Day 6 - Cinque Terre

We got up early and had a light breakfast in our room.  We took the train to Corniglia, the only Cinque Terre town of the five not on the water. We walked the long road up to the town, rather than take hundreds of steps.   Only 250 people live here.  There were beautiful lemon trees everywhere, so Brenda and Mary kept singing the oldie "Lemon tree, very pretty..."

We saw the town square and the sanctuary of San Bernardino and beautiful old churches. Corniglia is famous for their wine so we bought a bottle to drink later. We stopped and drank cappuccino in a quaint little shop. After wandering around for an hour and a half we took the zig-zagged 395 steps down to the train station.  Donna got a little distracted taking pictures and realized the others were quite far ahead.   She looked at the time and the train was supposed to be arriving soon, so she broke out into a fifty-year-old sprint. She told us, "I was getting tired but I needed to keep going so I started chanting to my self "Happy Cake", which distracts me and makes me think of my two year old nephew, Morris (MoMo). This is what he calls a birthday cake and he likes to sit on my shoulders and chant "Happy Cake". 

Next we took the train to Vernazza, a town of about 500 villagers.  Unfortunately, in October of 2011 they had torrential rains that caused a massive mudslide.  The town was open, but there was a lot of restoration going on.   The beautiful beach that once existed on the seaside of the town was covered in mud.  The beautiful stone church overlooking the sea was still intact and didn't appear to be too damaged. 

After wandering around and taking pictures in Vernazza, we went back to the train and went on to Monterrosso.  In Monterrosso we bought some excellent focaccia and ate it as we walked along the beautiful beach from the train station to the harbor, where we got on a boat to travel to Portovenere.  This is a town my Aunt Silvia (who was born in Italy) recommended, as it was one of her favorite places to go as a child.  On the boat ride we passed by each of the five cities and I was able to take pictures from the ferry.  It was very nice to get the sea side view of all the towns. 

In Portovenere, we wandered along the boardwalk.  We stopped and had caffe latte and fancy ice creams.  (It's amazing how one will buy food just to use a clean potty.)  We walked to the famous striped church, a ruined castle, a very interesting old cemetery,  and a church where they were doing the rosary.  It was a beautiful town. Thank you, Silvia, for recommending it. 

We took the boat back to Manarola where we ate dinner at Aristide (again!)  Elena stopped by our table and chatted with us.  We learned that her grandparents own the restaurant, her grandmother does all of the cooking, and her mother and she do all of the morning baking (the wonderful chocolate croissants).  For dessert we had the famous panna cotta with caramel.   

During dinner we were able to witness a traditional Good Friday vigil.  As we were dining, the lights suddenly shut off and we heard singing.  Some of the town's people paraded by with torches, a large cross, and men holding a crucified Christ lying on a wooden platform.  They carried it with poles on their shoulders.  A small service was held in the town's center. We had perfect seats as our table overlooked the whole procession.

After dinner, Elena invited us to stop by the bar for Limoncello.  At the bar we found Elena's mother (Monica), her father, and her uncle.   We asked Elena to tell them that if Nana was missing we had kidnapped her.  Her father got out a knife and indicated what he would do to us if we did.  Mary countered by putting her finger under her coat as if hiding a gun.  We all whole-heartedly laughed, and realized how charades and smiles work in every language.

Elena poured us all a Limoncello, taught us how to say something like "Ching, Ching," tap the shot glass on the counter (supposedly to help women keep a nice derrière) and then instructed us to tip our heads back and drink the whole thing at once.  A couple of us tapped the shot glass numerous times, needing all the help we could get in the big bottom department.  Elena drank the Limoncello with us,  then gave us each a gift of a purse holder with their restaurant name on it.  Sentimental Beth began to cry and Elena scolded her "Don't look at mama." who had also stared to tear up.  

We said our goodnights  and told her we would stop in the morning before we left to say good bye and get some chocolate croissants.   She said she would make sure and hold out four for us.  We exchanged email addresses and slowly made our way to bed, realizing how this small village will forever be a part of us.