The late night left me feeling groggy in the morning, but I can always depend on my hunger to rouse me out of bed. We got down to the same place, Aristide, by no later than 10am, and ordered veggie egg scrambles. Maddie got her hot chocolate, and I upgraded to a "Big" cappuccino, deciding yesterday's "regular" size just wasn't cutting it. It appears I'm sliding headfirst down this slippery, coffee-lubricated slope even faster than I thought.
Fueled by a good breakfast (best scramble I've ever had), and with a bag of fruit in hand, we headed back to get ready for the day. We decided to begin with a hike along the alternate route (less popular, much steeper, and FREE) from Manarola to Riomaggiore. As we climbed the interminable series of nearly waist-high steps to the top of the ridge separating the two towns, we passed hikers of every shape and size wearing every many of clothing, some overkill, many "under kill"....if that's a word to mean the opposite of overkill. I felt terrible for the few people we saw looking miserable, many of them in some variation of inappropriate sandal. It was fairly rocky terrain, with loose scree-like debris in parts. I've never been on a steeper scenic trail than that route up the ridge, and it made for an awesome morning workout.
Up and down the ridge to Riomaggiore, we were strolling into the train station some 45 minutes later. We then took the train to Corniglia, where we picked up the same delicious sandwiches from before to quell our hiker hunger. We took those down to the marina, our favorite swimming spot we've come across, and staked out a wide flat rock on which to enjoy our lunch. For the rest of the afternoon, we snacked on fruit, read our books, and just chilled. The sporadic cloud cover kept us a perfect cool temperature, such that we didn't even venture into the water until the sun broke through in full force for a brief period. At that point, Maddie and I made our way onto a large boulder we'd seen people jumping off of, and we followed suit. We repeated the jump a few times until the wind picked up and prompted us to dry off and warm up a bit. We spent a good three hours down there, and it was just what we wanted.
Soon, it was time to head back up, and then back down the 382 (plus or minus a few) steps to the train station. We arrived back in Manarola at 6pm, leaving us an hour to get ready for dinner. We had made reservations at what our host and trip advisor seemed to agree was the best restaurant in town (which, we were pleased to see, does not mean most expensive!), Trattoria dal Billy. We leisurely got ready and walked the 5 minutes there, enjoying the setting sun over the horizon. Both Maddie and I noticed and remarked that the clouds seemed different here. This could be a facet of our vacation mindset, where everything is new, and we are more inclined to take delight in every little detail. But I guess if I think about the cloudscape, something I don't normally do, it really did feel unique. The sky was a layer after layer of seemingly different types of clouds, with a white hazy base, ethereal streaks, and puffy masses closer to earth ranging from pure white to dark gray. Maddie said it reminded her of what she imagined the sky to look like in "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," consistent with the fantasy quality I sensed.
At dinner, we were greeted with what we would soon identify as the best service of the trip, as well as some of the best food and best views. It was a night of bests. Lots of good bread with olive oil and what I thought was normal balsamic vinegar but turned out to be a delicious, sweeter condensed balsamic syrup that was SO GOOD. Maddie ordered a black truffle pasta, I ordered a tomato shrimp pasta, and we shared the best salad of the trip and a half bottle of wine. Some tiramisu to top it off, and we were in heaven. We relished the meal, our last blissful moments of unencumbered vacation before we would have to set about packing and planning our departure.
The rest of the night was dreary and robotic by comparison, as we packed slowly, but efficiently, coming to terms with the imminent end of our Italian adventure. While there is certainly an element of sadness to a trip like this coming to an end, I cannot say that I feel sad, disappointed, or any other negative emotion at all. I feel energized, excited, and supremely grateful for the experiences we've had, the food we ate, and the sites we saw. Between two major touristic destination cities, a remote mountain experience, and a relaxing finish on the sunny coast, I think we balanced our vacation objectives really really well. There's no avoiding the back-to-reality sigh to come, but in many ways, I'm looking forward to being home in San Francisco. It's been almost two whole months since I've been settled in SF. A big part of me missed my routines, my exercise regimen, my school, the simplicity of habit I enjoyed all last year. But most of all, I've missed that sense of normalcy that comes with enjoying these things in the comforting presence of Maddie. She had a hectic month of traveling for work in July, at the end of which I left for home to officiate Matt's wedding and prepare for the JMT, which was hampered by the grief of John's passing, and then finally this wonderful, European vacation. Traveling with Maddie this month has been another dream come true, and now I think we are long overdue for curling up on the couch and binging something on Netflix.
No comments:
Post a Comment