Since we could not get quality sleep the previous night in Bellagio, we decided to sleep in and woke up around 8:30 am after sleeping for almost 9 hours! We felt refreshed and all set for exploring more of Cinque Terre. We went down to a cafe that has an agreement with our Airbnb host to provide complimentary breakfast and a pretty good one at that - it included cheese and tomato omelette, toast with butter, orange juice and caffe latte. We came back to our room to get ready but Samia wasn't feeling too great so we decided to rest. The weather was a bit windy too and there was forecast for possible showers till noon so we decided that we would leave after the weather got better. Our room WiFi stopped working so I told our host and then we spent some time trying to get that sorted out. Eventually we left our room around 12:30 pm.
All five towns of Cinque Terre are connected by train. The train line was built a few years after Italy's unification and was meant to celebrate and demonstrate the strength of a united Italy. We boarded the train from Riomaggiore and got off at the farthest town, Monterosso al Mare. The town is the largest of all five and has two distinct parts. After you get off at the train and reach the waterfront, if you turn right, you head towards the new part of town that mostly comprises resorts, hotels and restaurants and is relatively modern. If you turn left, you have to gain some elevation and pass through a tunnel during your walk to reach the old town. That's what we chose to do first. After emerging from the tunnel, you see a lookout point with benches on the cliff and if you walk a few steps further, you arrive at the cosy town square.
Three streets emerge from the square so we explored them one by one. The Main Street or Via Roma has the most activity and allows cars whereas the quieter ones are pedestrian only and transport you back in time. The restaurants, cafes and shops are all operated by locals and despite offering a modern dining experience, they somehow manage to retain their old world charm. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and had bruschetta for appetizer and then pasta for our main course - Samia got the mushroom ravioli and I got the tagliolini pasta with crab. Then we continued our walk and also quickly toured a couple of churches from the inside. We stopped to take a break at a cafe where I had a latte and we shared a coconut and honey flavored gelato.
Then we sat at one of the benches at the lookout point for about half an hour, getting mesmerized by the rising and falling waves of a very turbulent sea. We had overheard other tourists earlier in the day that the sea was much more rough than usual and so the ferry service (that also connects the five towns as an alternative to the train) wasn't running. The sound of the high waves splashing against the shore, the distant sight of a blue-green sea meeting the horizon and the remains of a towering old castle on a neighboring cliff makes you wonder how it would've been like in the Middle Ages when the guards atop the castle towers would warn the townsfolk if they spotted Turkish pirates. There are better safety measures today in the form of railings and breakwaters but the sea, the waves, the cliffs and the stones at the shore would have been the same all those centuries ago. It was energizing to sit in the sun on a breezy day while we contemplated the past.
After our "bench meditation" session, we walked back through the tunnel and past the train station to the new town. It seemed much more commercial than the old town in the sense that it had banks and ATMs and of course the train station,but still you couldn't spot any food chains and the buildings were the same pastel colors as the old town so it very much felt a part of Cinque Terre. Another local staple is the focaccia bread. We pronounce it fo-kay-she-a in North America but the Italians call it fo-ka-chia. We then quickly grabbed a pesto focaccia bread to a snack and boarded the train back to Riomaggiore. Pesto and focaccia bread are both quite salty individually so their combination was a bit too much and we couldn't have more than a few bites. When we got off in Riomaggiore, while getting water bottles from our breakfast cafe, I spotted Nutella focaccia bread so I got that to balance the salt overload of the pesto focaccia.
We rested for about an hour in our room before heading out again. We decided to explore the streets of Riomaggiore before we were hungry enough for dinner. Riomaggiore is much more hilly than Monterosso so we covered a lot less distance and had to go much slower to counter the steeply rising streets. Perhaps it was the evening time or the fact that Riomaggiore is a smaller town but it was much quieter and much more peaceful. We window shopped and explored a couple of streets before we had built enough appetite for dinner. This time we decided to try another of our host's recommendations.
The restaurant turned out to be even better than the one where we had dinner yesterday. We shared trofie al pesto and almond crusted scallops for appetizers and then shared a phenomenally fresh thin-crust tomato and mushroom pizza. The meal got even better once we had our dessert - penna cotta with caramel - it's like a soft custard that was delicious. After another great meal in this land of food lovers, we walked back to our room and are going to call it a night. Take care till the next update!
All five towns of Cinque Terre are connected by train. The train line was built a few years after Italy's unification and was meant to celebrate and demonstrate the strength of a united Italy. We boarded the train from Riomaggiore and got off at the farthest town, Monterosso al Mare. The town is the largest of all five and has two distinct parts. After you get off at the train and reach the waterfront, if you turn right, you head towards the new part of town that mostly comprises resorts, hotels and restaurants and is relatively modern. If you turn left, you have to gain some elevation and pass through a tunnel during your walk to reach the old town. That's what we chose to do first. After emerging from the tunnel, you see a lookout point with benches on the cliff and if you walk a few steps further, you arrive at the cosy town square.
Three streets emerge from the square so we explored them one by one. The Main Street or Via Roma has the most activity and allows cars whereas the quieter ones are pedestrian only and transport you back in time. The restaurants, cafes and shops are all operated by locals and despite offering a modern dining experience, they somehow manage to retain their old world charm. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and had bruschetta for appetizer and then pasta for our main course - Samia got the mushroom ravioli and I got the tagliolini pasta with crab. Then we continued our walk and also quickly toured a couple of churches from the inside. We stopped to take a break at a cafe where I had a latte and we shared a coconut and honey flavored gelato.
Then we sat at one of the benches at the lookout point for about half an hour, getting mesmerized by the rising and falling waves of a very turbulent sea. We had overheard other tourists earlier in the day that the sea was much more rough than usual and so the ferry service (that also connects the five towns as an alternative to the train) wasn't running. The sound of the high waves splashing against the shore, the distant sight of a blue-green sea meeting the horizon and the remains of a towering old castle on a neighboring cliff makes you wonder how it would've been like in the Middle Ages when the guards atop the castle towers would warn the townsfolk if they spotted Turkish pirates. There are better safety measures today in the form of railings and breakwaters but the sea, the waves, the cliffs and the stones at the shore would have been the same all those centuries ago. It was energizing to sit in the sun on a breezy day while we contemplated the past.
After our "bench meditation" session, we walked back through the tunnel and past the train station to the new town. It seemed much more commercial than the old town in the sense that it had banks and ATMs and of course the train station,but still you couldn't spot any food chains and the buildings were the same pastel colors as the old town so it very much felt a part of Cinque Terre. Another local staple is the focaccia bread. We pronounce it fo-kay-she-a in North America but the Italians call it fo-ka-chia. We then quickly grabbed a pesto focaccia bread to a snack and boarded the train back to Riomaggiore. Pesto and focaccia bread are both quite salty individually so their combination was a bit too much and we couldn't have more than a few bites. When we got off in Riomaggiore, while getting water bottles from our breakfast cafe, I spotted Nutella focaccia bread so I got that to balance the salt overload of the pesto focaccia.
We rested for about an hour in our room before heading out again. We decided to explore the streets of Riomaggiore before we were hungry enough for dinner. Riomaggiore is much more hilly than Monterosso so we covered a lot less distance and had to go much slower to counter the steeply rising streets. Perhaps it was the evening time or the fact that Riomaggiore is a smaller town but it was much quieter and much more peaceful. We window shopped and explored a couple of streets before we had built enough appetite for dinner. This time we decided to try another of our host's recommendations.
The restaurant turned out to be even better than the one where we had dinner yesterday. We shared trofie al pesto and almond crusted scallops for appetizers and then shared a phenomenally fresh thin-crust tomato and mushroom pizza. The meal got even better once we had our dessert - penna cotta with caramel - it's like a soft custard that was delicious. After another great meal in this land of food lovers, we walked back to our room and are going to call it a night. Take care till the next update!
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