Day 22: HIKING the Cinque Terre

Yes, the bed was hard...but slightly more uncomfortable was the thought that we were getting bug bites since the window was open.  Nonetheless, we are in a beautiful part of the world that requires a sense of adventure and strong legs.  We ate a co-op bought breakfast of yogurt, cherries, mortadella, 2 local cheeses and machine made espresso..which wasn't bad at all.

Let the hiking begin...as we walked north from Manarola to Corniglia, we took the opportunity to glance back at our starting point...the lovely hill hugging town of Manarola: (our B and B is top left of this photo)

The beautifully maintained trail goes for 2 km along the side of the cliff with the vast and wonderfully blue Mediterranean way down below on the left.

Approaching Corniglia (pronounced Cornilya), you have the option of taking a free bus up to the hilltop town...or hiking up the stairs ala Lombard street...we chose the stairs...yeah baby:

Thank goodness we were alive to read this:

The trail continued...and got more difficult.  4 km further north we came to Vernazza.  Although the town is on the water, the trail goes up first from Corniglia, and then nearly straight down behind me to the left

When we arrived in what Rick Steves calls the pearl of the CT, we sniffed out the Power Table at the waterfront restaurant...known as the PT for both its location and more importantly, for the cool breeze that only this one table gets under a bevy of shade umbrellas:  See Peggy smiling in the breeze...

We ordered 2 very large waters and split a salad...with fresh tuna

 and pizza (1/2 the pizza...my half... had the local favorite...and my favorite...anchovies!!!).  To make it even better, they added capers...salt heaven :)))

And the best news of lunch...guess who was in the house.  not George Clooney...he's so last week...look closely and you'll see our very own Luke Noland!  (To avoid the paparazzi, he's going under the alias of Andrew from Brisbane, Australia...but we got to talk to him, and he let me take his photo...it's good to know the truth):

Looking from the water to our power table, you can sea the empty seats we just vacated in the front right of the photo.  Jim...PT???

Now it's back to Corniglia by train, (which only takes 5 minutes) and then the 2km hike, in the afternoon heat, back to Manarola...since we needed to walk off lunch.  Just finished watching the Tour de France, and are heading out to an early dinner so we can watch Germany probably destroy Spain (not my choice)...which airs at 8:30pm local time.

OK so we watched the game after dinner with a rowdy group of Europeans.  Two stand out...the German couple who was rooting for Spain and the Spanish guy who was on his honeymoon with his wife in the hotel :))  All the drama reminds me yet again that life is sooooo goooood after 396 months!!!

Before the game, we went to Marina Piccolo...a highly rated water front restaurant.

 The meal was excellent, and while you think the power table was unavailable, might I remind you that sitting in the hot, setting sun is not ideal...one would prefer the laid back shade of row #3...and of course, the power table became the one we were sitting in...perfect view, no sun and ants all along the back wall...

The meal was superb, consisting of the required prosciutto and melon

Pasta with pesto...and Peggy really believes her pesto is better (I would agree)...nonetheless I loved the green beans:

Then came the best dish...a tuna steak grilled with a slight crust...excellent...

The food and view was so mesmerizing that I forgot to take a picture of the 3 cheeses we had for dessert, but if you're really good, you should be able to picture in your brain...teleggio, pecorino and gorgonzola....how'd you do?

The excitement of the entire evening, even before the soccer game began was the rare appearance of a super traveler and all around super star...Many thought he was actually heading home today from Milan, but we knew better...he was kickin' it with the cool people in Manarola...none other than Jim Jordan was in the house!!!

The excitement of still having my brother in Italy was overwhelming..so I forgot to take photos of the great bar we hung out in to watch the soccer match.  Probably the best quality of soccer I had ever seen by two teams. Spain over Germany, 1-0.  wow...

A few lemoncellos, a German couple rooting for Spain and the Spanish honeymooner ditching his wife made for a fine time in the local trattorria .

Please pray for a bug and bite free night for Peggy....and tomorrow will find us, Lord willing, hiking the trails again...look out Cinque Terre and caio bella to all you dear folks!!!