3 nights in Cinque Terre (Vernazza)

Vernazza
see all photos »

From Florence, we visited the Cinque Terre, an area of 5 little towns connected by trails. This area was Mike's favorite from a previous visit, so I was pretty excited to get there. After we arrived and checked into our hotel, we decided to grab some lunch at a little outdoor restaurant by the breakwater in Vernazza. While we were eating, we met a couple from Australia. They'd just come off one of the trails and started telling us about the storm that came through the night before. This storm caused a mudslide on one of the trails and it was closed. We were hoping by the next day, the trail would be back open. Swimming and hiking are the popular things to do when visiting this area, but swimming wasn't really an option.

Coastline and Vernazza in distance
see all photos »

After lunch, we decided to walk the trail between Vernazza and Monterosso. It was supposed to be the hardest and one of the longest. We took a lot of pictures while we were on the trails, because it was so pretty. The next day, we walked the trails between the remaining 3 towns. The trail that was closed from the mudslide the day before was still closed, but there were lots of people climbing over the gates...so we did too. We were lucky to have 2 perfect days, weather-wise, to walk the trails as it rained our final day in Vernazza. Having a rainy day allowed us to do some laundry, check our email, and sort of experience being a local in town.

Sun, Sea, Wine, and Culture (and Pesto)

Corniglia
see all photos »

During our trip, I tried several things for the first time...things like espresso, mussels, anchovies, cuttlefish, and spaghetti with clams. One of the specialties of Cinque Terre is anchovies. I always remembered anchovies as being smelly and that turned me off instantly. At dinner one night, we had the pasta and entree courses. Mike ordered pasta with mussels and I really liked it. We, both, also ordered the white fish entree. The dish ended up being fresh anchovies, potatoes, and marinara sauce. I was surprised that I liked them, Mike liked them too.

Cinque Terre also produces pesto and a dessert wine, called Sciacchetra. We didn't try any Sciacchetra while we were there, but we brought some home with us. We went to lunch one day and I was criticized by the server for not ordering a pesto dish!