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Is This Heaven? No, It's Cinque Terre



When I opened the window of our hotel room in Cinque Terre, I cried. This can't be real.  It was probably because I was exhausted from our travel day, running to catch the train, hauling our luggage, hot weather, maybe a little homesick, sad from our visit to the cemetery...I don't know.  But I told Bruce "I think I'm going to cry".  Maybe all the overwhelming experiences of this trip were finally catching up with me?  The solution...to go swimming and jump into that beautiful Mediterranean sea. And that's exactly what we did and it felt so good.  The water was perfect and very bouyant, you could just float around on top of the water.  Soon, three other couples from our group joined in on a swim.  It was a perfect way to end a travel day.  The next day we spent time visiting the other villages of Cinque Terre.


We were staying in Monterosso, the most northern of the five towns or as Rick Steves calls it; town # 5.  


Monterosso is the closest thing to a beach resort of the five towns so I'm glad our hotel was here.


We visited three of the other towns by boat but there are trails between the towns if you want to hike.  Some of the trails were closed due to mudslides. 


The towns are all build on the mountainside and can be hard to get to but a train does connect each one.





Pirates were a persistent problem for these villages in the feudal era, so their land was watched over by castles. 


 As the threat of pirates faded, the villages prospered, catching fish and cultivating grapes. Churches grew but before tourism in this generation, the towns remained mostly isolated.  





We enjoyed just walking around each town trying to imagine what it would be like living in such a unique and beautiful place.




 We stopped in town #1 - Riomaggiore - to have lunch at a restaurant called Enoteca that was right on the water. 


 I think this was my best meal of the trip.  We wanted to eat local so that meant seafood.  When we saw the server bring a dish of lobster linguini out to the table next to ours, we couldn't resist.  It was superb!

Before our main dish, we had anchovies because this is a local food here, a lot different than the harsh, cured-in-salt American kind.  These were fresh with a little garlic and vinegar sauce called giada.  We had no problem finishing them off.  


We were entertained by a local cat hanging out by the restaurant; no shortage of scraps for a kitty around here.  


Around town, you would see "fast food" anchovies and other seafood-to-go. 


It would have been fun to sample some of these, too, but we were quite satisfied from our lunch.




 We loved the food here, we loved the sea here, we loved the villages built into the hillside.  There isn't a lot not to love about beautiful and quaint Cinque Terre.










   
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