The day starts with our normal Cinque Terre breakfast - pizza (and almost always pesto pizza!). It gives us energy to walk the first part of the hike again from Riomaggiore around to Manarola. This time there are no tour groups and we are able to sit on the lovers seat and make out for a photo :-) We also had the chance to stop at the bar part the way around an
d enjoy a coffee overlooking 180 degrees of ocean. The purpose of the walk was to head around to Manarola in order to take the bus up to Groppo. As well as the five villages there are a few villages in the hills which are part of the region and National Park. In Groppo they make the Cinque Terre wine. There are five different types and Shona is able to taste four. Three are white wines - grapes only from Manarola, grapes only from Levanto and grapes from all over Cinque Terre. The all over variety is Shona's favourite. Mike has a sip of all of them too, but mainly eats the crisps! The final is the special dessert wine made in the region. They pick the grapes and then dry them in the hot sun over summer and on 1 November they press them to make the wine. It's really expensive (38 euros a bottle) and tastes del
icious especially with the biscotti that accompanies it. We buy some biscotti because it is really good and within our budget (4 euros). Afterwards we walk back down to Manarola, Shona giggles all the way because the wine has gone to her head! We see geckos as well as crickets jumping which are kinda freaky as we are not sure which we they are going to go. It's a lot of fun just wandering in the sun. We make our way back to Riomaggiore and head straight to the little bay around from us to have a swim. It's a rocky beach with big slippery rocks which makes it hard to enter the water. You get your balance and then a wave hits and blows you off. The most effective tactic is to push off and swim a few strokes until you are out at a depth where you only just touch the bottom (obviously this is a different place for Mike than for Shona!) and stay there bobbing up and down. It's a lot of fun -but it's definitely a good idea to clean off afterwards because the Mediterranean is so salty. Back at the hostel we do a redo of the dinner from last night -only this time we at least double the amount of garlic that goes with the pesto and parmesan pasta. It's even better than last night -especially because Mike makes a nice side of veges to go with it (our bodies have been craving nutrients after all the kebabs and pizza!). A wonderfully relaxing day -we're starting to understand why Italians have this "it's good to do nothing' saying!
d enjoy a coffee overlooking 180 degrees of ocean. The purpose of the walk was to head around to Manarola in order to take the bus up to Groppo. As well as the five villages there are a few villages in the hills which are part of the region and National Park. In Groppo they make the Cinque Terre wine. There are five different types and Shona is able to taste four. Three are white wines - grapes only from Manarola, grapes only from Levanto and grapes from all over Cinque Terre. The all over variety is Shona's favourite. Mike has a sip of all of them too, but mainly eats the crisps! The final is the special dessert wine made in the region. They pick the grapes and then dry them in the hot sun over summer and on 1 November they press them to make the wine. It's really expensive (38 euros a bottle) and tastes del
icious especially with the biscotti that accompanies it. We buy some biscotti because it is really good and within our budget (4 euros). Afterwards we walk back down to Manarola, Shona giggles all the way because the wine has gone to her head! We see geckos as well as crickets jumping which are kinda freaky as we are not sure which we they are going to go. It's a lot of fun just wandering in the sun. We make our way back to Riomaggiore and head straight to the little bay around from us to have a swim. It's a rocky beach with big slippery rocks which makes it hard to enter the water. You get your balance and then a wave hits and blows you off. The most effective tactic is to push off and swim a few strokes until you are out at a depth where you only just touch the bottom (obviously this is a different place for Mike than for Shona!) and stay there bobbing up and down. It's a lot of fun -but it's definitely a good idea to clean off afterwards because the Mediterranean is so salty. Back at the hostel we do a redo of the dinner from last night -only this time we at least double the amount of garlic that goes with the pesto and parmesan pasta. It's even better than last night -especially because Mike makes a nice side of veges to go with it (our bodies have been craving nutrients after all the kebabs and pizza!). A wonderfully relaxing day -we're starting to understand why Italians have this "it's good to do nothing' saying!
.JPG)
Wow what a wonderful journey of discovery you have had - of our little planet and of yourselves I feel certain! So looking forward to seeing you back home now as you begin the last leg of your trip. Take care and thanks for sharing so much with your blogsters
ReplyDelete