Italy Day 16: Town Hopping

Boy did I sleep in.  It wasn't so much a late morning as it was a continuously deep night's sleep.  We were out of our place and sitting inside our decided breakfast spot by 10am.  It was on our jaunt down the hill that the ever scintillating aroma of coffee gripped my senses, and this time, it didn't let go.  While Maddie delighted in her above average hot chocolate and croissant, I chowed down on a delicious veggie egg scramble and, get this, a CAPPUCCINO.  It marks the first time I've ordered coffee for myself, and I must say here and now, I'm scared.  I'm scared I'm headed down the not-inexpensive road of developing a coffee habit.  I'm going to let future, not-on-vacation Graham deal with that issue when he gets home, and just see where this thirst for coffee takes me.

Breakfast time

With a hearty breakfast down the hatch, we walked down to the marina and sat on our perch in the shade, with the area almost to ourselves as swimmers had not come out for the day yet.  We read our books in peace, listening to the waves crash against the jetty.  It was yet another pristine lounging session.  As nice as it was, we wanted to see some more of the Cinque Terre, so we decided to pack our bag and head up to Monterosso to lounge on the only actual beach in the 5 towns.  I ran down to the little market, bought a boatload of fresh fruit for the day, and we headed out.

After yesterday, and with a good night's sleep under our belts, today's hectic train ride barely registered on our nuisance meter. We hopped off the train and pretty much straight down the nearest set of steps, seizing on a small sliver of available sand real estate.  The next couple of hours consisted of the typical beach routine of reading while the sunscreen soaks in, going in the water, coming out of the water, and snacking on fruit (grapes grown on the very hills behind us) while drying off again...and then repeating the process multiple times over.  It was exactly what we wanted.  As our fruit cache dwindled, we decided to hop on a train to the next town down, Vernazza.

Beach time

Here we picked up a croissant for Maddie and a roll for myself to continue our snacking while we staked out a prime perch at the marina in which to bask.  And we repeated the process of going in, coming out, snacking and reading.  Another few hours of this and we were ready for dinner.  We took one of Maddie's co-worker's pieces of advice and made sure to show up early to a restaurant he recommended called Al Castello.  Call me Sherlock Holmes, but I'm guessing it's named after the castle in whose side the restaurant is nestled.  Either way, the views were unbelievable, and we had a perfect spot to watch the sun set over the coast.  Some wine, a salad to share, spaghetti with tomato and basil for Maddie, and a whole grilled sea bass for me made for a wonderful dinner in an even more amazing setting. 

Try to ignore the other diners in the photo

Vernazza sunset

The marina

Good times

More sunset

Maddie loves posing for photos...obviously

Soooo good!

We finished just in time to catch the train back to Manarola, where we walked around the marina some more.  Nighttime feels so enchanting in these little villages, I just can't get over it.  And with all that lounging, we are surprisingly very ready to call it a night! Only one more full day left!  Perhaps a hike to Riomaggiore?  More swimming in Corniglia? We'll see!

Good afternoon from Vernazza