Summer sun (7th October)

The sun finally decides to be present all day and super hot. Perfect for our plan to lie on the beach. The best beach in the region is at Monterosso and to get there we take a ferry. It's more expensive than the train, but offers a great view of all the villages from the sea. Before setting up on the beach we explore the town of Monterosso, including going to the anchovy salting centre. It's end of season and so we can't actually see the anchovies being salted, but we learn that each year 3000kg of anchovies are salted manually by hand by the females of the cooperative. Best of all we get to try some :-) They are different to the anchovies back home. Despite being salted to serve them they are rinsed first, thereby removing a lot of the salted flavour. As such they taste more like fish than salt. Unfortunately we are not able to buy any to take home and the ladies know this and wouldn't want to waste their product on us. But it is good to be able to sample them where they are produced. We wander along the boardwalk, stopping for delicious gelato and eventually need the toilet. Toilets are not so good around these parts (they are the drop hole in the ground ones) and as such Shona ends up using the men's in the train station because it is way cleaner than the ladies. That's ok though because it's time for some sun and sea. We warm up and quickly hit the water to bob up and down in the swell. It's relaxing to be in the water, but eventually we make our way out where Shona falls asleep happy in the warm rays, however as usual after 30 minutes Michael is bored. We have learnt that Mike is not a huge fan for falling asleep on the beach. Maybe because despite the massive amounts of sunscreen he puts on (whereas Shona doesn't use any) he still burns (and Shona doesn't). New plan is that Shona will lie on the beach and Mike will go for a walk to pick up a few presents for people and to bring back pizza for lunch. He takes his time and 40 minutes later he is back with a delicious pesto pizza! Sunbathing over we catch a train back to Riomaggiore, rinse the salt off and head with a beer and wine down to the marina to play cards and watch the sun set. Mike heads back early to start dinner and Shona eventually joins him. It's our old favourite - pesto, lotsa garlic and parmesan pasta. It's just so yummy! There are new people in our room today (all Australians) and so we chat to them until midnight when it's finally time to hit the sack.