Cinque Terre is a collection of five little villages (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore) perched on rocks overlooking the sea. They are extravagantly picaresque – at one point, on the train back to Santa Margherita, we looked back at one (Corniglia, I think), glimmering in the weak afternoon light against a stormy sky above a stormy sea, and it looked like a still from an animated Disney movie. Unbelievable.
Our original plan was to take the train to Monterosso (the closest one), and then visit each village via the ferry that plies them, and then take the train back to Santa Margherita from Riomaggiore (the furthest one). Roger and Iris wanted us to experience the villages from the sea – they say it is amazing getting to the towns that way. Riomaggiore, in particular, says Roger, is exhilarating because it is both stunning and scary, as the boat basically docks at a big rock, and then you walk a gangplank type thing to the top of the rock and up some stone steps (we went and looked at where this takes place once we were in that town – it looks like it would indeed get your blood pumping!).
But, alas – the seas were too rough, and the ferry wasn’t running. So, we walked along the (tiny) main drag of Monterosso for a while, enjoying the sights and formulating a plan B. We decided we didn’t have time to visit each village by train, as we had dinner reservations back at the hotel for our anniversary (Happy Anniversary to us!!), and didn’t want to worry about being late. Eventually we decided to take the train to Riomaggiore (I don’t know/remember the rationale for picking that one), and then go back.
At the train station in Riomaggiore, there’s this great stone wall full of pigeons fighting each other for roosting space on the occasional hooks jutting from the wall or small slits recessed in to it. We watched a few of these contests, and then headed in to the tunnel that lead under the hill to the main drag on the other side. These tunnels (there was another one in one of the other towns we visited – I forget which one) have fantastic acoustics, and so street musicians set up in them. This musician was a woman playing a flute, and she was playing “My Way.”
There were lots of people coming and going, and the music echoed through the tunnel, and Iris started singing, and then Roger joined her, and they sounded great in the tunnel, too. And then other people joined in, and then more, and then more, and so by the time we reached the climax of the song, practically the whole tunnel was belting “I did it myyyyyyy wayyyyyyy!” It was really a fun little spontaneous moment, courtesy of Roger and Iris and their lovely public singing 🙂
Once we got to Riomaggiore, we found a gelato place (of course!) and then wandered for a bit until it was time for the train back to Santa Margherita. For those of you dying to know – I prefer the chocolate (cioccolato) and hazelnut (nocciole) combo, especially if the chocolate is of the dark variety. Lis, on the other hand, is partial to coconut (cocco).
Once back in the hotel, we rested for a while, and then met Roger and Iris in the hotel bar half an hour before dinner, for aperitivi. The bar lays out a huge spread of nuts, home made cheese-it type things, olives, potato and tortilla chips, etc, when you get drinks. So we munched on those and then went in to dinner. The wait staff were very attentive, we had a lovely anniversary dinner, and then it was time for bed. A most pleasant anniversary and last full day in Italy!
