today we wanted to explore and get a feel for how the villages hung together. I was also keen to see the area Levante further north as others recommend it as a lower cost way of experiencing the Cinque Terre. The train timetable in late Spring wasn’t as frequent as I had imagined it would be and my tip to travellers is: on arriving in one village work out what possible train(s) you want to catch for your return journey. This applies to the villages within the Cinque Terre and the nearby towns. Not all trains stop at all villages and you might find the timetable a little out-of-sync for what you would ideally like. Sestri Levante is located on the coast roughly halfway between Genoa and La Spezia. It’s a township surrounded by two bays (the Bay of Fables/Storytales and the Bay of Silence) and a population of around 20,000. The Bay of Fables was named after famed story tale writer Hans Christian Andersen (The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, the Princess & the Pea) who lived there for a short time in the 1800s. Levante township felt very relaxed but on the short visit we had there, we did not make an immediate connection or desire to return and base ourselves there one day. It was undergoing the all too-common identity-crisis about whether to become a tourist town or not. It’s possible that its charm sits slightly beneath the surface but for us, it would not be an alternative to staying in the 5 villages themselves, unless there really was no alternative. In Spring time, the train timetable would be infrequent enough to make a stay in Levante a bit frustrating at times. Perhaps during Summer this isn’t the case. The tourism office in Levante was helpful to us in trying to work out exactly what tracks were and weren’t available due to the mudslides seven months earlier. The reality of what was available was quite different to what was reported on the Internet. I’m glad we came in a relaxed frame of mind, happy to support the rebuild efforts wherever we could. If we had had our hearts set on walking all the places that were reportedly open, we could have been very disappointed. Throughout all our time in the Cinque Terre, we saw the communities working tirelessly and bravely together. It is understandable that when so many livelihoods are at stake & the flow of tourists vital for survival, that occasionally the propaganda about what’s open and what’s not gets a little ahead of schedule ;) Dinner was at the wonderful Trattoria belonging to Billy: TRATTORIA DAL BILLY, via Rollandi 122, 19017 Manarola Tel: 0187 920628 http://www.trattoriabilly.com Billy’s Trattoria lives up to its name. We shared delicious seafood linguini, licci, prawns, whole fish, panacotta, a mouth-watering tiramisu and, after a bottle of prosecco, some limoncello and grappa, rolled ourselves down the hill to our house on the cliff top. Can’t remember how much the meal cost, the limoncello must have been good ☺ |
ttt - don't know how I missed this, bookmarking for a long leisurely read later.
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Day 22: Thursday 24th May: Charming Corniglia
Lovener 2 and I were keen to get out and stretch the legs properly and shake off a few of those second-breakfasts that had become a bit too regular. Corniglia’s hills beckoned. Our walk for the day was from our home in Manarola to the village of Corniglia via the High Trail. I’m not sure about the exact distance but it was roughly 50-60 mins uphill (steep), 1 hour gentle undulation across grape terraces and about an hour down hill into Corniglia. We loved this walk. The hour uphill was challenging after almost 3 weeks of excellent rations but rewarding on reaching the top. It was mostly steps but the amazing views provided ready excuses for those my-lungs-are-about-to-explode moments. We had a cracker of a day with about 30 degrees of heat. These high trail walks are a photographer’s dream – gorgeous blue ocean, pea green coloured vines trail across the hill like old-fashioned telephone wires. There are rickety cable cars, lemons waiting on trees to be juiced, and weather-beaten workers tending the vines. It was a lovely stroll across the plateau through the vines. There was hardly another walker on the track at all. We enjoyed the time together, just having fun in each others’ company and taking in the sights. It was pretty hot and I would imagine this trail is pretty hard work in Summer. The stroll down is steep and not easy on the joints. If you had any knee issues, you would want to take it easy or take a walking pole. I wouldn’t attempt the path in rain unless you wanted the fast route down ☺ Walking down the hill and seeing Corniglia village emerge was lovely. Corniglia is a wonderfully pretty town and it got more exciting with every step closer to the town – or was that lunch calling? By now it was getting close to 2pm and we were absolutely starving. We decided that we would try and support mud-slide damaged Vernazza for lunch even though there were plenty of alluring options in Corniglia. We took the next train to Vernazza. In May 2012, it was clear that Vernazza was in the midst of a transformation as the mudslide debri was being cleared away one barrow-load at a time. The pace of the working was frenetic as the town was being prepared for the Summer season and much needed return of tourist trade. We had the most disappointing meal of the trip in Vernazza which still leaves me feeling ripped off and taken advantage of. We ate right on the waterfront at a place called : Baia Saracena Piazza Marconi 16 Vernazza It is easily identified by being very close to the water, with outside tables sporting green and yellow umbrellas. Avoid at all costs. Do not be tempted ever. I think I’ve got a photo of the lasagna which came highly recommended by the waiter. There was no Bolognese style meat and I’ve no idea how they could pass off the white gloop as béchamel. Truly horrendous. Speaking politely with the waiter brought complete indifference, even when we pointed out that the e18 bottle of prosecco we ordered was in fact not prosecco, just sparkling wine. The appalling service and horrendous gloop pretending to be food was really disappointing. We weren’t expecting gourmet but we didn’t expect to be ripped off and treated badly when we had gone out of our way to support the village in its recovery efforts. We wandered back to the Apartment and enjoyed time chatting to the locals on the path who were preparing the wool for the neighbourhood knitting circle. If your vocab falls short, hand signals can be entertaining for both sides of the conversation ;) There was another group further around the corner getting set for an early evening game of cards. They had their table set up beside the ocean and it looked like a pretty blissful kind of life. They were a bit harder to crack conversation-wise. Lucky for us, Italia’s reputation for wonderful food would be restored at dinner. We ate at: Marina Piccola Via Lo Scalo, 16, 19010 Manarola 0187 920923 It has mixed reviews but we thoroughly enjoyed our meal and had excellent service. After a long day, it was time to rest our weary heads… |
See here for Day 22: Thursday 24th May: Charming Corniglia photos. Check out the wonderful scenery from the high trail.
http://tinyurl.com/cfv33u9 |
Day 23: Friday 25th May: Becoming old-friends in Monterosso al Mare
Today Pop and Dorrie headed off to enjoy the Corniglia walk that Lovener2 & I had done yesterday. For those unable to cope with the steep incline, it’s possible to take a green shuttle bus from the top of the road that runs through Manarola (about 20 metres up the hill from the grocery store) right to the top of the steep bit. It finishes on the hill top plateau where you can enjoy lunch, walk along the grape-clad hills , and then down the hill to Corniglia without the steep hill-climb. You can get a timetable for the green shuttle bus from the information centre in the train station area. A great shortcut if the sun is beating down. The rest of us went to explore lovely Monterosso al Mare which was also badly impacted by the October 2011 mudslides. Lovener2 & I especially wanted to go because we had made a donation to the recovery effort and wanted to show our support in person. Our recovery donation had purchased a small tile in a wall that will be constructed one day. Our tile was one of the first to be purchased and we were greeted like old friends in the Monterosso al Mare commune office. In fact, they insisted that we have our photo taken with the Mayor. Poor bugger ;) It was very sweet and lovely and made us feel like we had helped when they really needed it. We had a lovely little lunch at one of the seaside ristorantes. The sun was shining and the beach looked very inviting with gorgeous golden sand twinkling away. After lunch we wandered through the old town & new town as much as we could. There were lots of people busy working away and it was great to see the town thriving after such a terrible natural disaster. The town had lots of little treasures in it and we loved just wandering around and poking our noses into the town’s lovely little nooks and crannies. We probably poked our nose a tad too far in one particular shop and soon found ourselves right inside a lovely art gallery. Escaping from the gallery with our credit card unharmed proved impossible. There were too many alluring treasures for that to be possible. We bought ourselves a lovely illustration of Corniglia, the artist had captured the soft light on the grapes and village perfectly. We treasure it. A very pleasant dinner was at: Ristorante Trattoria “LA SCOGLIERA” Via Renato Birolli, 103 Manarola Phone +39 0187 920747 [email protected] Tonight would be the last supper for our travelling group of 5. I’m not sure any of the family wanted to go home but it was time to start the honeymoon! Some final thoughts on group travel: • Travelling with your family is lots of fun and it’s worth taking some time to find out what works for everyone (& what doesn’t). For the person who’s organizing stuff, it’s actually really annoying to hear “I don’t mind what we do” when there is an amazing smorgasboard of great things to be sampled that can be easily tailored to individual preferences. • It’s great to split up every now & then so you have fresh tales to tell of your adventures. • It’s good for one person to have oversight of all of the travel arrangements but that doesn’t mean one person needs to make every arrangement. A good balance could be achieved by having one person in charge of the master plan but then allocating a segment of the trip for each person/couple to organize. • If finances allow, it’s great to not be crammed into tiny accommodation so you have a little space. • Develop a fair and transparent way of splitting costs. For us, it was easy to jot down in a notebook who paid for what and then split it all up evenly. This meant that everything was allocated fairly with no-one paying too great a share and we also didn’t bother restaurants trying to split bills when they’re busy. |
See here for Day 23: Friday 25th May: Becoming old-friends in Monterosso al Mare photos:
http://tinyurl.com/c65p6c5 |
Day 24: Saturday 26th May: On the road again
Bags got packed and we hit the rails again. We needed to get the parents to the railway in La Spezia Centrale so they could head back to NZ via Milano. Lovener2 & I needed to get to the Hertz office before 12 to pick up the rental car. As it was a Saturday, the office closed early so we couldn’t afford to be late. The need to get moving made the goodbyes a little easier. Still, as official travel organizers, it was nice to know we were moving into the chilled out part of the trip and we could have a few more lazy honeymoon days ☺ Our rental car was from Auto Europe. We booked and paid in advance and it was a real bargain (compared to what we pay for car rental in Asia pacific). We had a manual Fiat Punto and it was E525 for the period May 26th to June 13th. This included dropping off at a different location and unlimited mileage. We got stung at the end of the trip with an additional e150 for having one additional driver. This did annoy me a bit as I was very upfront about this with Auto Europe and made enquiries about the extra charges and wasn’t advised of this. When our paperwork came through, it showed the car being hired in one name and the other person’s name as a passenger. We should have clicked then as it seems both names should have been in the car hired by box (we assumed this was a reference to the credit card booking name). Without any documentation to prove the conversation with AutoEurope, there was very little we could do. Bringing our own GPS from home saved us an additional E10 per day which was a good saving given the length of our car hire. Our drive today would take us to our home for the next 7 nights (E170 per night including an amazing breakfast): Tenuta Santo Pietro Localita' Santo Pietro, 53026 Pienza http://www.tenutasantopietro.com The driving was a little un-nerving at first given we drive on the other side of the road back home back we soon got into the swing of it. Our top tips for those who are used to driving on the other side of the road: • Limit the time each person drives before swapping over or having a break. We set a limit of 45 minutes. This worked for us. Italian driving is fast and you have to be very alert about what is going on around you. 45 mins seemed about the time when our concentration waned a little so good to swap over. • When entering the highway from an on-ramp, try this system: the driver focuses soley on getting up to motorway speed while the navigating passenger focuses on whether there is a gap and if it is safe to pull into the highway or not (this tip is especially important if you drive on the other side of the road normally as your brain is trained to look in the wrong place!) • If you set your speed by the speed of cars around you, expect a ticket at some stage. Ours haven’t come yet but we know they will at some stage…. ☹ We didn’t set out to speed at all but probably weren’t clued up enough on what speed limits applied when and just tried not to be the fastest or slowest on the road. What we didn’t realize is that the fancy traffic technology measures time it takes you between two points and then tickets you if you were going to quick. Ouch! • GPS are great but expect the odd strange instruction. • Don’t get put off driving by other people! Despite travelling at higher speeds than we do at home, we actually felt safer on the roads in Italy because all the drivers are paying attention and know exactly what is going on around them. Sure, not everyone indicates but if you’re paying attention and constantly checking your mirrors, you know when someone is making a passing move, speeding up or slowing down… We enjoyed our drive to Pienza and found our accommodation easily. It was a nice relaxing drive and we seemed to get more excited as we approached Tenuta Santo Pietro. We were really looking forward to having some quiet time to ourselves in this gorgeous location. Driving through Tuscany to Pienza was really different to what we had expected. It looked so much like home. Given we were travelling in spring time, the hills were a very lush green – this all makes perfect sense because it was spring but it was a total mismatch for the Tuscan image in my head which only had golden hills! ☺ ☺ I’ve gotta laugh about it now. Tenuta Santo Pietro belongs to a younger Italian American family who are putting their heart and soul into establishing the business. They’ve done a great job. The place is beautiful. Simply beautiful both inside and out. We loved the interior decoration and the grounds were immaculate. In spring, it wasn’t quite warm enough to jump in the pool but on a summer’s day it would be perfect. Tenuta Santo Pietro have a great team working there. Everyone clearly took a lot of pride in their job. The in-house meals were fabulous and we looked forward to breakfast each morning. A top class effort by the team working there. I’m not sure that I would, hand-on-heart , recommend Tenuta Santo Pietro for a honeymooning couple. It describes itself as a “tranquil oasis” in Tuscany but we found the place the opposite. We may have picked an unlucky week but we were woken up a couple of times by other guests using the kitchen (which basically backed straight onto our bedroom) and kept awake by a large group that had come to the restaurant (not guests at the property) for a late meal and singing. Another day we returned from our day’s outing early as we wanted to chill out for the afternoon only to find the restaurant had been hired by a very large group (looked like a huge family celebration) and after lunch they then hung out around in the grounds and pool area. I think by the time we reached Pienza, we had really been looking forward to some quiet time as a couple and I think we should have asked Tenuta Santo Pietro a few more questions before we booked. We made assumptions on its quietness, based on its description of itself, and the fact that it had only a small number of rooms, which proved to be wrong in the week we visited. We had no idea that they took very large group bookings for meals and made the facilities available for non-guests occasionally. The team there were generous, kind & lovely people, the food exceptional, the buildings are gorgeous and the grounds and outlook are stunning. If you are desperate for a quiet, tranquil break, just check first what else is planned during your visit. |
Love the last few installments! I think DH and I ate at that exact same restaurant in Vernazza on our honeymoon... They managed to serve virtually inedible fish which is hard to do when it's as fresh as it should have been! That was in 2004 and I'm sorry to hear that not much has changed.
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