Cinque Terre - Day 7

Up early to shower and prep for yet another day of adventures in Italy! Breakfast was served at 8:30 am and it was tasty once again. Our goal is to take Hugh and Simone to the Cinque Terre on the west coast of Italy. We visited it back in 2016 when we had cruised the Mediterranean.  A quick route check and train info search on the laptop and we were on our way north.

It was just over an hour of driving to the coastal town of La Spezia and the central train station. Of course the train's parking lot was full so we went around the block a few turns and Hugh spotted an empty spot.... and we quickly grabbed it.  Kelly had the parking app going and after some google translate we had the parking all paid for. A short walk to the train station and we joined the line to get tickets (and fortunately we stayed together as we needed I.D. for everyone.) We basically got a day pass for the coast with unlimited stops between the towns... unsure if we will hit all of them.

Off to Monterosso first for a look around and then work our way south.  We strolled the beach area and enjoyed the views. There are lots of people here compared to the last time we visited. Lots! I managed to get a geocache and then we stopped for lunch at Lapo S. It was extremely good! Temperatures were around 22° C and we erred in not wearing our shorts... oh well.

 

 

Back on the train, our next stop was at Vernazza and we walked down the main street to the end of the breakwater. Lovely spot to watch the activities.  It too was crowded.

Panorama

Off to the next stop of Manarola where we endured long lineups of people just trying to get off the station platform. All the towns were very busy with lots of tourist like us.  We made it down to the view point and watch the folks swimming amongst the rocks.  It looked refreshing!

We had some gelato and then headed up to grab the train home... in true Porter luck, the train arrived just as we did! Perfect timing! On to the train for the 11 minute ride to La Spezia.

 

We quickly found our way out of the station and on route to the car. Unfortunately Hugh took a tumble on some uneven pavement and went down.  We helped him up but he has some soreness in his ribs... hopefully just bruised.  We will see.

 

We made our way out of town and back onto the autostrada heading south past the huge marble quarry. A quick pit stop at the Conad (chain store like Thriftys) to grab dinner and we arrived home at the Villa 18:15.

 

I got the fire going as we needed to burn down the wood to achieve some nice hot coals. In the meantime Hugh suffered several losses at crib and then so did Kelly... she was not happy with my last hand. Hey what can I say... the cards were in my favor tonight!

Nana not happy!

 

For our dinner, we had stakes cooked over hot coals, fresh sage potatoes, mushrooms and a nice salad. It was all very good.

 

Yes they tasted as good as they looked!!

 

We all pushed away from the table and readied for TV for some, netflix for others and blogging for one poor soul. Oh well all good.  Tomorrow is a question mark... we will see how Hugh is feeling and then plan accordingly.  I'll go through the blog posts and correct some spelling errors and other bits. Ciao for now.