We just got back from a eleven day trip to Italy. I’ll be posting my travel journal entry, along with photos from each day.
The sun was finally out in Tuscany, so of course, we left!
The day started out rainy, though, of course. So rainy that there was thunder so loud it sent me running back to bed and hiding under the covers! Needless to say, Charlie, the house dog, didn’t like it much either.
After a leisurely breakfast and a few recommendations from our hosts, Paolo and Phillip, we were on our way. After a small adventure to find a Bancomat, we hopped on the Autostrade with much less fanfare than our trip out of Firenze. The trip was supposed to be about 3 hours (which, frankly, is always more, we’ve discovered) so we decided to stop in Lucca, a 16th century walled city.
We wandered around a little bit—the city was beautiful, but I wish we had a guidebook that told us a little more about it. It is also a college town, so some places felt a little bit grungy. We grabbed a spot at a cafe in the square and had our first “meh” food experience in Italy. Kirk said it tasted like Chef Boyardee, and he was right! I was excited to get to Cinque Terre, so we left Lucca pretty quickly.
Once we got to Manarola, we figured out the parking situation (you have to park up the hill about 1/4 a mile) and hiked in our bags.
We were greeted by a few beautiful sights: sun, a great patio at our hotel, and a glass of prosecco and caviar!
Once our room was ready and our bags brought up, we headed up, through about a million twisty streets to a nondescript door. (We thought we’d never find it again!)
We went up to our ocean view suite and it was beautiful! It’s like an apartment, complete with kitchen, balcony, and an ocean view from the couch! We only had about 36 hours in Cinque Terre, so we got going fast.
We explore Manarola, and tried to take the Via dell’Amore to Riamaggiore, but it was closed because of a rock slide. So we hopped on a train instead, and after a quick 3 minute train ride, we were there! We walked around town for a while and then decided to head back to Manarola to watch the sunset from our balcony with our complimentary bottle of prosecco.
We waited on the platform… our train was 10 minutes late… and then 20 (remember this is a 3 minute train ride we are waiting for, but the trail and ferry are both closed, so this is the only way to get home!). Thirty minutes later, a train finally comes, and we hop on. Little do we know, this is an express train that goes straight through to Monterosso, the last city in Cinque Terre. As we watch all the towns buzz past, I may have had a small meltdown—I was cold, and hungry and REALLY looking forward to prosecco on our balcony!
Once we were in Monterosso, our train home wasn’t for another 45 minutes, so Kirk told me to chill out (seriously, he said that) and we grabbed a couple glasses of Chianti Classico, frito misto (assorted fried seafood) and a panini while we waited. Our train finally came, and about 10 minutes later, we were back in Manarola.
By now it was almost 10pm, so we grabbed a couple of slices of pizza and headed home to our apartment. We cracked open our bottle of Chianti and snuggled up to enjoy what was left of our evening!
oneyearincali 
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