Cinque Terre

Tuesday 6th October

Cinque Terre

Day 2 La Spezia started a bit groggily but we made it through the lovely warm light rain to the harbour just in time to catch a boat to Cinque Terre for a two hour ride to Monterossa, the 5th seaside hamlet/village which form a chain and a precipitous walk that attracts the tourists. The terraced cliff sides are monumental and spectacular from sea and land. But Mary and i and thousands of others asked the same question, “WHY” – why did those crazy Italians build their homes and tiny orchards, olive groves and other farms on such difficult steep land? For the view?

When we landed Mary and I realised we had been hijacked – there was no boat going back for 3 hours – or else catch a train (the railroad HAD BEEN DRILLED THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS – again we wondered “why?” and who did the cost benefit analysis? – but who are we to ask these questions of the Italians who must be the masters/geniuses of the tourism game: Venice flooded by water, Florence flooded by empty redundant Palaces, Pisa’s falling tower all bringing in buckets of money, we are mere pawns in their game). As we had paid for a return trip by boat we decided we would walk to Vernazza, town #4 on the tourist trail and catch the boat from there (get some exercise, enjoy the splendid views, fill up some spare time, work off last night’s great dinner). Haha, the walk was a bit more challenging than we thought – with extremely steep narrow climbs and big sheer drops most of the way. We were told it will take somewhere b/n 1.30 – 2.30 hours and we did it in just over 1.30 so that was good. It was a lovely feeling arriving in Vernazza just in time to eat an ice-cream and catch the boat – buzzing with adrenalin and dopamine - everything looked marvellous, we were lovely – on a natural high. But then reality hit us again as the boat did not take us all the way back to La Spezia but deposited us in Porto Venere for an hour – as a totally unnecessary stopover – but the shopkeepers were happy as 100’s of lost and vaguely wondering tourists purchased foccaccia and drinks whilst filling in more time. It is at times like this when I start to feel that the whole overseas trip is really just another way of standing in a very long queue with a constantly changing view. We are always waiting to arrive, see, eat, sleep and then progress to the next stop.

However, eventually we got home, rested up and went out to the next restaurant recommended by our very kind friendly hosts – which to our surprise was the best quality and value meal of the whole holiday so far. A very big surprise because there was no menu and we ordered from a list read out by the waitress. Over dinner we discussed our top ten hotels, activities, meals, locations, hotel staff, waiters, etc. so far and then went home to get an early night so we are fresh to do battle with the Italian train system tomorrow as we make for Siena.