Italy - Day 7

What a wonderful day it was, weather wise and activity wise! We started out on the coach, through La Spezia, then onto a tiny village called Groppo which is along the Cinque Terre coast. 

After a rest stop, we walked a little ways along the path towards Manarola.

The views were incredible. It was interesting to see the vineyards up close and the farming they do. There isn't much flat area and the amount of terracing is unbelievable!

 At one point along the path, we could see both Manarola as well as Riomaggiore. 

We returned along the path we came on and boarded the bus again for a short ride to a local winery. 

 Cantina Sociale is a small establishment where we had a taste of three different white wines. They served some bread with pesto, olives, and tomatoe sauce as well as some hot vegetable pie.

I bought another wine glass together with a fabric wine glass holder. Umberto, our guide for the day, told me it's handy to have at wine tasting events so as to have hands-free when you are sampling the food. It's like a cloth 'bib' which holds your wine glass. It might come in useful at parties (or at art club, haha!)

After the wine tasting, which came far too early in the day for me, we took the bus for a very short ride to Manarola. It is a charming village, as they all are, and we entered from on high. What wonderful views!

We had time to ourselves and I headed towards the water. There is no beach there per se, and it is quite rocky down by the water. Despite all that, there were lots of people sunning themselves and even swimming in the ocean. Some were even snorkelling!

I really enjoyed the architecture, the windows, doorways, laundry lines, and vibrant colours. I can't believe how these villages have been built on such steep hills.

I stopped for a bite - a pesto bun. My are they ever good here. I also had a gelato - number 4.

The shops run up and down the Main Street in town and I bought some postcards and another t-shirt. Did I really need one? No, but it matched my new lime green bicycle, so there!

At the appointed time, we caught the train to Riomaggiore. It was a very short ride about a minute long, just through a tunnel.

At that town, some of the group took an elevator up to the top of the hill instead of a 10 minute walk. My feet were pretty tired and hot by then after all that walking on cement and stone. 

We didn't have much time in Riomaggiore so it was a quick look around before we had to catch the train again.

We had a ten minute ride to La Spezia where a bus was waiting for us. On the train I sat across a Canadian couple. We got to talking and they were from Alberta - Red Deer in fact! Small world.

Supper was at 7:30, our usual supper time. I (and others) wish it were earlier, but that is the Italian way. We ate at. Restaurant above the fish market near the castle. The food was fabulous, the service excellent, and the wine plentiful. What more could you ask.

We stopped a bank machine on the way back to the hotel and my friends helped me figure out how to get some cash out. I am heading out on my own tomorrow as the schedule is pretty open. Lerici is a great town but I don't want to hang out here all day.

As I was sitting out in my balcony typing this, I heard a man singing in Italian on the street below. He had a great voice and it was a lovely way to end this day.