To start where I left off: Rome the weekend of March 21st. After a lovely weekend in the eternal city, I hopped on a train Monday morning up to La Spezia and Cinque Terre to meet my mom. She had been freezing her butt off up in a rainy Lake Como and was quite happy to meet me in the small and sunny town of Vernazza (one of the cinque).
When I arrived, my mom had already settled the apartment, scouted out the stores, eaten gelato, and found a hidden beach. In the 45 minutes she'd had before my train came... We grabbed a bottle of limoncello and headed to the hidden beach, through a little rock tunnel nestled between two buildings on the main street. We sat on a large, sun-baked rock, sipped on lemon liqueur and watched the waves turn from blue to pink to silver as the sun set.
For dinner we stopped at a cute little trattoria carved into the cliff, and tried two of the local specialties: bruschetta with capers, lemon, and anchovies, and pesto pasta. The food in this area is fresh, salty, and flavorful.
The next day was freezing cold and drizzly. I stayed in bed till noon reading and munching on fresh bread and pesto. Mom was braver than I and hiked to Corniglia. When the rain let up we explored Riomaggiore and then my favorite, Manarola.
Farinata (chickpea crepe)
In Manarola, there is a cliff covered in mini gardens and vineyards that leads up to a little sanctuary. Along the way, a local man created a huge light-up nativity scene. You can see the white wire outlines of the figures as you scramble up tiny stone steps to the path that leads around the cliffs to the next town.
The cliffs are covered in wildflowers and plants
The famous view of Manarola
Our restaurant for the night
For dinner we went to Trattoria dal Billy, an adorable little two story house on the town's main hill. We ordered the house pasta- seafood spaghetti, grilled vegetables, and stuffed mussels.
When our meal was over, we had the pleasant surprise of finding out that after dinner drinks were included in our cover charge! The waitress brought four huge bottles to the table along with two tiny glasses, and basically told us to go to town. And we did. Limoncello, amaro, grappa, and some kind of licorice liqueur in a bottle bigger than two of my heads.
Our last morning we went to a famous little pasticceria and made friends with the owner, who had the gall to apologize for only have 15 kinds of homemade pastry instead of 50- it being the off season and all. We chose apple tart, a ricotta and almond rose, a strawberry custard croissant, and a dark chocolate pastry. All paired with a couple of cappuccinos.
Finally we spent our last few hours hiking around the hills of Vernazza and then sitting on the rocks of the harbor in the drizzle, watching waves and fishermen.
Our last Cinque Terre was Monterosso al Mare, a beautiful little town in a valley on the sea. Unfortunately my camera died as we arrived, but I recommend going and trying the gelato stands lining the beach.
It says a lot for a place, that it can still be beautiful in the coldest and most miserable rainy weather. I can't even imagine the beauty of all five towns in the sunny summer. Please go and find out!
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