Italy - Cinque Terre - Days 6 & 7 (May 28th & 29th)

May 9
2 min read

Updated: Jun 2

Thursday 5/28

The day started off with a quick and delicious breakfast (see notes from yesterday) from the hotel before catching the bus for an 8:30 departure to Monterosso, one of the Cinque Terre.

The trip was 8 hours as we made the trek from Bolzano in the mountainous northeast region, to Levanto along the coast in the northwestern part of the country. Once we got to Levanto, we boarded the train for a 15-minute journey to Monterosso.

Wednesday night we were for warned that we should pack light for Monterosso as we'd be doing a good amount of walking over some cobbles. Consequently, we each packed two light bags help us get through the next couple of days in Monterosso, and left the rest of our possessions in our big suitcases on the bus. Once off the train in the late afternoon, we carried our bags about 1/4 mile to our new hotel in Monterosso, Hotel Punta Mesco. Yikes, it was super hot and humid there..thankfully the hotel had great air conditioning!!

Once we threw our bags down in our room, we went out for a short orientation trip around town led by Martin, our tour leader from Wrexham Wales. We made sure to talk to him about our love for the "Welcome to Wrexham" TV show with Ryan Reynolds & Ron McElhenney. Martin waxed poetic on how Ryan and Rob have really helped turn around the fortunes of both the soccer team and the Wrexham community.

After returning to the hotel for a quick recharge (nap!), we went to a group dinner at Ristorante Belvedere. About half the group was there and we had an amazing dinner consisting of wine, trofie al pesto and caprese salad. For the main course, we had a mixed seafood stew dumped dramatically from a pottery amphora into a bowl at the table. Every last drop of the red wine seafood broth was sopped up by toasted bread, absolutely delicious!

After dinner we took a nice stroll along the waterfront and retired to bed.

Friday 5/29

OK, so we were tired...and we slept in until 9:30 a.m. this morning! I briefly left the room and returned with cappuccinos, a fresh fruit bowl, and some pastries from the hotel restaurant. We had a nice lazy morning, and it was well deserved. We then slathered up with sunblock and walked to the old part of town and did some therapeutic shopping.

Lunch consisted of an Aperol spritz for Mike and a red wine sangria for Katie as we split a delicious panini sandwich. Later we took an afternoon boat to the closest town of the Cinque Terre, Vernazza. There we enjoyed some gelato, did a bit more shopping, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Unfortunately due to a train worker strike, the train was partially shut down in the region, and Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore will have to wait for another day.

After catching the return boat back to Monterosso, we freshened up and went to a nice dinner at La Cantina Del Pescatore. Afterwards we walked off some calories along the waterfront as we enjoyed our last few hours in the Cinque Terre.

Tomorrow we rise early as we journey to Florence, one of Mike's absolute dream destinations!

That's all for now, arrivederci!!