We had breakfast (included with the cost of the room) on the rooftop terrace at our hotel. The breakfast was very nice, and they have a waiter (he may be the cook also, not sure) who will take orders for things like omelets. Maddie had a cheese omelet and I ordered bacon. This was one of the times when the language barrier was apparent. The waiter spoke a little, but very little, English. When I ordered the bacon, he kept asking me something that I didn’t understand. Then he came back with raw bacon on a plate and asked me the question again. I’m sure he could tell by the look on my face that I didn’t want the bacon raw, so when he asked “frite?” Riomaggiore again, I said “YES!” Turns our “frite” is not very frite, but at least some is better than none.
After a nice filling breakfast, we bought a 2-day Cinque Terre card (which gave us access to the hiking trails and the train) and headed for Riomaggiore. The to Manarola part of the trail is the easiest and shortest, so we figured we’d start there and then decide what else to do. As we had read, the trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola is a wide, easy, mostly flat affair, but the views were spectacular. Along the trail, there was an area that is covered and there was an accordion player playing American music (“Strangers in the night” is the one tune I remember), and we snapped a photo of him with the kids. There was one place along the trail where people were sunbathing and swimming around the rocks below, and Maddie became enamored with the idea of doing this. More on that later.
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| Heading to catch the train to Riomaggiore |
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Tunnel from old town to the new town
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| Maddie and Mac on the new Beach in Monterosso Al Mare |
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| Mmmmmmmmm |
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| Monterosso Al Mare, Italy |
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| View from New town Monterosso Al Mare, Italy |
Beach in New town Monterosso Al Mare, Italy
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| Train Station Monterosse |
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| Train stops inside the tunnel in Riomaggiore |
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| Mosiac the lined the tunnel between the train station and Riomaggiore |
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| First set of stairs on the trek to Manarola |
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| I guess they have a problem with women trekking in high heels |
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| Looking back at the trail |
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| More views on the trail |
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| Mac and Tracy trekking |
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| Interesting tree |
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| Accordion Player on the trail |
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| Lots of locks are attached along the trail |
Once we reached Manarola, we took the train to Vernazza because I had read that one of the most dramatic views along the trails is the view looking back at Vernazza after just a short climb up the trail. Although I knew that doing a lot of hiking in Cinque Terre was probably not going to be happening for our crew, I figured this would be doable. We grabbed some lunch in Vernazza then after a few missteps found the trail. And we were indeed rewarded with a spectacular view of Vernazza. Little McIntyre was a trooper here getting up and back down the trail. Although he is prone to complaining and lagging behind sometimes, he has been truly phenomenal about these types of things.
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| Looking for food |
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| Mmmmm Pizza again |
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| More gelato while we wait for the train back |
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| There is a hole in my boat |
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| Tracy giving direction on the start of the trail in Vernazza |
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| On the trail |
By this time, the kids were dying to go swimming, so we took the train back to Monterosso. This time we went to a different part of the public beach in the old part of Monterosso….this side is over near the rocks and provides something else for the kids to do. I’ll pause a minute here to describe the beach in Monterosso in a little more detail. One word pretty much sums it up: rocks. Sand is non-existent. The beach is composed of rocks… In places they are small and somewhat tolerable to walk on. In other parts they are larger and very difficult to walk on. They are always rounded and not sharp, but still very hard on the feet. It doesn’t detract from the beauty of the area, but you certainly wouldn’t want to go jogging barefoot. By the last day, I just broke down and wore my Keens anytime I was on the beach or in the water.
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| Rocks and more rocks |
After a while in the water, we went back and all showered before going in search of food. By the time we began our search, it was 9 p.m. and the weekend crowds had filled the restaurants. We finally found a place that served small plates, but it worked out fine.
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| Street back to our hotel |
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| Mac at the fountain |
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| Cinque Terre wine atop of our hotel in Monterosso Al Mare, Italy |
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