We left Bellagio, taking the ferry back to Varenna. While strolling along the beautiful rocky shore line, we found the Varenna Cafe, rated 1 of 544 restaurants in the area. Here our favorites were ravioli with artichokes and amaretto ice cream. The owner of the cafe believed the stone arched structure of the building to be an original boat house. There was a hole in the stone ceiling leading to an upstairs apartment. The owner told tales of this being an escape hatch for the woman of the house to shove her lovers down quickly when her husband came home. Based on his flirtatious nature we suspected he may have known this from experience.
We departed Varenna and headed to Cinque Terra. Due to our difficulties the previous day with Vera (our GPS), she was pouting and would not speak to us, which suited us just fine. It was easier for Mary to watch the screen and provide directions than it was to follow Vera's voice. In reality, Mary had unknowingly turned down the volume. It rained most of the day and was our longest driving day. We drove through Milan and on to La Spezia and by this time it was dusk. From there to Manarola was only 10 miles but it took 30 minutes due to the winding mountainous roads.
We had to park outside of the town in the public parking. Only residents are allowed to park within the city gates, which was a good thing as we would have been scraping buildings throughout the town. No wonder the garbage truck is the size of a Matchbox car. We are still pissed at Brenda that she didn't play volleyball in high school because she claims she could stretch out her arms and touch both sides of the street; in reality, this was very close to true.
From the parking area we had to wind our way down the steep and curving streets with all our luggage in tow. By this time it was dark. We made it to the church square, where we needed to ask for directions. Luckily a very kind Italian man spoke English and was able to direct us to Da Paulin apartments where we were staying. We rang the doorbell and were greeted by Geraldo who said, "You will not stay here, it is only a bit farther". He proceeded to lead us down and then back up a very steep hill to our private apartment that overlooked the Mediterranean Sea (see attached picture, taken from our balcony).
He suggested we eat at Aristide. We started our meal with a recommended local wine. Our dinner favorites were anchovies with lemon, seafood ravioli and pesto lasagna. For dessert we had panna cotta with caramel sauce; it was better than the Better than Sex Cake. In fact Brenda enjoyed it so much that she cried. At the end of our meal they gave us shots of Limoncello (a famous liqueur that tastes like lemon drops - John Matiska, eat your heart out) .
We ended our day laughing as we were journaling our blog and Brenda and Beth confessed that they had imagined us having to sleep in our Ford Fiesta in the public parking lot. How dare they doubt Mary and Donna's planning and preparation.
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