Cinque Terra

From Genoa we were headed to Manarola in the Cinque Terra (5 lands) along the western coast.  We had two options.  We could take the highway or the scenic route which curved through the mountains.  We chose option 2.  Here is some of what we saw along the way - Part I:

We took a detour for lunch and followed signs to a small restaurant.  It was a quaint little place situated in the side of the mountain and overlooking another, surrounded by gardens and greenery.  As we walked up, it looked to be closed.  A woman popped her head out of a nearby window and asked us “mangia?” as another came out of the restaurant area.  The latter said “sera, sera,” meaning they are open for dinner only.  However, the woman from the window came down and invited us to come into the restaurant to sit down.  She said we could have ravioli bolognese or frutti di mar.  We took one of each.  What to drink – Chris asked for vino locale and she replied “rosso?”  Si.  And so they opened up the restaurant for us, cooked and served and we conversed with them as best as we could, surprisingly understanding one another fairly well.  Before we knew it, a man came out and started playing with the dogs and soon an entire family was sitting around talking and laughing.  After we had our lunch, they wanted to know what we wanted for our secondi meal.  (All the restaurants have antipasto, primi, secondi and dolce.)  As good eaters as we are, we have yet to manage a primi and a secondi.  We did, however, find room for dolce.  With our dessert, we were served limoncello (a local Italian liqueur) because, they said, it was an anniversary trip.  This lunch – the setting, the people, the food – was the epitome of the heart of Italy for us.  Here are some pics from lunch:

 The view from the restaurant

 The woman who opened the restaurant for us on the left and another who helped cook and serve

The family that gathered around.  The guy on the left told us a funny story, all in Italian, of course, about someone who visited from Yugoslavia.  The visitor wanted to take a picture of them and the Italian guy said he could for 50 lira.  The man ran off.  They all laughed heartily at the telling of that story!  We did too.  Of course he stood up to tell it, and put in all the motions.  It was great.

Continuing on our way, despite the extremely narrow roads, along the edge of mountains, with curve after curve after curve, we were doing fine.  Some curves, although not nearly enough of them, had mirrors so that you could see if a car was coming from the other direction.  Chris, bless him, was just as comfortable as could be driving along.  Eventually we came to a small sign in the middle of the road.  We had no idea what it said, so we continued on.  The road became iffy, more so than before, with chunks of it eroded off in areas.  We were reminded that back in October, this area had been badly destroyed by mud slides.  The towns of the Cinque Terra below were deluged with six feet of mud.  Another car passed us going in the opposite direction (no small feat) and informed us that the road was closed.  We managed to turn around and thus began our real adventure up and down narrow, curvy, dirt roads with guard rails and pieces of road washed away.  The GPS had no idea where we were and if we heard the thing say “recalculating” one more time…  We were about 20 minutes away from our destination for about 1 ½ hours.  Finally, we were so happy to get to Corniglia, the town just north of Manarola.  Great.  We were almost there and, much to our relief, were done with those mountain roads.  Or so we thought.  We found an English-speaking person who told us that you could not get to Manarola from there by car.  You have to back up into the mountains and go over.  Make a right, he said.  It’s no problem.  Hmmm.  Back up we went.  After more of the same narrow, curvy, dirt roads on the edge of mountains, and the GPS freaking out, somehow or other we made it down to Manarola.  Some pics from our trip - Part II:

 From the mud slide.  You can see a motorcycle in the rubble.

 

A few feet past the Manarola town sign we came to a gate.  We understood the sign there enough to know that traffic beyond this point was limited.  An English-speaking person told us that you have to park your car and walk down (and I mean DOWN) to Manarola.  We parked and Chris went down and then UP the 10 minute steep walk to the hotel.   Here’s the view from our terrace:

The young people in this house had a party the first night we were there.  They played American disco music, like YMCA.  It was hilarious.

The rocks on top of the houses are cemented on and are there so that the winds don't damage the roofs.

The light on the hill is of the Virgin Mary.  That side of the mountain is terraced with all different gardens (mostly grapes), and various structures, mostly religious like the lighted one, are placed among the gardens.

This town is like a big neighborhood.  We see women shaking out rugs and sheets (they do that a lot), dogs barking, church bells ringing, children calling for their mothers.  What a place.  What an experience!