the walk

Dinner last night at a charming restaurant, called Da U Limottu, owned and operated by a local family since 1900. We shared antipasti (“solo mare”—just seafood, including the Lingurian specialty octopus and potato salad, mussels, salted-cod fritter, anchovies in lemony-oil, cappon magro, a seafood and vegetable salad in a green sauce; accompanied by a fried bread that was lightly dusted with salt. Then we shared black-ink spaghetti with mixed seafood; followed by grilled fresh calamari. And a local red wine Niccolo-V. For desert, beautiful flute-edged round butter cookies and cappacino.

Today, we took the train from Moneglia to the Cinque Terre—five small medieval seaside villages strung along 12 km of the rocky coast, each tucked into a cove against the mountain. Like most of the old towns along the Ligurian coast, some date to the Roman era. In the 12 and 13 century they became "allied" to Genoa (this terminology in the offiical promotions is a clear instance of "history written by the winners"--the "alliances" did not come about without some fighting on the part of local nobles). The paths that connect the villages are centuries old and are now trekked by the tourists. There are no cars allowed in any of the villages but the train goes through, and there is also ferry service.

We got off the train at the first village, Monterosso (red mountain), the largest of the five, and took the trail to the next village, Vernazza (photo). It was a 2 km hike but took us 2.45 hours-- very very steep, up and down the mountains (first leg = 500 steps), amazing views. Sailboats, ferries, vineyards, orange groves, olive trees, rocky coastline, birds chirping everywhere (and hordes of people on the trail, but it’s a holiday weekend here, so … whatever). We bought a blood orange from an old man about half-way (highway robbery—1 euro for the orange, but it was bellissimo). Vernazza is very small, a piazza at the marina, and a perfect spot for lunch! Which was anchovy in lemon-oil (again) and mixed seafood salad (again), and trofie with pesto (again, see previous entry on trofie; in fact, see previous entries on the other stuff too.)
Train back to Moneglia. Ready to conquer the other three villages tomorrow!!