An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
Couldn’t eat breakfast outdoors, as it had rained quite a bit overnight - which explained why the waves had sounded so much louder. We set off for the hour drive to the Cinque Terre - the original 5 towns, which are small fishing villages set in the hills above the coast and until recently had been known for their isolation, being accessible only by boat or on foot. Unfortunately, traffic on the Autostrada was stopped outside one of the ubiquitous tunnels, so we parked in the right lane and waited. Soon smoke began pouring from the tunnel, emergency vehicles arrived, and we concluded that we weren’t going anywhere too soon. Fortunately, we were in some very pretty wooded hills with a hint of autumn color changing, and some low-lying clouds resting here and there.
After about 90 minutes, the tunnel was reopened and we passed through, seeing 4 cars with various amounts of damage (collision and/or fire) sitting on tow trucks along the side. One could sense how much more carefully everyone was now driving, at least for the next few minutes.
We finally arrived in Manarola, Italy (4th of the towns), parked, and walked the long walk (cars are not allowed in the town) way downhill to the water and our restaurant. We lunched outside, with a nice view of the rocky cliffs and the sea. We started with the mixed seafood appetizer, which was mostly good, but heavy on the variously-prepared anchovies. Then some good pastas (pesto/clams/mixed seafood), and the entrees of mixed seafood grill and mussels stuffed with cheese and vegetables. Dessert was the house specialty of ice cream, whipped cream and cake topped with a caramel sauce. We also had the vaunted Cinque Terre DOC white wine, which wasn’t so great. We had a nice talk with our waitress, the daughter of the owner-family, who had recently spent a year in the U.S., including 6 months interning in the office of the Manhattan borough president.
We descended some stairs to the sea, arriving at a wonderful little stone platform right on the water at the base of the rocky cliffs and some large rocks jutting out of the water right offshore. We then took the Via Del Amore (lover’s walk), a 20 minute walk carved into the cliffs following the coastline, from Manarola to Riomaggiore (the fifth town). Truly a beautiful path, with the winding coastline below us and the little town up in the hills ahead of us. It was quite cloudy, but we got to enjoy some nice scenes of a pinkish sunset casting its glow across the water.
The towns are all quite small, so we were able to explore Riomaggiore in very few minutes. We then walked back to Manarola, and Wendy and Scott drove to Corniglia (the 3rd town) while Milton walked. The walk was lovely (about 40 minutes), with more of the same coastline below, but the drive was challenging, (as was the climb back up to where the car was parked) and, in fact, took longer than the walk! We met up in Corniglia and drove back home, where Wendy and Scott went for a light dinner of the hotel’s delicious chick pea soup and salad, and then we all watched game 7 of the World Series.