Florence to the Cinqueterre, Day 9 Italy
We left early for our train to the Cinqueterre on the Ligurian Sea of Italy’s
northwest coast.
La Spezia is the last big town before the Cinqueterre, and there we transferred
to the euro 1.20 “milk train” that connects the five Cinquettere
towns. We debarked at Vernazza, our Cinqueterre hometown.
The one road business area of the town rolls down a hill while the sides of
the road are hills in themselves and the buildings hug the road in beautiful
pastels. Rising above the buildings the hills are covered with terraces of
olive trees, grape vines, huge pomegranates, tomatoes, oranges, etc. There
are several restaurants and many très petits cafés , a couple
small groceries, the bakery, the meat shop, a couple internet places and shops
with gourmet regional fare, t-shirts, and souvenirs, of course. And cats, lots
of cats everywhere.
Guiliano, our landlord, met us and led us up the hill to our room. The view
from our veranda of the hills and the ocean was breathtaking. The air smelled
sweet with the many fruits and vegetables he was cultivating on his terraces,
and the birds sang in happy harmonies.
We explored the town, walking up to the church and the grade school, which
has 25 students. It was late afternoon and the school was closed up. I so wanted
to peek in the windows to see how a classroom was set up, but windows were
high above our reach. We continued up to the cemetery which overlooks the sea
and the town and were privileged to witness a beautiful sunset over the ocean.
Guiliano had recommended Il Gamberra Rosso for dinner. The presentation of
the food was artistry and portions generous. Bill had his dream dish: a plate
of locally caught anchovies, tomatoes and potatoes, and another dish that was
octopus. I had an excellent bean and barley soup and an exquisite mixed salad
that was the best salad of the trip to date. It included local green olives
with long stems; the olives unlike any I’d ever had before. The ambience
was very pleasant and I remember feeling deliciously spoiled.
Flickr Tag Error: Bad call to display set '72057594072501308'
No related posts.
