Off to the Cinque Terre

Sunday, June 28th

Added pictures from Malvarina to Montepulciano. Good connection, more pictures tomorrow, and a special post for Dane from Uncle Ken. Miss you all!

We were all “up and at it” a little bit earlier than usual, so we could start our journey to Pisa and drop off our car at the car drop off at the airport there. We would then take the train to Monterosso di Mare (Cinque Terre) where we will spend the next 2 nights. Breakfast, overlooking the beautiful Tuscan landscape was melon, cornetti (darn, the guy forgot the chocolate filled ones), toast, pecorino cheese and Brian’s Italian cowboy coffee. Hard to beat that.
We left at 9:30am and Bella got us to the car drop off by the Pisa airport without problem at 11:10am. With the car dropped off, we jumped on a shuttle that took us from the car drop off to the airport where we caught a cab to the train station. That only took 18 minutes! Everyone was thrilled, but I was suspicious of everything going too smoothly. Our train to the CT was to leave at 1:30. There was a McDonald’s in the station, so we had to take a picture for Dane. We found our train and then decided we better eat before the next leg of our journey, and not having a knife to cut up the cheese we brought, it was Quarter Pounders for all.
Settled on the train, we realized we had to get off at La Spezia to change trains. We have now added the expandable suitcase to what we’re dragging along, but Brian and Jen are there to help. Ken times the amount of time at the 1st stop…40 seconds to get the door open (and some don’t so you have to run to the next car), luggage and yourself out. La Spezia came in about a ½ hour. We were ready. Jen was waiting at the door with most of our luggage. The train slows, we get to the door and….the door doesn’t open, so we take off through the car to the next one. It was Ricky, Lucy, Fred and Ethel jumping from the train, tossing bags, but we made it ! What? This is the wrong stop? We need to get back on and then get off in a few minutes? We did it, but were laughing so hard by the time we finally really did get off, we could hardly stand it. Now to find our connecting train. I stayed upstairs while Ken, Brian and Jen lugged the bags down, down the stairs. I thought they had left me when I saw Ken (who we really should call scout, for his advance man work) came charging up the stairs saying “now! Track two! Let’s go!” By golly, we made it ! Ken is now napping and I am overlooking the Ligurian Sea and hearing the sound of the water and the people enjoying this beautiful blue sky, warm weather day. This is definitely the beach town of the CT. Just coming to Hotel Pasquale from the train station, we have decided this place will be just for “crashing”. The biggest effort I want to make is finding good calamari and some pesto, which this area is famous for. I may have to find some anchovies too, but not sure. I have nicknamed myself Petunia (Porky Pig’s girlfriend) because of all of the salty pork I have eaten over the last 2 weeks. No, you may not call me that.

June 29- morning
After a brief rest to catch our breath, Stroms and Bakkens met downstairs of our hotel. It is cute and only has around 13 rooms. Rick Steves has it listed in his book and says there is a welcome drink. We asked and sure enough, we all sat outside with the beach and the crazy beach folks just feet away. Our complimentary drink was a local special sweet wine called sciacchetra made out of raisins. With 18% alcohol, it packed a punch. The little cookies that Emanuella gave us to go with them revived us for the evening.
Jen looked through the Rick Steves book and found a trattoria (Via Venti) that sounded good for dinner. We got reservations for 7pm, and it’s a good thing we did, as it was packed. We sat outside, tilted slightly down hill (because of the streets not the wine) on a narrow side street. Dinner was fabulous. The father catches the seafood and the son serves. He was quite a character and says Rick Steves is a good man (has his picture on the door).The food was wonderful; the restaurant was filled with people with RS books on their tables. Rick is good business. We all shared the best calamari ever, and we have gotten very good at ordering different things and sharing that also. I had pasta with pear sauce, Ken and Jen had seafood ravioli and Brian sea bass. We shared a chocolate soufflé and hen off we went to walk it off. Between fighting dogs, kids on bikes and skateboards, it was a risky walk, but we wound our way around the streets, listening to music coming out of the bars, staring at what people were eating and just watched people have a good time. We have beach chairs rented for tomorrow.