Saturday, May 21, 2011 Cinque Terre and Mr. Fish

Today we decided to explore four of the five cities of Cinque Terre.  Four because, frankly we thought we would be unable to handle all walking around all five.  So it was the town of Corniglia that we decided not to visit.  We boarded the train around 1000, and immediately discovered the plight of the sardine when it is stuffed in a can.  We were going to the town of Monterosso, farthest away from La Spezia.  Luckily, more than fifty percent of the people riding the train were headed to the town of Riomaggiore and the train quickly emptied at the first stop.  We arrived in Monterosso about twenty minutes later and found a beautiful seaside resort with incredible views of the mountainside and the fine gravel beach.  While we were there Angel and Mr. Fish decided to partake of the cold Mediterranean waters.


Angel and Mr.Fish putting our feet and fin in the Med



  We walked through the town that was separated by a cliff that extended out into the waters of the Med.  On top of that cliff was a small church.  The other side of the town also had a beautiful beach and apparently was a large producer of lemons.  We obviously found lemonade, and limoncello, lemon cookies and yes even lemon flavored olive oil. 


All the lemons



Monterosso



  We decided to take the ferry to the second stop in Cinque Terre but we tried to leave a few minutes after the ferry’s took their two hour lunch break.  So we had lunch in Monterosso at a restaurant named “Ciak”, and no I did not misspell that name.  You can find them on the internet at (www.ristoranteciak.it ), though the web site doesn’t seem to have the pictures of the chef that was dressed up just like Popeye the sailorman.  All joking aside we had a seafood risotto with two types of clams, mussels, calamari, shrimp and some other types of shrimp like sea beings that we have yet to find their names.  The dish came out in large pot similar to what paella is served in.  It was by far one of the best dishes we have eaten in Italy.  We left Monterosso on the ferry at 2:15pm headed to Vernazza.  On the ferry ride we got to see the coastline, it was breathtaking.


Mr. Fish was appalled at some of the souvenirs





Mr. Fish looking at the locks on the Via Del' Amore



    Vernazza was another seaside town that was smaller than Monterosso but just as beautiful.  (Vernazza and the rest of the towns were more fishing villages than beach resorts.)  We walked around for about an hour and headed to Manarola via the train.  Manarola was similar to Vernazza.  We decided to walk from Manarola to Riomaggiore via the “Via dell’Amore”.   It was a beautiful walk on the side of the mountain overlooking the Mediterranean.   After spending some time roaming this town we headed back to La Spezia.