Cinque Terre (Vernazza) - November 2008

3 Nights in Vernazza – Sun, Sea, and Wine

From Florence, we visited the Cinque Terre, an area of 5 little towns connected by trails. This area was Mike's favorite from a previous visit, so I was pretty excited to get there. After we arrived and checked into our hotel, we decided to grab some lunch at a little outdoor restaurant by the breakwater in Vernazza. While we were eating, we met a couple from Australia. They'd just come off one of the trails and started telling us about the storm that came through the night before. This storm caused a mudslide on one of the trails and it was closed. We were hoping by the next day, the trail would be back open. Swimming and hiking are the popular things to do when visiting this area, but swimming wasn't really an option.

After lunch, we decided to walk the trail between Vernazza and Monterosso. It was supposed to be the hardest and one of the longest. We took a lot of pictures while we were on the trails, because it was so pretty. The next day, we walked the trails between the remaining 3 towns. The trail that was closed from the mudslide the day before was still closed, but there were lots of people climbing over the gates...so we did too. We were lucky to have 2 perfect days, weather-wise, to walk the trails as it rained our final day in Vernazza. Having a rainy day allowed us to do some laundry, check our email, and sort of experience being a local in town.

During our trip, I tried several things for the first time...things like espresso, mussels, anchovies, cuttlefish, and spaghetti with clams. One of the specialties of Cinque Terre is anchovies. I always remembered anchovies as being smelly and that turned me off instantly. At dinner one night, we had the pasta and entree courses. Mike ordered pasta with mussels and I really liked it. We, both, also ordered the white fish entree. The dish ended up being fresh anchovies, potatoes, and marinara sauce. I was surprised that I liked them, Mike liked them too.

Cinque Terre also produces pesto and a dessert wine, called Sciacchetra. We didn't try any Sciacchetra while we were there, but we brought some home with us. We went to lunch one day and I was criticized by the server for not ordering a pesto dish!

LODGING

Albergo Barbara (TA Review)

Our room was right along the harborfront or breakwater.  The room is on the top floor and we had a small window with a view of the water.  There is no breakfast served with your room.  This is a very basic place to stay in a good location.

ATTRACTIONS

Walk from Vernazza to Monterosso – 2 Hour Walk, Lots of Stairs

The first day we arrived in Cinque Terre, we decided to walk the trail between Vernazza (where we were staying) and Monterosso.  It's considered the hardest trail.  We started out in the afternoon and made the walk in 2 hours.  We stopped a lot to enjoy the scenery.  There are a lot of stairs and narrow paths on this part of the trail.  The stairs down to Monterosso would be more challenging for those coming from Monterosso to Vernazza.

We arrived in Monterosso right before sunset.  We got out our Rick Steves' book and followed his walking guide through Monterosso.  There is the Church of St. John the Baptist to visit and the Oratory of the Dead next to it.  After checking these places out, we stopped in a little store to buy some water.  I'm not sure the name of it, but they had samples of liquor and jam available for everyone to try.

Next, we walked up the hill along the breakwater to the top to find the cemetery.  Most of the cemeteries in the Cinque Terre are located outside of town with great sea views.

After our little tour through town, we found a table outside along the water and had a glass of wine.

Walk from Vernazza to Corniglia – 90 Minute Walk, Lots of Olive Trees

We started our hike to Corniglia from Vernazza after breakfast, so about 10am.  It was still a little muddy in places from rain 2 nights prior.  We saw lots of olive groves and nets that are put down to catch the olives when they fall off the trees.

Once in Corniglia, we toured the town using Rick Steves' walking guide.  This town is the only one of the 5 not on the water, but it still had a lot of charm.  We tried to walk down Via alla Marina to the non-beach where people usually sun on the rocks, but the waves were too intense to get down all the way.  We were there in November and storms had been churning up the water.

On the way out of town heading towards Manarola, you have to go down a zigzag path of 400 stairs.  Those that are taking the trails in the opposite direction have to go up these stairs!  For some reason, there were more people going up than down.

Walk from Corniglia to Manarola – 45 Minute Walk

This part of the trails had been closed 2 days prior due to a mudslide from a rain storm, it was still closed the day we tried to make the walk.  Once we got to the closed gate, we saw others climbing over it in both directions.  We decided we'd climb over and turn around if it was too bad, but everyone was saying it was ok.  When we came to where the mudslide had occurred, we walked around it and was ok to get through to the next town.

Once in Manarola, we had lunch at Trattoria Il Porticciolo.  Afterwards, we visited the Sciacchetra Museum, which is just a little room on the local wine industry with a little film that you can watch about the making of Sciacchetra.  The guy manning the museum was very happy for the company.  They probably don't have as many visitors in the fall.

Next, we walked up the hill to the top of Manarola to find a church, oratory, and a bell tower.  20 yards below the church, there is a wood railing that starts a path along a vineyard high above town.  This walk is definitely worth a walk when in Manarola.  At the end of the walk, you can visit their cemetery.

Walk from Manarola to Riomaggiore – 20 Minute Walk, Easiest Stroll

The hike between Manarola and Riomaggiore is really easy, it's a wide paved path.  Lots of people stroll between these two towns after dinner or during sunset since it's so easy.

Once in Riomaggiore, our guided walk through town took us up an elevator located at the railway tunnel entrance.  We went up to the top of town and walked back down to the breakwater.  Along the way, we stopped for homemade gelato at a place along Via Colombo next to Bar Centrale.  It was probably the best gelato we had during our trip.

We watched the sunset from the harbor before taking the train back to Vernazza to have a siesta followed by dinner.

Hang Out in Vernazza – Spend a Day as a Local

Our final day in the Cinque Terre was spent just hanging out in Vernazza.  It rained almost all day and we'd already walked the trails.  We had an Italian breakfast that included cappuccino and croissants, at a bar by our room.  Afterwards, we went to the Blue Marlin to check our email and do a little internet surfing.

We packed light for our trip and really needed to do some laundry, so we took advantage of the downtime and did a load of laundry at a place close to our room.  It's a very small place with only 2 washers and dryers.  We met another lady in there doing her laundry.  She told us she visited Italy frequently for months at a time.

We went back to the Blue Marlin and had lunch and drank lots of vino.  There was not much else to do with the rain, so we figured we'd hang out at the local bar/restaurant.

When the rain let up, we did go out and do a guided walk of Vernazza.  During our stroll, we stopped in the Enoteca Sotto l'Arco and bought a bunch of pesto and some local wine to have shipped back to our home in the U.S.

After a late afternoon siesta, we took the train to Monterosso for dinner.

RESTAURANTS

Ristorante Pizzeria Vulnetia – Tables Right on the Breakwater

When we arrived in Vernazza, we checked into our hotel and immediately looked for some food.  This restaurant had tables set up outside along the breakwater.  Normally it's a small pizza place with a couple of seating options inside.  A lot of people were coming through Vernazza off the trails and stopping for lunch here.  The restaurant only had outside dining the one day we were there, which was a Saturday.  I'm sure they probably have the outside dining set up throughout most of the summer and on weekends.

We ordered 2 beers and 2 pizzas and enjoyed the view and the coming and going of people off the trails.  There were lots of choices on the menu and lots of choices for pizza as well.  We had a couple from Australia sit down next to us after we'd  ordered and we started sharing stories of our travels with each other.  We had just come from Florence and they were on their way, so we shared our favorite restaurant (Sabatino) with them and gave them the page out of our guide book with directions.

We spent 26 Euros on our meal.

Trattoria del Capitano – Great Experience with Anchovies

This restaurant was in the building next to the building of our room.  We were in Vernazza during a time when a lot of restaurants are closed for the season.  We tried to eat at restaurants that had the most people.  This restaurant was one of them.

Our server, Giacomo, was very friendly.  One of the friendliest servers we had on our trip.  He gave his suggestions and left us to decide.  We decided to go with the tourist menu here.  A lot of restaurants in Italy put together a tourist menu that have a few different options for the different courses.  I ended up with the pesto lasagna (pesto was invented in the area), fresh anchovy pasta and the semifreddo dessert.  The dessert was made with strawberry and was so good!  Mike had a mussel pasta, the anchovy pasta, and strawberry dessert.  We also enjoyed a 1/2 liter of wine and 2 espressos afterward.

So, this was the first time I'd ever had mussels and anchovies.  Both ended up being very good.  I was surprised that I liked the anchovies.  The dish was pasta with almost whole anchovies and a red tomato sauce.  Yum!

We ended up spending 64 Euros on our meal.

The Blue Marlin Bar – Good Place to Eat, Check Email, or Hang Out

We had breakfast here one morning.  We just had focaccia with cheese and tomato and a piece of apple cake with our cappuccinos.  That meal was only 9 Euros.

We also came here to check our email.  They have 2 computers and charged us 5.50 Euros for both of us to use them for 30 minutes.

We also had lunch here one afternoon.  The day it rained all day, we sat and had lunch and then drank a liter of wine!  Mike had putanesca pasta.  I had a salad and a panini.  We spent 28.50 Euros for this meal.

The food overall wasn't bad, but the woman server there was super friendly.  They play music, sometimes a little loud.  The cook came out and turned up the music one time and started singing.  It was a very fun place to hang out.

Trattoria Il Porticciolo – Excellent Pesto Selections

While walking the trails, we stopped in Manarola for lunch.  We chose a place out of Rick Steves' book and sure enough they have a picture of Rick Steves outside their restaurant with a sign saying "Recommended by Rick Steves".  The place was packed!  We had to wait a few minutes for a table.  It was a Sunday and there were lots of large parties having lunch.  This place was popular with tourists and locals.

After being seated and looking through the menu, we decided we were ready to order.  Mike ordered the pesto lasagna.  I wasn't really in the mood for pesto or any fish, which was the majority of the menu.  I decided to just have pasta and tomato sauce.  The server could not hold back her shock of me not ordering something with pesto!  What do you do?  Order a pesto dish!

A couple from Washington was sat next to us and we started sharing our travel stories with them.  They were also traveling by Rick Steves guide book.

Our meal with a 0.375 L of wine was 24 Euros.

Continue reading our trip:

3 Nights in Rome

3 Nights in Sorrento

2 Nights in Florence

3 Nights in Venice