(In an effort to not repeat myself too much, all the towns mentioned in the blog post today that aren't Levanto or Bonassola are all part of Cinque Terre, Italy)
Hello all,
Today we ventured into the Cinque Terre area once again! Some of us were tired and wanted a rest morning so, we ended up breaking into 3 groups. The first and earliest of the three groups included both Nanas, Gage and Jen. They all started their morning by catching the 9AM train to the town of Vernazza. Griffin chose to get up at the same time to do some more training for soccer. The rest of us chose to sleep in a bit longer. Matt was the first of the rest of us to meet the day and decided with Griffin to meet up with the early 4 at the next town over Corniglia. So they caught the 11AM train to that town. Connor and Kayla, being the slowest moving caught the noon train to Vernazza with the plan to actually in the town before called Monterosso. With the plan to eventually take the train from Monterosso to Vernazza.
Photo Dump time!
View of Vernazza from lookout
Vernazza steps to a wall!
Cave to hidden beach in Vernazza
Lots of stairs in Vernazza!
All photos above are the early crew's Venezza experience
Griffin and Matt met up with the early 4 in Corniglia, they met up at the train station before making their way up the road skipping the 300-some stairs to the city above. Gage managed to walk straight into a car. And not a moving one! That's right folks, he walked straight into a PARKED car! This was also witnessed by a non-familial pedestrian who shared a chuckle.
The town itself was gorgeous and special, but as someone who is writing this without seeing the town, but I don't know what people are really trying to describe. Suffice to say, it was cool and pretty! (Parent note: Corniglia is the smallest of the 5 villages, at around 200 full time residents. It is the only one without a marina, as it is entirely perched on rocks well above the ocean. But the same wonderful and colorful houses jammed/nestled together with tiny stairs and walkways zigzagging in various directions.)
View of the town from the road
Stairs from the train station - we went up the road, but later down the stairs.
When Kayla and Connor arrived in Monterosso our first mission was acquiring gelato. This was done quickly and made for an easier time for Kayla when it came to some slightly higher places.
Connor/Kayla Monterosso Pictures
Kayla and Connor decided that the water off the coast of Monterosso was pretty and also they got too hot. This meant that they, unprepared to swim, just went in anyways. Kayla took Connor's shirt and Connor went in his underwear, and yet we were some of the most dressed people on the beach.
After our VERY brief dip in the cold Mediterranean was absolutely lovely and after some relaxing but more accurately drying off on the beach, Kayla and Connor were greeted by the early 4, who once again separated from Matt and Griffin (who went to get food). As such, we briefly reconnected before going our separate ways. (Parent note: Montorosso is surprising in the the main large - and newer - part of town is built into a broad valley, and this is what you mainly see from the lookouts above. But if you walk around to the south of the town, either around a walkway or through a tunnel, you find the old part of town wedged into a tiny inlet that is mostly hidden from the lookouts. Quite a surprise and a real gem!)
Because I don't know, I assume Matt and Griffin went home on the train to Bonassola (where our Airbnb is) with the Nanas from Monterosso. (Parent note: the nanas caught an earlier train to hit the local Bonassola store to provision and then rest up for happy hour; Matt and Griff were a little behind then but elected to train to Levanto and then walk home through the tunnel.) Jen and Gage went home via a hiking trail that they both did yesterday but wanted to do again today. (Parent note: it was a very challenging hike yesterday, so today we decided to do it much faster, including doing a little trail running on the down slope. A leg burner but lots of fun!)
Kayla and Connor went on to their second destination of the day which was the town of Vernazza. This was also the first destination of the day for the early crew. Vernazza was absolutely stunning and Kayla was really great with the heights today (I believe it was the clarity brought to her by the Gelato from earlier). As such we climbed the tower Castello Doria which had absolutely fantastic views of the town below.
The above photos are all from Kayla and Connor's time in Vernazza
Before all of us met up back at the Airbnb, several people in our group witnessed one of the prettiest sunsets in the world
We all ended up meeting back in Bonassola for dinner. We had planned to get pizza from the local pizzeria in town, and luckily the Nanas arrived just in time to place an order for 8 pizzas before the restaurant closed. (Parent note: the restaurant was actually closed, but the very nice owner agreed to make the nanas two pizzas. Then they said they needed 8 - fortunately he was willing to feed the whole crew!). We also purchased some of the house wine, which didn't come in a bottle, so Griffin ran back to the house to grab an empty bottle for the restaurant staff to fill up with new wine. (Parent note: we actually got two bottles - one of white, which she went to to back to fill up in our bottle, and one of red, which she filled from a box on the counter- so very fancy! More expensive than the store wine but we wanted to show our appreciation for them staying open!)
(Parent note: dinner was the usual fun and raucous event, but fortunately without rehashing any bitch mint episodes. And the pizzas were delicious!)
Tune in tomorrow!
- Connor
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