Cinque Terre - Part 2

In one day (Oct 9), we visited all five of the towns of Cinque Terre. We woke up in Monterosso (the northernmost Cinque) and went south from there. Each of the Cinque has its own character and personality. Monterosso is the largest of them and is also the flattest. It has an “old town,” a “new town,” and a large beach. 

Our first stop was Vernazza, a 3.5 km hike from Monterosso. The trail to Vernazza was tough but beautiful. Along the way, we passed various vineyards and citrus orchards. Here are the views as we approached the town:

Vernazza is quite a jewel, with a small amphitheater-shaped harbor that includes a beautiful medieval church:

We had “second breakfast” in Vernazza at a lovely café, where Jeff had an interesting encounter while paying the bill. The owner asked where he was from, and when he replied the US, the owner guessed Seattle! What are the chances?!? When Jeff confirmed but stated that we now live in Spain, and specifically San Sebastian, the owner replied that his wife was from the area!! It is a very small world!

Vernazza had a Roman installation and the remains of the watchtower and castello are still visible. Here is the view (looking north towards Monterosso) as we walked out of town and headed south to Corniglia:

Corniglia sits 100 meters above the sea and is the only town that cannot be accessed by boat. It is the smallest of the Cinque. The 4 km trail from Vernazza provides stunning views of Corniglia as you approach it:

Although you can technically walk between all the villages, the main trails between Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore have been closed for some time due to storm damage. And, although we were initially disappointed that we would not be able to walk the entire trail, by the time we reached Corniglia, the terrain had taken its toll and we were happy that we would be taking the train between the next two Cinque.  We celebrated this fact with a lovely lunch:

To leave Corniglia, we headed to the train station, which is some 400 steps down to the shoreline. This is why it’s better to leave Corniglia by train as opposed to arrive that way. Our next stop, Manarola, sits among terraced vineyards and has a tiny port. While we didn’t walk there, we were able to walk the perimeter of the town among the vineyards. In my opinion, Manarola is the prettiest of the Cinque – perhaps you’ll agree:

At this point, we were starting to tire, but we had one more stop – Riomaggiore – before we would take the train back to Monterosso. We pushed through and while Riomaggiore is charming, we had pretty much reached our saturation level. I almost forgot to take a photo, but I did snap one:

We returned by train to Monterosso to shower and had a lovely dinner. The restaurants in Monterosso were quite good and we shared stories and great conversation with several lovely American couples of all ages during our stay. Nearly all the restaurants have outdoor seating and there is something about dining al fresco that sparks conversation among tables. The wine probably helps too!

Our fourth and final day in Cinque Terre we relaxed, ate amazing pizza, went to the beach, and had one final fantastic fresh fish dinner. There is nothing like a swim in the Ligurian sea to cure what ails you after so much hiking! We were sad to leave such an outstanding destination. But off we went to Bologna for 2 nights before heading to our final stop of this 3-week trip . . . Prague.

Ciao,

Shana & Jeff 

Cinque Terre - Part 1

We went from one group of coastal, cliff-side villages on the Amalfi Coast to another, Cinque Terre, on the Ligurian (northwest) coast. The name, Cinque Terre means "five lands" and it includes five villages that are linked by walking trails, by train, and by boat:  Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. We chose Monterosso as our base and it was a great choice.

It is difficult to choose photos to display here. The beauty of the coastline and the character of each village are unparalleled. It is obvious why the Cinque Terre are a very popular destination. We were fortunate to have 5 nights there to explore.

Our first hike went north from Monterosso to Levanto. This is an 8 km hike that includes amazing views of all of the Cinque, the town of Levanto, and the ruins of the Chapel of St. Antonio. It took us about 3 hours to complete this challenging trail. All of the trails involve a lot of climbing and descending, because, well, what goes up must come down. We were fortunate to have a fairly cloudy day to keep us from overheating. Also, by visiting in October, we avoided the worst of the crowds.

Here is the view looking back to Monterrosso and the other Cinque:

Along the way we encountered some inuksuk-like rock piles created by fellow hikers:

And here is the view towards Levanto as we approached the town:

When we arrived in Levanto we had a lovely lunch – we had definitely earned the bread and pasta! We quickly learned that the fish is super fresh and the local white wines are really crisp in Cinque Terre. Perfect after a long hike.

The next day we took the sanctuary trail in Monterrosso. Each town has a sanctuary, an area where the village inhabitants could seek safety from any threats, including pirates! Just climb up the hill and you’ll encounter a protective church with amazing views. Here are the views down to Monterosso:

Here’s the trail marker at the top (you can see from the many options how extensive the trail network is:

We made our way back down the trail – down is always easier, albeit a bit rough on the knees, and spent our afternoon at the local winery, Buranco, where we enjoyed a lovely tasting with very tasty snacks. I was happy to meet the winery’s dog, whose name we can’t recall. He was super friendly, especially while we had food. I am always happy to get my puppy-fix.

The wines were lovely and the atmosphere perfect for relaxation. We met a fun group of three couples sharing an adventure through Italy. They were our parents’ age and highly entertaining. 

Here’s the view from near the winery:

After two days, we were loving Cinque Terre and we had not even been to any of the other Cinque yet!

Ciao,

Shana & Jeff

Naples - Go for the Best Pizza in the World (seriously)

There is no truly polite way to put this. Naples, the city, is...gritty. It is noisy and not particularly clean; people are constantly out on the streets, and traffic is crazy. We felt as if we were taking our lives in our hands every time we left our hotel. So, why would we recommend visiting Naples. Well, the city is the birthplace of pizza and it is amazing (and cheap).

When we arrived in Italy, we spent one night in Naples before heading to meet our friends Matt and Amy in Sorrento the next day. We checked into our small, out-of-the-way hotel and asked the owner where to go for dinner. He recommended a pizza place literally 100 feet from the hotel. We were a bit skeptical because it seemed unlikely that a good pizza place was so close, but we were hungry and tired from a long day of travel, so we went there. The place was packed, with literally dozens of people (locals) waiting for take-out. That was a good sign. We actually got a table quickly, and noticed how cheap the pizzas were on the menu - 5 Euros for a Margherita, and almost every pizza was below 10 Euros. We ordered two pizzas and wine (the wine was cheap and bad...enough said), and proceeded to wait about half-an-hour for our pizzas because the pizza oven was so backed up with all the people waiting for to-go orders. But, when the pizzas came, they were worth the wait! Without a doubt the best pizza we have ever had. And, our whole meal was less than 20 Euros.

After spending time on the Amalfi Coast, we returned to Naples for a couple of days to see the city. And, although we warmed up to it a bit, it certainly does not make our list of favorite cities to visit. There is not a huge amount for a tourist to do there. Although there is an old fort (we did not go in):

The National Archaeological Museum is worthy of a visit, after having visited Pompeii because many items found in Pompeii are in the museum and not at the site. And, of course, you can always visit a church or two. This one had a wedding going on the day we were there:

The one site we did visit was the Teatro di San Carlo, the Naples Opera House, which is the oldest still-operating opera venue in the world - founded in 1737. While not as grand as the Opera House in Paris, it was still beautiful, with an impressive painted ceiling:

But, the best part of our visit was that there was a rehearsal going on for an upcoming show and we got to watch and listen for several minutes, and hear the fantastic acoustics of the theater. The acoustics were so amazing that we could even hear the people on stage talking when the director would stop the rehearsal and give directions. And, we were not exactly close:

We really enjoyed our visit to the Teatro di San Carlo.

As usual, the rest of our best experiences in Naples involved food. In addition to returning to the pizza place near our hotel (this time we drank beer), we had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant that was off the beaten track, but was relatively close to our hotel, and again filled with locals. We started talking to the trio next to us (who were speaking English) and they turned out to be on a business dinner: a father who owned the business, the early-20's son who will one day take over, and an American woman who was in Italy as a representative of a customer. In addition to learning that we had chosen a very good, local restaurant, we also talked about Italian wine and they shared their second bottle with us. Even the waiter got in on the fun, coming over to refill our glasses with their wine! A really great experience.

I don't know that we would highly recommend an extended visit to Naples, but go for the pizza and as a jumping-off point to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast.

Ciao,

Jeff and Shana

Rugby in San Sebastian

The US men's rugby team (the Eagles) is in Europe for the month of November a part of the Autumn Internationals. They are playing Romania in Romania and Ireland in Ireland, but last weekend, they played Samoa in San Sebastian! No, we don't know why this game was scheduled for San Sebastian, but we have never seen a rugby match and thought it would be fun to check it out.

Note: we still have several posts to write about our trip to Italy and Prague, but we thought we would interject this post about something more recent.

So, last Saturday night (Nov 10) we walked to the soccer stadium here in San Sebastian (about 15 minutes from our place) to see the match. We even got lucky and the weather was perfect. There was a pretty good crowd, although there did not seem to be a strong rooting interest. Everyone was just kind of there to see the match. Perhaps, like us, the locals had a healthy curiosity in new things.

Before the game started, the Samoan team lined up and did a Haka, a traditional Maori ceremonial dance:

Not sure exactly why the US team lined up to watch, but it was a pretty cool spectacle.

Then, the match started. We do not know a lot about rugby, but we know a bit, and were helped by listening to the man behind us explain what was happening to the kids he was with (in Spanish of course). We probably did not understand everything going on, but we could generally follow what was happening. We were particularly amazed by how torn up the field gets every time there was a scrum:

When play moved to the other end of the field, the grounds crew came on the field to try to repair the damage. (The stadium just replaced its grass in September for the start of the La Liga season and the crew must have been thinking, "whose idea was it to host rugby on our pristine pitch?!?") Although there was a lot of short runs and tackling, we did see a bit of break-away running as well.

The US jumped out to a quick 15-0 lead, but at halftime were training 21-20. The second half remained very close and it looked like the US was going to lose 29-27. But then...the US was awarded a penalty kick from a long way away (notice in the first picture above how narrow the posts are). The kick seemed to be in the air a long time, but it went through the uprights and that was the last play of the game! The US won 30-29.

We did not understand exactly why the US received a penalty kick, but it was a dramatic end to a close game. We learned later that this was the first time in history that the US men had beaten the Samoan team, so we got to see a bit of rugby history. All-in-all, a very fun night out in San Sebastian.

Hasta pronto, and we will now return to our travels, 

Jeff and Shana

Capri

The island of Capri is located a quick boat ride from the Sorrento area. It’s been a resort since Roman times and has a reputation for attracting the rich and famous. But, more importantly it is drop dead gorgeous. Since we were so close, we had to go check it out. Luckily there was a little harbor with a morning ferry to Capri right out our front door in Piano di Sorrento.

After so much travel without a car this year, we consider ourselves rather adept at figuring out transportation options as we have taken any number of trains, buses, trams, and metros. But for some reason the Sorrentine peninsula was a challenge. We missed a local train because we were on the wrong side of the tracks! Oops! The train going the other direction had passed on one side, so we assumed that the train going our way would be on the other side. But, in the little Piano di Sorrento station, the train can use either track to go either direction! It was an easily solved problem; only it required an expensive cab ride. Ouch! And, as you may have read, we had a bus issue on our trip to Amalfi as well.

Well, heading to Capri, we walked down to the harbor and confirmed with the local fisherman that there was an 8:30 a.m. ferry and that we were in the right place. We waited where they pointed and sure enough the ferry pulled up right on time. Unfortunately, we learned that the boat captain does not accept money, only tickets. And, the location to purchase tickets was back at the entry to the harbor -- without any sign or booth indicating its existence. We did not have time to walk back and purchase tickets, but luckily for us there were 5 Brits waiting with us who also did not have tickets. Since there were seven of us, and only about 10 other people on the ferry with tickets, we figured there was little chance that the ferry was going to pass up taking us. So, after several minutes of back-and-forth with a lot of hand gestures, the “agent” who had brought the ticketed customers to the boat got the other “ticket agent” to come to the boat and sell us tickets. We bought round trip tickets to avoid any further issues or confusion, and we were on our way.

We had booked a separate boat tour to go around the entire island and see the Blue Grotto if the sea conditions permitted. So, when we arrived, we headed straight up to the top of the island, first via local bus to the village of Anacapri, and then via chairlift:

As you can imagine, the views were tremendous from up top:

We hiked back down to Anacapri, which sits in the middle of the island, and enjoyed the little town center. Several restaurants looked lovely for lunch, but we knew we had to be back at the harbor for our boat cruise. While on the bus back down we got a call that the tour had been cancelled because the seas were too rough. Huge bummer. I really was looking forward to circling the island and seeing it from all sides. Now we needed a Plan B.

We decided to walk up to the main Capri town and find a place for lunch, perhaps a bit off the beaten path. We found Le Palette and enjoyed this view, good food and a bottle of local white wine:

Afterwards we walked out to the Arco Natural, which is the remains of a collapsed grotto:

We then continued our walk but were disappointed that the road to the Marina Piccola and Via Krupp were blocked off. So, we continued wandering slowly taking it all in as we headed back to the main harbor, arriving with just enough time for an Aperol Spritz before our departure:

The ride back was quite rough. Still, we enjoyed talking with the Brits, who happened to be staying on a boat in our little harbor, as we bounced up and down on the waves.

Our day on Capri shows that sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and go where the day takes you, and in the end it all works out.

Ciao,

Shana & Jeff 

Amalfi

Amalfi, the city for which the Amalfi Coast is named, has a long history, and was an important maritime power between 839 and around 1200. After a series of lost battles eliminated its independence, a tsunami in 1343 destroyed the port and the lower town. As a maritime power, Amalfi never recovered, but it has been an important tourist destination for over 100 years.

We decided to travel to Amalfi by bus, which is the most cost-efficient option. To buy tickets, we had to find the bar/tobacco shop selling them. With a little help from the locals, we found the right place and  bought our tickets, which were only about 3 Euros each. So far so good. We waited at the bus stop confirmed we were in the right place, and right on time, the bus pulled up and we got on. That is where things got a bit strange. The driver looked at our tickets and was clearly annoyed and he seemed to indicate we didn't have the right tickets -- while he didn't speak English,  his body language was clear. Nonetheless, he accepted the tickets and we were on our way. The bus was full, with many people standing in the aisle, which was our only option as well.

We started talking to an American couple from the San Jose area and learned a few things about our trip. First, in Sorrento (the first stop and the one prior to ours), a long line of people failed to get on the bus because it was full. Second, the couple had paid about 10 Euros for each of their tickets. Why the bar owner sold us different tickets when we clearly wanted to go to Amalfi was beyond us, and why the bus driver stopped for us and accepted our tickets was even more mysterious. Finally, we learned that the primary road from Sorrento to Amalfi (which runs along the coast) was closed and we would be taking a secondary road through the center of the peninsula, which meant our trip would last about two-and-a-half hours (!). The coastal road is narrow and windy; the mountainous route was another level of crazy.

As we passed through the center of the peninsula, and came out of a tunnel on the other side, we got quite a shock. We were high on a very steep hill overlooking the ocean, and the road leading down to the bottom was extremely steep, serpentine and narrow. The next hour or so was a harrowing experience. We give credit to the bus driver who deserved combat pay for driving that road in a bus, but we found it difficult to enjoy the amazing scenery as we repeatedly thought we might be close to rolling off the road to our death.

Finally reaching approximately sea level, we sat in a traffic jam for a good 20-30 minutes to go the last 1000 feet into Amalfi. It turns out that the road into town is crossed by many tourists and there is no stoplight (which makes no sense) leading to long backups as cars and buses attempt to enter and exit the town.

As soon as we arrived at the bus "station," which was really just a parking lot, our bus was mobbed by far more people trying to get out of town than the bus could handle. Once we alighted from the bus, we made a beeline for the office selling ferry tickets. Although it cost a lot more than the bus, there was no way we were braving the crowds and those roads again. With ferry tickets in hand, we had just enough time to walk through the city and have lunch.

The city's church was interesting, with clear Byzantine influence:

Lunch was yummy with delicious pasta (of course) and wine (duh). And, that's it. We got on our ferry, took some pictures of the city on our way out, and went back to Sorrento where we caught the train back to Piano di Sorrento. All told, our return took about one hour. 

We are not sure what the moral of the story is, but in our next post, we will talk about yet another transportation challenge on the Amalfi Coast.

Hasta Pronto,

Jeff and Shana

Pompeii

Of all the tourist sites we have visited during our time living in Spain, the Mezquita of Cordoba is probably the coolest (for those who missed it, you can read about our visit there in our 5/24/18 post). I bring up the Mezquita because I think Pompeii is another site that goes on my "coolest places to visit in Europe list".

You probably all know the basic story: in 79 C.E., Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii (and several other cities) under 13-20 feet of volcanic ash. Most of the people in the city were killed instantly and many have been found oddly preserved by the ash:

It is not the best picture to show this, but the object in the glass box is actually a dog who was curled into a fetal-type position against the super-hot gases and ash, and it was preserved that way for over 1500 years.

What amazed us about Pompeii was two things. First, when it was destroyed, Pompeii had already existed for at least 700 years! It was founded in the 6th or 7th century B.C.E. It had been used as a safe port by Phonecian sailors, the Etruscans are believed to have been there in the 6th century, and the Greeks first conquered Pompeii between 525 and 474 B.C.E. Second, and perhaps related, Pompeii was a very large city. I had always pictured something relatively small - after all, this was nearly 2000 years ago - but it turns out that to fully explore the ruins of Pompeii would take something like two full days, and not all of it has even been unearthed yet.

We did not have two days to spend at Pompeii. We were with our friends Matt and Amy who had booked a private two hour tour of the city. So, while we did have a guide just for the four of us, we definitely only saw a limited part of the city. I really don't even know where to begin.

As you walk through the cobble-stoned streets of Pompeii, the first thing you notice is large stone blocks at many corners and sometimes in the middle of a longer street. These are ancient "crosswalks" intended to allow people to cross the street without stepping in what was running through the streets themselves (we'll let everyone use their imagination on what that might have been). Also obvious are the divisions of one building from the next. The city appears to have been like modern large cities in that businesses are interspersed with houses. Here we are at the "door" of a large bakery (notice the kiln-type oven over my right shoulder).

While the businesses are impressive, generally the houses are even more so. The part of Pompeii we saw was apparently the high-rent district with a number of large and impressive houses. What is amazing is some of the art that has survived for at least 2000 years. This is painted on a wall:

Here is a mosaic "welcome mat" in front of a large home. It is literally a permanent "Beware of Dog" sign.

Of course, there are many public squares and buildings including public baths, which we went in but were not easy to photograph, temples to various Roman Gods, a large central square and, a basilica that inspired the traditional three-nave structure of Catholic Churches:

There are also several theaters and an amphitheater that on the map looks like a football (or futbol) stadium. We did not see the amphitheater as it is on the opposite side of the city from where we were visiting. This is the large theater. Note the seats close to the ground are made of marble and are (not surprisingly) for royalty and the wealthy, while the remaining seats are made of less-comfortable stone.

Due to fairly large crowds, we chose not to go to one of the brothels in town, but apparently they contain pictures of the various "services" on offer, which survive to this very day - the pictures, not the services. We saw some of them later when we visited the National Archaeological Museum in Naples.

Overall, we had a wonderful visit to Pompeii, and I would love to go back and spend more time seeing other parts of the city. As if we needed another reason to return to Italy.

Hasta luego,

Jeff and Shana

Sorrento

When our dear friends from LA, Matt and Amy, told us they were checking the Amalfi Coast off their bucket list with a trip in late September, we knew we had to meet them there. It worked out well to meet them in Sorrento, their last stop, and for us the first stop of a nearly 3-week trip.

Sorrento is about an hour train ride heading south from Naples. We hopped on the Circumvesuviana (say that 5 times fast!) train and enjoyed the landscape. Sorrento is built on the cliffsides of the Sorrentine peninsula from where you can take in the entire Gulf of Naples, Mount Vesuvius, and the Isle of Capri. It is simply stunning and is one of the most beautiful places we have ever visited. We walked the charming streets and enjoyed seeing the numerous lemon products in various stores. Lemons are locally grown and limoncello is one of Sorrento’s creations.

We also had some of the freshest fish for dinner in a beautiful restaurant right on the water.

Sorrento is a place to linger and savor – the views of the bay, the cliffs, the boats (big and small), the smells and tastes of the sea, fish, and lemons, and the sunsets.

We stayed two train stops up the road from Sorrento proper in Piano di Sorrento. These were the views from our (very small) balcony.

As you can imagine, Sorrento’s beauty made us smile. Sharing it with good friends made it even more special.

Ciao,

Shana & Jeff